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The Choice of Food or Fuel
By Maria Juliana Ayalde
Today “Go Green”, our new national motto, has ethanol as its rock star since it is widely viewed as the best alternative fuel towards a cleaner environment while making us less dependent on foreign oil. However, as often happens in life, timing is everything and even a good thing like ethanol can have adverse consequences.
What most people don’t realize is that 90% of the ethanol produced in the U.S. comes from corn, a major food crop, and that one fifth of that crop is now dedicated to ethanol production. Both Europe’s and the U.S.’s recent rush to bio fuels has resulted in an increase of global food prices by 83% in the last three years, according to the World Bank and caused an intense global debate over burning food for fuel.
Regardless, ethanol is good for the global environment because it burns more efficiently than regular fuel, causing less harm to the ozone layer and is also a renewable source since it comes from plants.
Brazil is the perfect example that bio fuels can work, but they've also had 30 years to work out the details. They moved into bio fuels produced from sugar cane and have greatly reduced their dependency on oil. And they accomplished this transition by mandating a bio fuel level of 20% plus the development of a flex-fuel car that can run on any combination of gas and bio fuel.
However, the world situation has changed recently. What may have seemed like a great solution at the time in response to increased oil costs, reduced supply and severe environmental problems, may actually be causing more harm than good.
Environmentally Brazil and Asia have suffered significantly due to the demand for bio fuels: massive deforestation. The Amazon, which is one of the largest remaining tropical wildernesses, is now being threatened by the growing demand for this alternative fuel. Between August and December of last year alone, more than 2,700 square miles of rainforests were razed in Brazil (just a little less than the size of Puerto Rico). The great forests in Southeast Asia are also being cleared to plant the more profitable bio fuel crops. These forests are essential to the world’s environment as they remove carbon dioxide and other poisonous gases from the atmosphere while releasing oxygen back into it. The reduction of the world’s immense forests could eventually place our whole ecosystem in jeopardy.
While many experts do agree that diverting food crops to fuel production is a factor in the rise of food costs around the world, they are, however, quick to add that other factors have had a major impact; such as the recent droughts in Australia that reduced crop yield plus the unexpected economic growth from emerging countries like China and India that added millions of people who could now afford more meat.
The American corn growers feel that bio fuels are taking all the heat for driving up food prices and that corn is only one small factor impacting food costs. Nevertheless, the scales have tipped with the European Union’s plan to use 10% bio fuels for transportation by 2020 and the U.S. Congress mandate of a five fold increase in bio fuels last year. With the people in the poorer countries suffering the impact of soaring food costs, food riots have broken out and world leaders are urging the EU and the U.S. to reconsider their bio fuel policies.
Even though the U.S.’s decision to step up its production of ethanol seems as if it would resolve our many eco problems and oil issues, it was impossible to predict the impact of the droughts combined with the rapid economic growth in China and India. Both the EU and the U.S. are presently faced with the huge decision, of whether to continue on the path of filling our tanks with bio fuel or making adjustments to bio fuel policies since the other factors are beyond our control. The global debate rages on with "Don’t Burn Food for Fuel!"
What’s your opinion? Email Maria Juliana Ayade at outloud@outloud.com.