In reply to Stephen A. Lawrence's message of Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:14:13 -0400: Hi, [snip] >Quite some time back someone on this list -- Jed, maybe, or maybe it was >actually several people -- opined that "alternative" biofuels which >require arable land to grow could plausibly be viewed as, at least, >fundamentally stupid, or at worst as a crime against humanity. > >Recently I've noticed an interesting trend: In the context of articles >on inflation and world food supplies, alternative fuels are now coming >up time and again as one of the main causes of rising food prices. Just >as one trivial example, here's an excerpt from today's Wall Street >Journal, which happened to have a story on rising inflation: > >> But the fact that inflation is rising almost everywhere suggests some >> of its causes are global. As crops are sold for alternative-energy >> production, food prices have soared: The price of rice, the staple >> for billions of Asians, is up 147% over the past year.
This is not all that surprising. In a world where we only just produce enough food to support the population, even slight reductions in the supply result in a gap between demand and supply, and the price rises until it reduces the demand to the point where it matches supply. This need not be in the same sort of food either, since if one sort is in short supply, people will buy something else, thus producing a shortage therein as well. Hence a shortage in corn can easily result in increasing prices for rice. Furthermore, the percentage increase in cost can be exorbitant at times, particularly if there is a large proportion of the population that has a considerable buffer between their income and what they spend on food. They will basically continue to buy what they want, irrespective of the price hike, thus driving the price way up. The reduction in demand comes from those countries that have no discretionary spending to sacrifice. They just go hungry and die. In short, while we burn food for fuel, and continue to buy food to eat, the third world starves to death. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk The shrub is a plant.
