Good article. Also read Kamyar Enshayan's article in Sundays  
Register. Then read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.
Daryl
On Jun 23, 2008, at 9:15 AM, Donna Buell wrote:

> This came over the Sierra Club Agriculture Listserv – good summary,  
> I think.
> Donna
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Agriculture Forum [mailto:CONS-SPST-AGRICULTURE- 
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Laurel Hopwood
> Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 3:26 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Corn as fuel has hurt world food supply
>
> Corn as fuel has hurt world food supply
> Newsday
> by Andy Kimbrell, founder and executive director of the nonprofit
> Center for Food Safety.
> June 20, 2008
> edited
>
> According to this op ed, rising food prices are a hardship here at
> home, but they're truly disastrous for many beyond our borders. The
> staggering 83 percent rise in food prices reported by the World Bank
> over the past three years hits developing nations hardest. It's a
> complex situation with many causes, but the crisis is teaching us
> important and urgent lessons.
>
> First among these is what we've learned about biofuels. Once
> considered the "green" solution to foreign oil dependence, corn
> ethanol has morphed into a humanitarian and environmental disaster.
> Diverting one-quarter of America's massive corn harvest from food to
> fuel has nearly crippled the globalized food system. A bushel of corn
> fetches about three times the price it did two years ago, one big
> reason for quadrupling tortilla prices in Mexico. Wheat and soybean
> farmers, lured by higher profits, switched over to corn. As a result,
> supplies of those crops are limited and wheat prices have risen an
> astronomical 130 percent since 2007, exacerbated by poor Australian
> harvests.
>
> If you thought corn ethanol was at least lessening our dependence on
> foreign oil, think again: Ethanol displaces only 3 percent of our oil
> use. Additionally, the journal "Science" recently published research
> suggesting that biofuels are worsening global warming as well as
> hunger. High demand for energy crops is driving deforestation, which
> in turn releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases that far exceed
> minor reductions provided by the energy crops themselves.
>
> Even those who embraced biofuels so enthusiastically a year ago are
> beginning to see what a chimera they actually are. Until alternative
> technologies are embraced, crop-based biofuels will continue to
> deprive the hungry of desperately needed food.
>
> The second lesson: our industrialized approach to agriculture
> essentially transforms fossil fuels into human food. Food production
> American style consumes mountains of fossil-fuel-based fertilizers,
> over half-a-billion pounds of petroleum-based pesticides, and millions
> of gallons of fuel to drive farm equipment each year. Processing food
> and getting it to market consumes still more. The cost of a pound of
> beef, a gallon of milk or a box of cereal climbs ever higher,
> entangled with the skyrocketing price of oil.
>
> A third lesson is that biotechnology can provide no solution. Biotech
> firms are pushing the idea that genetically engineered, or GE, crops
> will feed the world. But two decades of costly research has not
> produced a single marketable GE crop with increased yield,
> drought-resistance, enhanced nutrition or other attractive traits
> touted by boosters. What has succeeded are "herbicide-tolerant" GE
> varieties - engineered to survive application of weed killers - which
> remarkably make up 81 percent of the world's biotech crops. Small
> wonder that weed killer use is rising, and resistant weeds are
> proliferating.
>
> To top it off, university studies show that Roundup Ready soybeans -
> which make up more than half of all biotech crops - get 6 percent
> lower yield than their conventional counterparts and are more
> susceptible to drought.
>
> Despite these failures, government and biotechnology firms continue to
> tout genetic engineering as a magic bullet. Meanwhile, hundreds of
> conventional breeding and agroecological solutions remain
> unimplemented, thanks to draconian cuts to public sector agricultural
> development programs.
>
> Through the lens of this crisis, we also see the sense in buying
> abundant, locally grown foods. Since they travel less and now cost
> less than processed food or produce flown from across the globe, local
> crops are looking more and more attractive. They're also fresher, more
> healthful and more beneficial to consumers. And, in buying them, we
> support local farmers.
>
> The food crisis is conjoined to the fuel crisis, and this has opened
> our eyes to the flaws in our food production and distribution
> practices. It has also, thankfully, pointed us in the direction of
> real solutions - if we as consumers, policymakers and businesspeople
> are bold enough to make the needed changes.
>
>
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