Grist | Topics | 19 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 19 of 19
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Aw, Shucks Food prices are high, and so are Big Ag's profits		30 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 10:29 AM on 30 Apr 2008 Food prices hitting you hard in the pocketbook? Agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland feels for you, it really does -- but gee, its profits jumped 42 percent this quarter, so it can't really empathize. ADM's grain-processing division is doing lively business keeping up with the bumper corn crop. And, they'll have you know, high food prices are due to high oil prices, not to the ethanol push. Backing ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, food, industrial ag, news (all these topics)

Perry and Thrust U.S. should back off from biofuels to bring down food prices, says Texas guv		28 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 4:56 PM on 28 Apr 2008 Has the U.S. push for biofuels contributed to rising global food prices? Well, yes, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday: "There has been apparently some effect, unintended consequence from the alternative fuels effort." But, she hastened to add, "biofuels continue to be an extremely important piece of the alternative energy picture" and & ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, economy, energy, food, news, politics, state politics, Texas (all these topics)

Sticker shock! What's causing the sudden run-up in food prices?	Tom Philpott	25 Apr 2008	Gristmill
A lot of people are wondering what the hell is going on with food prices. Rice, dollars per ton Source: Reuters The price of bulk rice on global markets has tripled since the start of the year, school children in some of the world's poorest nations are losing access to school-lunch programs, and people in places like Haiti are literally scrounging through garbage dumps in search of something to eat. Here in the U.S., heightened prices are putting a ha ...
Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, economy, energy, food (all these topics)

Please, sir, I want some GMOs Worldwide resistance to GMOs dwindle as food bills rise	Tom Philpott	22 Apr 2008	Gristmill
For a while now, I've been cautioning people that surging prices for industrial food don't necessarily 'level the playing field' for sustainably produced fare. In fact, the few giant companies that dominate the global food system are fattening themselves on higher prices, consolidating their grip over the world's palate. Last week, new Gristmill blogger Anna Lappe showed that Cargill -- a major producer of everything from fertilizer to biofuel to meat -- recently re ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, biofuels, economy, energy, food, GMOs (all these topics)

Bush's bread man Baltimore baker takes on great quacking menace	Glenn Hurowitz	21 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Last week, The New York Times' David Streitfeld told the story of one J.R. Paterakis, a Baltimore 'baker' who opposes the Conservation Reserve Program, which provides incentives to farmers to set aside their land for wildlife, clean water, and (incidentally) massive carbon sequestration. Seemed like an opportunity to deploy my rye wit. The program has been a huge success -- protecting 35 million acres of land and partially restoring the 'duck factory' of the upper ...
Topics: wildlife, energy, biofuels, Big Ag, politics, agriculture, food (all these topics)

Up, up, and away: corn edition Corn hits a new record -- $6 a bushel	Joseph Romm	06 Apr 2008	Gristmill
At the end of February, I blogged on a Fortune article that had the subhead 'The ethanol boom is running out of gas as corn prices spike.' That article noted: Spurred by an ethanol plant construction binge, corn prices have gone stratospheric, soaring from below $2 a bushel in 2006 to over $5.25 a bushel today. As a result, it's become difficult for ethanol plants to make a healthy profit, even with oil at $100 a barrel. Just six weeks later, we have an AP article ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, Department of Agriculture, energy, food (all these topics)

Biofuels: good for agrochemical/GMO biz GMO giant Monsanto wows Wall Street, consolidates its grip on South America	Tom Philpott	13 Feb 2008	Gristmill
While debate rages on Gristmill and elsewhere about whether biofuels are worth a damn ecologically, investors in agribusiness firms are quietly counting their cash.As corn and soy prices approach all-time highs, driven up by government biofuel mandates, farmers are scrambling to plant as much as they can -- and lashing the earth with chemicals to maximize yields. At a Wall Street meeting on Tuesday, genetically modified seed/herbicide giant Monsanto promised investors ...
Topics: agriculture, Argentina, Big Ag, biofuels, Brazil, business, energy, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

USDA food-safety czar: Ethanol waste causes tainted beef -- and that's okay Let cows eat vaccines along with distillers grains	Tom Philpott	28 Jan 2008	Gristmill
In December, a study came out suggesting a link between distillers grains -- a waste product of the corn-ethanol process -- and a spike in cases of beef tainted with the deadly E. coli 0157 virus. You see, the government-mandated ethanol boom has dramatically pushed up corn prices. To cut costs, feedlot operators have been substituting cheap distillers grains for pricey corn. Thus in the past year or so, we've seen an explosion in use of distillers grain as livestock ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Department of Agriculture, energy, ethanol, food (all these topics)

Monsanto counts its cash Seed-and-chemical giant sees its profit triple	Tom Philpott	04 Jan 2008	Gristmill
In a gold rush, the firms that supply the gold diggers with tools -- not the gold diggers themselves -- make the highest and steadiest profits. That's a platitude, but it's also usually true. And it's now playing out in the boom in corn-based ethanol. Don't waste much time envying corn farmers. Sure, they've seen the price of their product double over the past year and a half or so. But they've also seen their costs inch up. Fertilizer, land rents (much of the farml ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

The big picture An unbiased, factual report on biofuels: How rare is that?	biodiversivist	15 Dec 2007	Gristmill
The Worldwatch Institute has produced an interesting summary of what's happening in the world of grain supplies. They also just published a book called Biofuels for Transport. Along with all of the positive potential for biofuels, I'm sure it also discusses the 'potential' problems with 'first generation' biofuels. These are some of the latest buzzwords being used to support industrial agrofuels. The word 'potential' suggests that there are not yet any actual probl ...
Topics: food, agriculture, biofuels, energy (all these topics)

Maybe not such a great idea after all? Feeding ethanol waste to cows	Tom Philpott	04 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Perhaps the most persistent debate around corn ethanol involves its 'net energy balance' -- that is, whether it consumes more energy in production than it delivers as a fuel. Even the studies that credit the fuel with a robust energy balance, like this one from the USDA, acknowledge that it's pretty much a wash unless you account for the "co-product" of the ethanol-making process. The ethanol process consumes only the starch component of corn, leaving behi ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, food, waste (all these topics)

'OECD warns against biofuels subsidies' Biofuels subsidies will only lead to increased food costs and habitat destruction	Jason D Scorse	11 Sep 2007	Gristmill
This, courtesy of the Financial Times, is a welcome development. Hopefully, the Doha Round of the GATT will get restarted, and this can be addressed in addition to the more general discussion of agricultural subsidies.
Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, energy, food, habitat loss (all these topics)

Cellulosic beef It's a thing	David Roberts	02 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Tom Konrad ponders the ethanol situation and wonders: what if, instead of feeding most of our corn to cows, and then growing a bunch of grass to make cellulosic ethanol, we use all the cow corn for ethanol and feed the grass to the cows? Gimmicky hook, but quite a fact-filled, educational article.
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, food (all these topics)

Cheap biofuels, or dear pasta? Globalization of the fuel vs. fuel debate	Ron Steenblik	10 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Last Thursday, Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, announced substantial subsidies to boost Canada's production of biofuels. Under its 'ecoENERGY for Biofuels' program, the government will provide up to C$ 1.5 billion (US$ 1.4 billion) in the form of incentives over nine years to producers of renewable alternatives to gasoline and diesel fuel. 'With leading-edge technology and abundant supplies of grains, oilseeds, and other feedstocks, Canada is uniquely pos ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Canada, energy, food, Italy (all these topics)

Orange You Glad We Didn't Say Switchgrass? Fruit may be the latest source for biofuel madness		21 Jun 2007	Daily Grist
Orange You Glad We Didn't Say Switchgrass? Fruit may be the latest source for biofuel madness Could your kumquat power your Kia? A team of U.S. scientists has made a low-carbon fuel from fructose, the sugar in many fruits. It could be a better bet than ethanol, with 40 percent more energy, less vulnerability to water, and more stability; since it can also be made from plant cellulose, it could also skirt the foo ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, food, news (all these topics)

Thirty years to hone an argument Arguments supporting government subsidies of agrofuels are getting polished	biodiversivist	19 Jun 2007	Gristmill
This is my formal rebuttal to David Morris's 'case for corn-based fuel.' I'm using my access to the bully pulpit to pull it out of the comments field. How did the use of ethanol end up alongside tyranny and torture as an evil to be conquered? That's easy. A whole lot of real smart people have been giving corn ethanol a lot of thought and have found that 'an evil to be conquered' isn't a bad description. In smaller quantities, it does smaller amounts of damage, b ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

Food or fuel? Biofuels force the choice on us	Adam Browning	28 Mar 2007	Gristmill
Lester Brown says the diversion is already happening: If you think you are spending more each week at the supermarket, you may be right. The escalating share of the U.S. grain harvest going to ethanol distilleries is driving up food prices worldwide. Corn prices have doubled over the last year, wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years, and rice prices are rising too. In addition, soybean futures have risen by half. A Bloomberg analysis not ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, food, Lester Brown (all these topics)

Eat local foods, import biofuels A message from Kenya and Biopact	Ron Steenblik	23 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Over on the Biopact website -- probably the best website for up-to-date international news on bio-energy science and markets -- they have posted an interesting commentary, based on a BBC interview, on how small Kenyan farmers, Mr. Peter Ndivo and Mr. Samuel Mauthike, are affected by the confusion engendered by concepts such as 'carbon footprints,' 'fair trade,' and 'food miles.' Biopact's message? Buy your vegetables and fruits locally, if you must, but please allow ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, food, Kenya, local food (all these topics)

Feeding the Beast It's time for a real 'food vs. fuel' debate	Tom Philpott	13 Dec 2006	Victual Reality
It's time for a real "food vs. fuel" debate By Tom Philpott 13 Dec 2006 Grain piled high at an ethanol plant will feed only insatiable driving habits. Photo: iStockphoto Can U.S. farmers keep filling the nation's bellies as they scramble to fuel its cars? Given its evident gravity, the question has drawn remarkably little debate. Like it or not, though, more and more food is being devoted to fueling the nation's 211-million-strong auto fleet. High gasoline prices, ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, economy, energy, ethanol, food, fossil fuels, greenhouse-gas emissions, industrial ag, Victual Reality (all these topics)

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