Amid a surge in food prices blamed in part on US expansion of corn-based ethanol production, lawmakers, experts and industry officials are urging the government to rethink a new law mandating alternative fuels.
The US is the world’s top producer of corn-based ethanol, which the administration of President George W. Bush sees as a way of reducing dependence on foreign oil and curb fossil-fuel emissions, the main source of man-made global warming.
Politicians are under mounting pressure to look again at the effects of a landmark energy law enacted in December that raised vehicle fuel-efficiency standards for the first time in three decades and offered broad support for ethanol production.
The public outcry over using food for fuel has spurred interest in so-called “second-generation” alternative fuels, such as cellulosic-based ethanol, but they are still in an early stage of development.
“The solution to the issue of corn-fed ethanol is cellulosic ethanol, which is a fancy word for saying we’re going to make ethanol out of switchgrasses, or woodchips,” Bush said last month.
This week the US Department of Agriculture argued ethanol production does not pit food and energy interests against each other.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said the effects of skyrocketing oil prices are an “often overlooked” major factor on food prices.
Oil costs for processing, packaging, transportation and other steps that bring food from farms to the marketplace account for about 80 cents of each retail food dollar, with the actual commodity only accounting for 20 percent.
With crude oil crashing through a series of price ceilings this year, Schafer said, “developing diversity in our portfolio of fuels is, if anything, an even more urgent matter than it has been in the past, and it is one that remains central to both our energy security and our national security.”
While corn is the feedstock for over 90 percent of ethanol produced in the US, foods using corn as an ingredient make up less than a third of retail food spending, he said.
And because processed foods represent such a large part of the diet in the US, a single ingredient typically has only a small impact on the retail food price, he said.
Schafer said that consumers in the US are fortunate to be dealing with moderate food price increases. US food prices increased about 4.0 percent higher last year, up from an average annual rate of 2.5 percent since 1990 and are expected to rise 5 percent this year.
By contrast, in low-income developing countries basic foodstuffs represent the bulk of the diet and consume the lion’s share of household income.
On the international level, Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors estimates that three percent of the more than 40 percent increase in global food prices this year is due to the increased demand on corn for ethanol.
Other factors sending food prices higher include weather problems, trade restrictions and heavy demand in developing countries, such as China and India.
Congress has held several hearings in recent weeks to explore calls for a change in the energy law that mandates a six-fold increase in the use of ethanol, to 136 billion liters a year by 2022.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS