Many people want to be “green” and find cleaner more sustainable fuel sources. Unfortunately, the desire for these friendly biofuels is driving up the price of food.
Experts have been saying for some time that the demand for biofuels will make the prices of food rise, but now we have another report that confirms the worst. Our environmental love fest is making the prices of food go up.
The report was produced by Purdue University economists for the Farm Foundation policy organization. It shows that US government support for ethanol, including subsidies, had fuelled strong demand for corn over the last five years.
There has been a shift towards using more corn as fuel and that leaves less of it to be used as food. This makes the price of corn as food go up. And since food prices are linked, it’s making the price of all food go up.
Studies say that 40% of the US corn crop now goes to make ethanol.
What a choice, do you want green fuels or affordable food? It appears that you can’t have both.
You’d think most people would go with food, but there’s than darn environmental sensitivity you have to deal with. It keeps the overly sensitive masses from seeing the truth.
The truth is that biofuels are largely a failure. They aren’t helping us create more energy the food prices are starting to cause problems for regular and poor people.
Hell, even the Greenfather himself, Al Gore, has said that supporting first generation corn ethanol during his presidential campaign in 2000 was a massive blunder. Since then he’s said that corn ethanol is not a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels
Gore has even admitted that his rhetoric about corn ethanol back then was more about getting votes from farmers in Tennessee and Iowa than it was the environment.
And yet here we are staring in the face of higher food prices, and it doesn’t seem like the use corn for ethanol will be halted without a long drawn out battle.
The mega farmers who receive the government subsidies for all of the corn will probably not let their easy money go without a lot of lobbying. It’s almost a hopeless battle.
Even worse is the fact that the recent study says that even if the rate of ethanol production decreases, food prices probably won’t go down right away. At least not for a year, that’s because Soybean and corn crops are in such short supply. Yippee.
“We don’t think these prices are going to come down in a year,” said Wallace Tyner, one of the authors. “It’s going to take at least a couple of years to see a significant reduction in price.”
So it looks like food will be a lot harder to get in the future because of prices and availability. The government insanity and driving up of the food prices might not be ending any time soon.
If you are like the majority of people, the prices of food are going to be a problem.
I suggest you learn how to budget better or learn to do without some things. Maybe drink at home instead of paying $5.00 at the bar for pints of the good beer.
Learning how to garden is a good idea, learning how to hunt is an even better idea. Or you if being self-sufficient is a bummer can just sit back and hope everything will be ok. If you’re lucky maybe it will be.
That’s all most people will do anyways. Economic data and food prices mean nothing to masses anyway. Just as long as no one tries to mess with their free ride.
We want a balanced budget, but we won’t to stop the biofuel subsidies (which make food more costly) and we aren’t allowed don’t to talk about restructuring entitlement programs. Good luck with that.
I’ve got a garden and a compound bow to fight the rising food prices with, what do you have?
