Food Crisis vs. Climate Change

"Food security and the rapid rise in food prices make up the "elephant in the room" that politicians must face up to quickly, according to the government's new chief scientific adviser.

In his first major speech since taking over, Professor John Beddington said the global rush to grow biofuels was compounding the problem, and cutting down rainforest to produce biofuel crops was "profoundly stupid"." --from The Guardian

Christian Science Monitor
International Monetary Fund

Foreign Affairs:

Summary: Thanks to high oil prices and hefty subsidies, corn-based ethanol is now all the rage in the United States. But it takes so much supply to keep ethanol production going that the price of corn -- and those of other food staples -- is shooting up around the world. To stop this trend, and prevent even more people from going hungry, Washington must conserve more and diversify ethanol's production inputs.

Affects on Beef Production

"The total costs to the consumer in subsidizing ethanol and corn production is estimated at $8.4 billion/yr, because producing the required corn feedstock increases corn prices. One estimate is that ethanol production adds more than $1 billion to the cost of beef production.

Clearly ethanol from corn is neither sustainable nor economical, and a lot of effort has been devoted to finding alternative feedstock." --Institute of Science in Society
Illinois Times


To be fair, some companies are converting beef tallow into biodiesel. But, apparently it isn't easy or cheap.


For those wanting more info on exactly what biofuel is.