Not only is ethanol expensive to produce, it is also likely adding to world food shortages and rising prices of food, which in turn is causing social unrest in poor countries.
A recent investigative story by Lauren Mills of Iowa Watch concluded that “ethanol production in the United States may contribute to shrinking food stocks and rising food prices, experts warn. Following the food crisis of 2008, experts say the increasing dedication of crops to fuel may lead to future malnutrition and starvation around the globe.”
An excerpt from her story:
There was enough food on the market, but high prices reduced many of the world’s poor to hunger, said Josette Sheeran, the director of the United Nation’s World Food Program. Contributing to the crisis, were countries that cut exports of in-demand crops.
Hunger is not limited to these periods of extreme global crisis. Every ten seconds a child dies of hunger, Sheeran said in a speech in July.
By 2050, there will be roughly nine billion people to feed on this planet. Already, one in seven people suffer from chronic hunger.
“We are living in a post-surplus world,” Sheeran said. “The world has to be a lot smarter about how we are using our supplies.”
