Debate over Corn for Ethanol versus Food

 photo source: http://www.earthyreport.com/site/midwest-drought-worsens/

Summer is going so quickly and I can't believe that it's already almost mid August! I'm getting ready to go to Minnesota for my summer vacation at the end of this week, and but I wanted to do a quick post about an interesting article I just read on ethanol policy in the US, a topic that is especially relevant given what is going on in the Midwest this summer: massive droughts that are destroying corn (and soybean) crops.

The authors of this article in the New York Times argue that ethanol-supporting energy policies in the US are making the effects of the drought worse in terms of food prices and hunger, even outside of the US.

This is a complicated issue, since promotion of ethanol production has some attractive environmental rationals, mainly that they potentially lessen the US's dependence on gasoline and that ethanol is more environmentally friendly and lowers carbon dioxide emissions. This article, though, argues that ethanol from corn is not worth this diverting of corn from food, since corn yields less energy than other sources of biofuels, and also leads to fuel with less energy than gasoline.

The authors suggest that the ethanol standards (which require a certain level of renewable fuel production) are exacerbating the effects of the droughts. Corn prices would have likely already increased due to a smaller corn crop in the US due to the drought, but with a high percentage of that already small crop of corn going to ethanol production due to the ethanol regulations, there will be even less corn for food.

A detail I was surprised about were the statistics on where corn produced in the US ends up - according to the article, only around 15 percent of the US corn crop goes toward food consumption:

"More than one-third of our corn crop is used to feed livestock. Another 13 percent is exported, much of it to feed livestock as well. Another 40 percent is used to produce ethanol. The remainder goes toward food and beverage production."

The implications of higher prices for corn could be far-reaching, given the role that corn plays in global food markets, according to the article. The high price of corn, leading to a higher price of food, could lead to less food security more hunger throughout the world.

This isn't the most cheery summer subject, but I think it's a good example of the importance of looking at the trade offs with any "pro-environment" policy. I'm not sure exactly what I think of ethanol, and it's hard to imagine any alternative fuel getting a very good start without government support and intervention, since gasoline will probably always be cheaper at first from a consumer's perspective. Articles like this do make me wonder, though, if corn is the best biofuel source given its role in relation to food prices and hunger.