CB wrote:
>
> Food Crisis Starts Eclipsing Climate Change Worries
> Gore Ducks, as a Backlash Builds Against Biofuels
> By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Re****ter of the Sun | April 25, 2008
> The campaign against climate change could be set back by the global food
> crisis, as foreign populations turn against measures to use foodstuffs
as
> substitutes for fossil fuels
>
> Corn is harvested at Morris, Ill. in September 2007.
> With prices for rice, wheat, and corn soaring, food-related unrest has
> broken out in places such as Haiti, Indonesia, and Afghanistan. Several
> countries have blocked the ex****t of grain. There is even talk that
> governments could fall if they cannot bring food costs down.
>
> One factor being blamed for the price hikes is the use of government
> subsidies to promote the use of corn for ethanol production. An
estimated
> 30% of America's corn crop now goes to fuel, not food.
>
> "I don't think anybody knows precisely how much ethanol contributes to
the
> run-up in food prices, but the contribution is clearly substantial," a
> professor of applied economics and law at the University of Minnesota,
C.
> Ford Runge, said. A study by a Wa****ngton think tank, the International
Food
> Policy Research Institute, indicated that between a quarter and a third
of
> the recent hike in commodities prices is attributable to biofuels.
Quarter to a third? What about the rest then? ;)
RT
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