Disarming the Food to Fuel Conflict Part 2: The Misinformation Campaign

by Christopher Klug (Tiny Green Bubble) ...According to the Renewable Fuels Association data, the United States produced and used approximately 10.6 billion gallons of ethanol in 2009, making the US the largest producer of ethanol in the world. (Renewable Fuels Association, 2010) This number represents 8% of the gasoline consumed by Americans, and to a far lesser extent accounts for E-85 fuel for America’s Flex-Fuel vehicles.
The addition of ethanol into gasoline has the additional tertiary effect of stretching our gasoline supplies. According to the RFA, in 2009 ethanol use reduced crude imports by 364 million barrels, saving 21.3 billion dollars from leaving the country. Also cited is the contribution of ethanol production to the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. The RFA reports 53.3 billion dollars of contribution to the GDP through sales and replacing imports. It also reports 16 billion dollars in contributions to individual household incomes, with a net effect of raising 8.4 billion dollars in Federal tax revenues and 7.5 billion dollars in local and State tax revenue.
...Corn that is processed into ethanol is not a total loss; on the contrary, “dry mill” secondary processes reclaim about 30% of the grain used for the production of ethanol in the form of Brewer’s Grains, or DDGS. (Tabak, 2009) The DDGS is then fed to cattle, just as the field corn would have been if it had not been processed in to ethanol. In a “wet’ mill, even more secondary products can be reclaimed, such as corn oil, corn gluten meal and corn gluten feed, most of which is exported.
...Speculation on commodities and the price of crude oil has driven up the price of food, claims a 2010 Energy article by Amela Ajanovic. (Ajanovic, 2010) She also cites farmer’s increased fertilizer prices and rising fuel costs as the primary factor in increased food costs. She also cites as evidence the relationship between dropping food prices and the post 2008 fall in crude oil prices. According to another study, biofuel production has shifted some arable land away from food production, and could have affected food prices temporarily, but the trend is by no means permanent and most likely short term. (Rathmann R, 2010 ) Most of the lands recently switched from other land uses to feedstock production are marginal lands, and were not used for agricultural production previously on a regular basis. (Ajanovic, 2010)
There is mounting evidence that the corn the U.S. exports is not used to feed the world’s poor, but to feed the source of more affluent nation’s rising meat intake. While ethanol attackers have shown images of starving children in Mexico to shore up the defense of the food vs fuel argument, the USDA reports that Japan is the world’s leader in US corn imports, followed by Korea and Mexico is following close behind. (US Department of Agriculture, 2010) According to this report, these nations use American corn imports to feed livestock for meat production.
... China was recently the second-largest exporter of corn, but changing economics and consumer demand have spurred corn imports, of which 80% goes to animal feed. (Zhan G. Li, 1999) as China continues to industrialize, valuable farmland is being lost to development and residential uses.
...The food vs fuel debate caught fire because of the initial efforts of a professional PR and lobbying firm hired by an economically opposed manufacturing group. Glover Park Group is responsible for the operation of at least three websites opposing corn-based ethanol, and organized “expert” testimony to represent the interests of their client in Washington. (Kram, 2008) With a initial budget of $300,000 the Glover Park Group achieved far reaching impact to the corn ethanol industry. (The Glover Park Group, 2008) Real causes of high food prices were ignored in the media, such as high fuel prices and fertilizer costs.
...American exports of corn continue to grow, and show no signs of slowing. (US Department of Agriculture, 2010)
...Bibliography

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