No Such Thing as a Free Lunch … Especially If It’s Running the Car

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch … Especially If It’s Running the Car

The New York Times echoed a murmuring discontent about biofuels: diverting too many crops from food to fuel increases hunger Elizabeth Renthal’s April 6 article, “Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food Prices and Hunger Fears,” starts with cassava chips being exported to China for fuel. T Then, it zooms out to the bigger picture of not just cassava, but corn, sugar cane, and palm oil all going in larger measure to biofuel production.

The exact correlation to prices is vague, but biofuel production has significantly raised food prices around the world. The index of food prices has never been higher, and there is a strong correlation with riots and overthrows of governments.

Practical suggestions have been that biofuel targets be made flexible so that production would be decreased in response to spikes in food prices.

In fact, China made such a response. Biofuel from corn caused such an alarming rise in the food prices that the Chinese government banned all biofuel production from grain. Instead, they turned to importing cassava chips.

Now, aside from bobas in my Thai tea, cassava is not a major foodstuff in Asia. However, it does provide animal feed, so rising exports can be expected to increase the cost of meat and eggs.

In Africa, it would be a very different story. Cassava is part of the regular diet in many countries. If biofuels production caused major cassava buys in Africa, food prices and hunger would go in lock step.

The old environmental maxim applies. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” There is no cheap or easy way to keep a world of cars and trucks running.

The New York Times article is available on line at

(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/science/earth/07cassava.html?_r=1&src=twr)

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