Re: [Biofuel] The food emergency and food myths
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Lots of stuff snipped, my only comment inline below
(leaving thread intact, because it's a very good thread)
Keith Addison wrote:
| Hi Chip
|
| Keith Addison wrote:
| http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=552
|
| Seedling July 2008
|
| The food emergency and food myths
|
| Why Bush is wrong to blame Indians for the rise in food prices
|
| Vandana Shiva *
| I really enjoy Vandana Shiva's input. It's clueful and very well
| thought out.
|
| Yes, isn't it. She's good value, always worth the read.
|
| That said;
|
| SNIP
| agribusiness in the current food crisis, both through speculation and
| through the hijacking of food into biofuels,
|
| I keep hearing about this 'hijacking of food into biofuels' argument.
|
| Anyone have the numbers to back this up?
|
| Some. At the UN food summit in Rome last month:
|
| Ed Schafer, the US agriculture secretary, said the production of
| biofuels contributed less than 3% to the recent rapid rises in food
| prices but that assertion clashed with estimates by the International
| Monetary Fund, that they are responsible for 20-30% of the price
| rises.
|
| A FAO document distributed yesterday said: Biofuels accounted for
| 59% of the increase in global use of coarse grains and wheat between
| 2005-2007, and 56% of the increase in vegetable oils.
I am having a really hard time buying this (pun intended)
Unless so-called 'food' is being diverted to biofuel production
along the lines of 59%, I just don't see how this can be so,
in the misapprehended context of 'market demand' aka,
supply and demand.
| -- US attacked at food summit over biofuels - Corn ethanol
| production blamed for price rises - American delegation rejects link
| by UN official, The Guardian, Rome, June 4, 2008
| http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/04/biofuels.food
What percentage of corn (that weird yellow #2 frankencorn stuff)
is being 'diverted' to ethanol production?
I know that the 'American delegation' really isn't exactly a
great go-to place for solid un-molested empirical data, however,
, ,
| The American agriculture secretary, Ed Schafer, has told American
| reporters that increasing the production of corn ethanol is the
| right policy direction. Corn prices rose on the world markets
| throughout the last hours of the summit.
| -- Food summit fails to agree on biofuels, The Guardian, Rome, June
6, 2008
| http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/06/food.biofuels
|
| Biofuels are responsible for 30 percent of the increase in global
| food prices, pushing 30 million people worldwide into poverty, aid
| agency Oxfam said in a report on Wednesday.
| -- Oxfam says biofuels pushing 30 million into poverty, Reuters, Jun
25, 2008
| http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2432915720080625
|
| From the Oxfam report: Another Inconvenient Truth - How biofuel
| policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change, 25
| June 2008
|
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/climate_change/bp114_inconvenient_truth.html
| Download the full report (58-page pdf)
|
http://oxfam.intelli-direct.com/e/d.dll?m=234url=http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/climate_change/downloads/bp114_inconvenient_truth.pdf
|
| 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.
Okay, I don't doubt the numbers here. But I'm still having a difficult
time seeing a correlation between non-food corn overproduction,
and global food prices.
|
| The IMF estimates that last year they accounted for almost half of
| the increase in demand for major food crops. (IMF World Economic
| Outlook, April 2008)
|
| The OECD has estimated that between 2005 and 2007, almost 60 per cent
| of the increase in consumption of cereals and vegetable oils was due
| to biofuels. ('Rising Food Prices: Causes and Consequences', OECD,
| paper prepared for the DAC High Level Meeting, 20-21 May 2008.)
|
| Commentary by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggests
| biofuels may explain 10 per cent of recent food price rises.
|
| The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) estimates
| that biofuels explain 30 per cent of food price rises, an estimate
| corroborated by the IMF.
|
| (For IFPRI commentary, see
| www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/26/food.unitednations. Also
| see IFPRI (2008) 'Biofuels and Grain Prices: Impacts and Policy
| Responses'. Simon Johnson, Chief Economist of the IMF, estimated that
| biofuels account for '20-30 per cent' of price rises on The Today
| Programme, BBC Radio 4, 14 April 2008. For FAO commentary, see:
| www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a503b8ce- 131a-11dd-8d91-779fd2ac.html)
Re: [Biofuel] The food emergency and food myths
In David Blume's book: Alcohol can be a gas are listed several facts regarding corn as a food. In summary, it goes like this. (I have always found this book to be factually accurate, and I have tried to find irregularities). 1. 10 lbs of corn makes about one-half gallon ethanol and 3 lbs of DDGS (Dried Distiller's Grain plus Solubles). 2. 3 lbs of DDGS makes aboutone pound of beef 2. 10 lbs of corn, fed to cows, makes about one pound of beef.(No difference from #2 above, in other words, pulling the carbohydrates out of corn prior to feeding to cows does not affect its usefulness as a cow feed) 3. 80% of corn grown in the US is fed to cows, 10% is exported, 10% is human consumed (2002 numbers). (Probably more is fed to cows because the exported corn is, you guessed it, fed to cows). So, in summary, first pulling ethanol out of corn, then feeding the by-product to cows does not alter the amount of beef produced. There is one issue that does need discussion: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11175.cfm The above URL references an article that indicates DDGS is not sanitary, and its use is promoting E.Coli in beef. If that is true, it seems easily remedied by more sanitary DDGS handling practices. Anyway, back to the main arguement: ALL corn should first be refined to ethanol, that way we can harvest the ethanol, which will lower the price of fuel worldwide by increasing supply. This will help lower food prices by lowering the energy costs of food production. Kurt _ Making the world a better place one message at a time. http://www.imtalkathon.com/?source=EML_WLH_Talkathon_BetterPlace -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20080707/5dfc1fb7/attachment.html ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] The food emergency and food myths
Kurt Schasker wrote: In David Blume's book: Alcohol can be a gas are listed several facts regarding corn as a food. In summary, it goes like this. (I have always found this book to be factually accurate, and I have tried to find irregularities). 1. 10 lbs of corn makes about one-half gallon ethanol and 3 lbs of DDGS (Dried Distiller's Grain plus Solubles). 2. 3 lbs of DDGS makes aboutone pound of beef 2. 10 lbs of corn, fed to cows, makes about one pound of beef.(No difference from #2 above, in other words, pulling the carbohydrates out of corn prior to feeding to cows does not affect its usefulness as a cow feed) That's not what David Blume says. He says: If you feed 33 pounds of DDGS to cattle instead of 100 pounds of corn, you get 14 to 17% more meat up to 30% faster, with a fraction of the veterinary costs. ... So, fermenting the corn to alcohol results in more meat than if you fed the corn directly to cattle. I think he's correct. 3. 80% of corn grown in the US is fed to cows, 10% is exported, 10% is human consumed (2002 numbers). Source please? I don't think your numbers are right. (Probably more is fed to cows because the exported corn is, you guessed it, fed to cows). So, in summary, first pulling ethanol out of corn, then feeding the by-product to cows does not alter the amount of beef produced. It increases the amount of beef produced. There is one issue that does need discussion: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11175.cfmhttp://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11175.cfm The above URL references an article that indicates DDGS is not sanitary, and its use is promoting E.Coli in beef. If that is true, it seems easily remedied by more sanitary DDGS handling practices. Indeed, but in fact they shouldn't be eating DDGS either, there's no good reason nor any excuse for factory-farmed meat. There's good reason and every excuse for free-range pastured livestock on sustainable mixed farms though, but they don't need either corn or DDGS. Anyway, back to the main arguement: ALL corn should first be refined to ethanol, that way we can harvest the ethanol, which will lower the price of fuel worldwide by increasing supply. This will help lower food prices by lowering the energy costs of food production. Your assumption is the usual one, that current food prices have got something to do with costs or with food production, but about the only thing that supports that assumption is the sheer number of people who assume it. The same goes for the assumption that current fuel prices have something to do with supply and demand. We've covered all this quite thoroughly already. Do some homework in the list archives please. Keith Kurt ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Fw: Soy is making kids 'gay'
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