Obama and Democrats exacerbate world hunger problem

[m4mpetcock]

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/op_ed/2013/08/fuel_policy_wreaks_global_havoc

Fuel policy wreaks global havoc

By: Yaneer Bar-yam, As You Were Saying ...

Saturday, August 3, 2013


Last month, members of the European Parliament’s environment committee voted to limit the use of crop-based biofuels in the transportation sector in an effort to mitigate the environmental and social impacts of biofuels production. This came in the wake of a report by the United Nations, which reviews the mounting body of evidence showing the harmful effects of biofuels.

The new “Biofuels and Food Security” report elevates concerns about the harsh global consequences of the United States’ biofuels policy. When crops such as corn are used to produce biofuels — as is being done in the U.S. to meet the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) — food and animal feed availability is reduced, food prices rise dramatically and hunger intensifies worldwide, as already impoverished people struggle to secure sustenance.

The U.N. report was released just a day after President Obama, in announcing his plan to address climate change, reiterated support for the RFS. Since its establishment by Congress in 2005 and aggressive expansion in 2007, the policy has been touted as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions and a cure-all for the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. It mandates the blending of increasing quantities of biofuels — the most common of which by far is corn-based ethanol — into the U.S. gasoline supply.

But in practice, the RFS is introducing new environmental woes and doing little to limit U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and it has become increasingly clear that the policy is causing a number of unintended consequences with devastating impacts. The requirement diverts more than 40 percent of all corn grown in the U.S. — the world’s largest corn producer and exporter — to fuel production, swelling prices for corn and other grains, increasing animal-feed costs and tightening supplies of food. For every gallon of ethanol required by the standards to be blended into the U.S. gasoline supply, 14 people could be fed for a day.

These dangerously elevated worldwide food prices currently sit at the threshold above which widespread global unrest is expected. As the U.S. continues to promote fuel over food, food insecurity is causing outrage and instability. Food price spikes between 2007 and 2008 have been directly linked to more than 60 food riots in 30 countries. In 2011, the Arab Spring began in large part because of food insecurity.

According to the USDA’s chief economist, Joseph Glauber, “The increase in U.S. ethanol production was estimated to account for about 36 percent of the increase in corn prices over the period from 2006 to 2009.” Our analysis is consistent with this evaluation and further shows an even larger increase since 2009.

In total, the impact of corn-to-ethanol conversion has led to doubled food prices from 2004 to 2013. As the foundation of most animal feed, cereals, meal and cooking oil, price increases in corn carry over to other necessary food items. These concerns were among those highlighted in recent U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee hearings.

While other countries take action to address the various negative impacts of biofuel mandates, the continued implementation of the United States’ RFS stands to create further repercussions abroad. Reducing U.S. biofuel production would go a long way in lowering food prices both in the U.S. and around the world. We should act definitively to change this policy to prevent future consequences.

Yaneer Bar-Yam is president of the New England Complex Systems Institute. Dominic Albino and Casey Friedman provided research. “As You Were Saying” is a regular Herald feature.


(end of article)


And before anyone starts swinging about who was President in 2007, remember who controlled the 110th Congress (2007-2008). 

[MissBarbara]

Hahaha. So now Obama can be blamed for world hunger? Still working on how he caused the Hollocaust?

Yes, the hyperbole of this opinion piece (couched as a news story) is noteworthy. "Global Havok"? "Worldwide food prices currently sit at the threshold above which widespread global unrest is expected"?

As is the blinkered one-sidednbess. The author states, "The impact of corn-to-ethanol conversion has led to doubled food prices from 2004 to 2013." It has negatively impacted the price of all foods? And the corn-to-ethanol conversion is the sole reason for doubled food prices? 

And, as you likely noted, the article makes no mention of the postive environmental impact of biofuels.

[m4mpetcock]

Hahaha. So now Obama can be blamed for world hunger? Still working on how he caused the Hollocaust?

I was just having some fun with the title.  I figure if someone can title a thread "Vote Republican and make blowjobs illegal" (like THAT would really happen), I could veer a little to the right on a title as well.  

But that doesn't change the fact that the increased use of bio-fuel is causing food prices to skyrocket.  

[m4mpetcock]

Hahaha. So now Obama can be blamed for world hunger? Still working on how he caused the Hollocaust?

Yes, the hyperbole of this opinion piece (couched as a news story) is noteworthy. "Global Havok"? "Worldwide food prices currently sit at the threshold above which widespread global unrest is expected"?

As is the blinkered one-sidednbess. The author states, "The impact of corn-to-ethanol conversion has led to doubled food prices from 2004 to 2013." It has negatively impacted the price of all foods? And the corn-to-ethanol conversion is the sole reason for doubled food prices? 

And, as you likely noted, the article makes no mention of the postive environmental impact of biofuels.

Would a HuffPo story make you feel better?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/us-should-change-biofuel-_n_1764735.html

U.S. Biofuel Policy Should Change To Avoid Food Crisis, U.N. Says

By Catherine Hornby

ROME, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The U.N.'s food agency stepped up the pressure on the United States on Friday to change its biofuel policies because of the danger of a world food crisis, arguing the importance of growing crops for food over their use for fuel.

Global alarm over the potential for a food crisis of the kind seen in 2007/08 has escalated as drought in the U.S. midwest has sent grain prices to record highs, fuelling a 6 percent surge in the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's July food price index.

The FAO's Director-General Jose Graziano Da Silva wrote in the Financial Times on Friday that competition for a U.S. corn crop that has been ravaged by the worst drought in 56 years was only going to intensify.

"Much of the reduced crop will be claimed by biofuel production in line with U.S. federal mandates, leaving even less for food and feed markets," he wrote in an editorial.

"An immediate, temporary suspension of that mandate would give some respite to the market and allow more of the crop to be channelled towards food and feed uses," he said in the high profile yet indirect message to Washington.

Under the five-year-old Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), U.S. fuel companies are required to ensure that 9 percent of their gasoline pools are made up of ethanol this year, which means converting some 40 percent of the corn crop into the biofuel.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday slashed its estimates for the size of the corn crop by more than expected, sending corn futures prices, already up 60 percent since June, to a fresh all-time high.

A mix of high oil prices, growing use of biofuels, speculation on commodity markets and export restrictions pushed up prices of food in 2007/08, sparking violent protests in countries including Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti.

David Hallam, director of the FAO's trade and markets division, told Reuters that biofuels policies needed to become more flexible to help prevent new food crises developing.

"One idea is you have some kind of price trigger so that as maize prices rise then the mandates adjust," he said, adding that the FAO wanted to reopen debate on biofuels policies.


WAIVER

The FAO has joined a growing and diverse chorus calling for an unprecedented waiver or suspension of the RFS. This week, 25 U.S. Senators urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to adjust the mandate, while the chief executive of grains giant Cargill said the free market should dictate biofuels use.

Livestock producers, which are forced to bid against ethanol producers to secure costlier grain for feed, were first to ask for relief. However, the EPA has yet to receive an official petition for a waiver, which can only come from a fuel blender or a state governor, according to the legislation.

FAO officials have warned of the potential for a food crisis to develop if countries resort to the kind of export restraints and panic buying that aggravated price surges in 2007/08.

"It is vitally important that any unilateral policy reactions from countries, whether importers or exporters, do not further destabilise the situation," Graziano Da Silva wrote in the newspaper.

Charity Oxfam has warned that rising food prices could drag millions of people around the world into conditions of hunger and malnourishment, in addition to nearly one billion who are already too poor to feed themselves.

While the RFS program faces growing criticism, it also has strong support from Farm Belt politicians in an election year and has been a core part of President Obama's energy plan. Some say suspending it would do little to relax demand.

Waiving the mandate could have several unintended effects, such as dampening investment in cellulosic and other advanced biofuels that could cut dependence on food crops for making fuel, or damage the market for dried distillers' grains, an ethanol byproduct sold as a livestock feed.

In 2008, Texas Governor Rick Perry petitioned the EPA to cut the mandate in half for that year. The EPA refused, but in doing so it made clear that future petitions would have to prove that the RFS itself was causing severe economic harm.

[MissBarbara]

Hahaha. So now Obama can be blamed for world hunger? Still working on how he caused the Hollocaust?

Yes, the hyperbole of this opinion piece (couched as a news story) is noteworthy. "Global Havok"? "Worldwide food prices currently sit at the threshold above which widespread global unrest is expected"?

As is the blinkered one-sidednbess. The author states, "The impact of corn-to-ethanol conversion has led to doubled food prices from 2004 to 2013." It has negatively impacted the price of all foods? And the corn-to-ethanol conversion is the sole reason for doubled food prices? 

And, as you likely noted, the article makes no mention of the postive environmental impact of biofuels.

Would a HuffPo story make you feel better?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/us-should-change-biofuel-_n_1764735.html

Nope.

My assertions were based on the content of your post, and not its source.

[Katiebee]

The price of corps for food has increased because of several droughts in the food producing areas of Africa, the U.S. and some other areas which have had bouts of bad weather.

While the use of corn to produce ethanol has elevated prices of corn in the U.S. it was greeted enthusiastically by farmers who were losing their shirts because of market glut and low demand.

Simple supply and demand at work.

[m4mpetcock]

The price of corps for food has increased because of several droughts in the food producing areas of Africa, the U.S. and some other areas which have had bouts of bad weather.

While the use of corn to produce ethanol has elevated prices of corn in the U.S. it was greeted enthusiastically by farmers who were losing their shirts because of market glut and low demand.

Simple supply and demand at work.

So, you'll be contacting the UN's Food Agency to inform them of their errors, of course.  I mean, we can't have a world body spreading false information, especially when you know better, right?  

By the way, did you mean "crops" instead of "corps"?   Just checking.  Or is it like Obama's pronunciation of "corpse men" as opposed to "corps men"?  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKIfzoC8D0

[Katiebee]

Typo from the auto-correct.

The U.N. report is correct in that it drives up prices because the production of corn is now in a tight market. That it is the only reason, or even the main reason is an incorrect conclusion.

[Lois]

Modern agriculture is extremely dependent on fuel for planting, cultivation, fertilization, irrigation, harvesting and distribution.  Accordingly, any rise in the cost of fuel will bring a rise in the cost of food.