Ethanol's Inconvenient Truth

Corn as fuel has hurt world food supply

BY ANDY KIMBRELL |Andy Kimbrell is founder and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Food Safety.

June 20, 2008 - Off from newsday.com

NOTE: Below is only an excerpt, but you can read the whole article by clicking the link above.

"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."
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This is a well written article. The above quote is only a sample of a well argued overall theme of lessons learned by us (humans) trying to throw vast amounts of money into research and development of "the quick fix" versus addressing the root of the problems.

It reminds me of a recent story in the news that after Al Gore got so much attention from his "An Inconvenient Truth" it was leaked that his household uses up enough energy to power like 20 houses. In the spotlight, he has spent several thousands of dollars to "Green" up his house. Including solar panels and other alternative and efficient energy methods. Only to end up a year later actually using MORE than he did previously without the "greening" of his home. Boy, Al, I bet THAT'S an inconvenient truth you wish wasn't given as much fanfare...


"Al Gore's mansion uses more than twice the electricity in one month than the average household does in an entire year." - Al Gore's Own Inconvenient Truth