I, like most Americans, love bread. Crusty, warm, and fresh-baked bread is a carb overload I am willing to indulge in even if it means a few extra minutes of running. But the American love affair with all things baked might be at jeopardy. We all know that oil and water don't mix, but it's becoming increasingly clear that wheat and ethanol are a bad combination as well. New research from the University of Illinois indicates that the high prices for wheat, as well as corn and soy, are here to stay.
The research confirms what common sense should have indicated long ago: using land to grow crops for combustion as opposed to consumption, reduces the total amount of land devoted to growing food and increases food costs. Researchers Darrel Good and Scott Irwin -- both professors of agriculture and consumer economics at the University of Illinois -- note that the increase in ethanol production will have significant impacts on wheat, soy and corn prices for decades. In reality, this will mean continually rising prices across the board -- meat and dairy that rely on corn and soy feed, baked and snack foods made with wheat and soy, corn and soy oils and anything cooked with those oils, and even vegetarian foods that rely on soy. In a nutshell, everything.
In fact, wheat prices are rising so quickly that even the industry is getting in on the action. In July the American Baking Association released a statement calling on Congress and the government to take actions to lower food prices. At the time, the Consumer Price Index showed that baked good prices had risen 2 percent in a one month period. White flour prices at the time had gone up by more than one-third within the year. ABA President and CEO Robb MacKie called on Congress and the government to act by, "repealing detrimental food for fuel ethanol mandates."
While the University of Illinois research is appreciated, it is in fact nothing new. Biofuels, especially ethanol, have proven themselves to be not only unsustainable, but also to actually increase greenhouse gas emissions, as a Science article detailed back in January. But Good and Irwin go one step further to note that even switching from ethanol to a different type of biofuel is not the answer. Since land available for production is limited, switching biofuel crops would still be producing fuel instead of food, and prices will continue to increase. "We would have to steal land away from corn to grow a different energy-related crop." Good said.
So what does this mean for America's food prices and energy future? Well, unfortunately it looks like high prices are here to stay -- at least until we give up our ethanol mandates. But more importantly, such research truly shows that America's energy needs cannot be met at the expense of nutrition. In times of a food crisis and continually rising prices, we cannot continue to grow fuel instead of food. We do need a new generation of renewable energy initiatives in this country, but when ethanol is grown with oil-based fertilizers and pesticides, it cannot be considered renewable. America's energy policies need to focus on wind, solar, geothermal, and other forms of truly sustainable and renewable energy options that have huge potential to provide power to our nation. A focus on green energy initiatives will create jobs, reform a crumbling grid system, and provide sustainable long-term energy solutions with limited greenhouse gas emissions, while keeping bread in our bellies.
Comments
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Jonas Posted 11:16 pm
19 Sep 2008
Biofuels have nothing to do with food, they have to do with lignocellulosic biomass.
Next, please.
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Jonas Posted 11:24 pm
19 Sep 2008
There's land to produce up to 1500 Exajoules (the entire world currently consumes energy worth 450Ej, that is: all energy consumed - oil, gas, coal, nuclear).
So it's not like there is not enough land. That's a bad joke. There's 3 to 4 times more than enough to phase out all oil, gas, coal and nuclear. And that is: while feeding 9 billion people and without cutting a single tree.
The argument that there's not enough land for energy crops that sequester carbon, restore ecosystems, boost biodiversity and cure soils, is a false argument.
Wind and solar are certainly interesting and can play a role too, but they are not very clean (their carbon balance is far weaker than biomass), they require huge mining operations (with all socially catastrophic consequences), they are not very efficient, and they are an order of magnitude more expensive.
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amazingdrx Posted 12:32 am
20 Sep 2008
Distributed backup generation to fill in the gaps in renewables, using biogas from the same fertilizer production system, that benefits farm income, will help the local people we want to buy our food from.
Farmers become the energy producers. That will stop food and fuel price inflation.
We are looking at another great depression here, this huge bailout of wall street is only the start of a cycle of bad debt shock waves, mega storms hitting the world economy. GHG related storms and fossil fuel, fuel farming related storms teaming up? Yep, it looks like it.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
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onionfarmer Posted 10:23 am
20 Sep 2008
Question One: Have farmers ever been in the energy for transportation sector prior to the use of crude oil? Answer: Yes.
Question Two: Have farmers ever grown grain and cellulose for the energy transportation sector? Answer: Yes.
Question Three: Have farmers used more land in the U.S. for farming than they have been today? Answer: Yes.
Question Four: Have farmers grown crops to both feed people and provide energy for transportation needs? Answer: Yes.
Question Five: What is historically the most sustainable transportation mode of travel and it is still used today? Answer: Horse power.
Our country continues to pay farmers to grow not a single wheat or corn crop on over 34 million acres of land. Land that was taken out because farmers lost their market share in the transportation sector because of Standard Oil and Mr. Rockefeller's ability to create an Oil Monopoly with his lobbyists supporting Prohibition. With Prohibition, farmers were locked out of providing biofuels for the "New Horse". Model-T's that could run on ethanol evolved to an "optimize on gasoline only" engine. This legacy set by Rockefeller has been very successful and took the farm away from the transportation sector to even cause the event of the Dust Bowl and therefore resulted in a "Farm Welfare State Policy" with the hook on subsidy payments to farmers thus creating a cheap food policy state for all of us. That means consumers have never paid for the true cost of food until now. We have subsidized the food industry for 80 years to keep the oil industry subsidized and without competition; wall street happy; and now Rockefeller's legacy has jeopardized our national security with being hooked on imported "mined energy" from rouge regimes.
We need to get our country back on track and that means getting our farmers back to farming for the production of food AND transportation energy. The idea of farmers just growing cheap food IS unsustainable and will not provide for a healthy and balanced society.
Farmers are now OUR 3rd largest domestic energy producer behind Texas and Alaska and soon will reach the number one position.
Given that farmers are not paid to NOT produce on over 34 million acres, farmers would have the incentive to produce more food and fuel and thus eliminate the need for imported "mined" fuel energy from OPEC.
This is why OPEC is screaming about the competition from ethanol and US refineries with the help of politicians like the Texas Governor Perry are trying to shut down the agriculture industry as a player in the fuel industry. They understand how the competition from farmers will jeapordized their "mined fuel" industry to the point of losing vaste anmounts of marketshare to the point of driving the oligopolistic market model to one of perfect competition. A perfect competitive market model would drive fuel costs spiraling downward and thus cause a lowering of both energy and food costs.
We must keep farmers in the transportation industry.
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Biodiversivist Posted 12:31 am
22 Sep 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Orfintain Posted 3:44 am
22 Sep 2008
here is a source for my deleted information
http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/
The only BS I have is from Virginia Tech
B.S. - Biological Systems Engineering
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Biodiversivist Posted 4:42 am
22 Sep 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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