U.N.: Ease ethanol production to aid global food problem
Jeff Horwich: The U.S. drought is fueling a corn shortage that’s driving up prices around the globe. And yet, federal support for corn ethanol — a fuel additive — means some 40 percent of U.S. corn will be turned into ethanol this year. The head of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization has formally asked Americans to give the rest of the world a break, and suspend our ethanol subsidies.
Marketplace’s Eve Troeh has more.
Eve Troeh: U.S. corn is one of the world’s most important crops. It gets ground up to feed people, and livestock, all around the globe. But a U.S. mandate for ethanol production means more and more U.S. corn has to go to biofuel.
And that’s the problem, says David Hallum. He directs trade and markets for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Hallum says the U.N.’s request for the U.S. to suspend its ethanol mandate isn’t about stamping out biofuel production. It aims, he says —
David Hallum: To try and introduce some flexibility to the system, so the policies in place don’t make matters worse.
The U.S. could introduce a clause that would suspend the ethanol mandate when corn prices reach a certain level, he says. That would free up more land to grow food instead of fuel.
Hannah Stoddart at Oxfam says the food versus fuel debate is mostly about land.
Hannah Stoddart: The amount of land that it takes to fill just one car with biodiesel could feed a family of three for a month.
She says biofuel mandates have big companies buying up land in the U.S. and around the world, adding to the acreage devoted to fuel instead of food.
I’m Eve Troeh for Marketplace.
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