I always wonder whether organizations like Oxfam are actually stating scientific fact, as opposed to pushing an agenda, but this makes a great headline.  According to a recent report from the organization:

“Biofuel mandates and support measures in rich countries are driving up food prices as they divert more and more food crops and agricultural land into fuel production. Meanwhile sugarcane ethanol from Brazil, production of which has a far less significant impact on global food prices, is excluded through the use of tariffs.

The World Bank estimates that the price of food has increased by 83 per cent in the last three years. For the world’s poor people, who may spend 50–80 per cent of their income on food, this is disastrous. Oxfam estimates that the livelihoods of at least 290 million people are immediately threatened by the food crisis, and the Bank estimates that 100 million people have already fallen into poverty as a result. Thirty per cent of price increases are attributable to biofuels, suggesting biofuels have endangered the livelihoods of nearly 100 million people and dragged over 30 million into poverty.”

This point is well understood.  Everyone except politicians, corn farmers and ethanol producers seems to believe that using food crops to power our cars and trucks is a sub-optimal solution.  As China struggles with dramatically higher fuel costs and accelerating environmental damage that could render the country untenable, the government will be forced to evaluate alternative energy solutions including wind, solar and biofuels.  We can only hope that progress towards producing biofuels from non-food sources will be realized fast enough to provide them with viable alternatives.  Unfortunately, as nearly as I can tell, commercial quantities of fuel from algae is still a ways off, but we’re working on it.  Of course, there is always Triadica sebifera, the Chinese tallow tree (just kidding - don’t flame me).

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