Biofuels stealing food

Emilio Godoy

The food crisis, aggravated by the use of corn and other grains in ethanol production, was one of the central issues discussed May 17-18 in the Mexican capital by deputy ministers of agriculture from the G-20 industrialized and emerging countries.

This problem’s impact on humanity is analyzed in the report Biofueling Hunger: how U.S. corn ethanol policy is increasing food prices in Mexico, presented May 16 and sponsored by the U.S. office of ActionAid International.

Timothy Wise, director of the Research and Policy Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute attached to Tufts University, told IPS that there have been very steep price rises (of food) since the end of 2000, repeated in 2007 and again in 2010 and 2011.

Wise, co-author of the report, stated that this coincided with ethanol expansion in the United States. What can be seen in Mexico is an increase in the price of corn tortillas, the country’s traditional food, the price of which has risen 60% since 2005.

Wise and co-author Marie Brill, Action Aid policy director, confirmed that, since 2005, Mexico has lost $250-500 million a year by importing the grain, due to high prices on the international market.

The 24-page report concludes that the expansion of biofuels is contributing to food insecurity in Mexico. Price increases associated with ethanol are negatively affecting consumers, especially those who lack food security and are not producers.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, last year 53,302 million liters of corn ethanol was consumed in the country, with 40% of corn harvests directed to its production.

The United States, the largest producer and exporter of corn in the world, implements a tariff protection policy in favor of national biofuels, and gives producers subsidies and a mandate to mix gasoline with up to 10% ethanol.

Brill stated that the G-20 has to solve the food crisis. The 2011 summit addressed the situation, but it has to ignite the engines first. Mexico is an example of what is happening in other countries.

The leaders of the G-20, currently presided by Mexico, are to meet from June 18-19 in the northwestern city of Los Cabos to draw up policies to resolve the economic-financial crisis affecting the North, food security, green growth and combating climate change.

This bloc unites the industrialized countries of the G-8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) with the European Union as such and emerging economies such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.

The planting of corn destined for biofuels began in the region in the mid-20th century and experienced a boom in the 1970s, when Latin American countries took off as suppliers of raw materials for the markets of industrialized nations and in response to the first major oil crisis.

In recent years, the development of certain mono-cultivations has mutated toward providing raw materials for the manufacture of fuels. The expansion of agricultural products to this end is also the result of the depletion of oil as an energy source and carbon dioxide contamination from the use of hydrocarbons, leading to global warming.