Evils of Ethanol

I felt compelled to write and send a letter to the editor of the Lincoln County Journal while I was home, mainly because it is an accessible and locally important media outlet. I wanted to express my thoughts on the interconnectedness of my home and the world at large. Ethanol is not evil, but its recent popularity is misguided at best and is indicative of a larger economic and political system that benefits those in power while failing to improve the lives of the rest of the world. This is the letter that I wrote which will appear next week in the LCJ.

"Ethanol is Unethical"

It is great to see local agriculture improving. Farmers are finally getting
high prices for their crops thanks to increased commodity prices. This will
undoubtedly have a positive impact on the local economy, but unfortunately this
is overshadowed by another result of increased commodity prices - high food
prices. Global food prices have risen dramatically as a result of record high
prices for corn, wheat and soy beans. The situation is so alarming that
the United Nations has declared a “global food crisis” that threatens the lives
of millions of the world’s poorest people who cannot afford to buy enough food
for their families. The United Nations World Food Program reports that 18,000
children are dying each day from hunger related illnesses. World prices
for wheat, rice, soy and corn have all more than doubled since 2006, a
devastatingly sharp rise for half of the world’s population, 3 billion people,
who live on less than two dollars a day.

Why did farm commodity prices rise so dramatically and so quickly? Although there are many contributing factors, the primary cause is biofuel production. Converting corn to ethanol increases the demand for corn, thereby increasing its price. The increased value of corn has led to corn being planted in place of other crops such as soy and wheat. Decreased supply of soy and wheat has led to their price
increasing along with corn. Of course this increases the cost of raising
livestock because the feed prices have risen, thereby making meat, milk and eggs
at the grocery store considerably more expensive. According to U.S. News and
World Report, 25 percent of the 2007 corn harvest went to produce ethanol. The
use of so much of our harvest for non-food purposes has contributed to 75% of
the rise in global food prices according to the World Bank.

Many argue that biofuels are an important alternative for environmental reasons, but in 2007 biofuels replaced less than 2 percent of our total oil consumption and if all of our nation’s farmland were devoted to biofuel production, it would only replace
7 percent of oil consumption in the US. Obviously biofuels are not the cure for
our energy problems; energy conservation and solar and wind energy sources are
much more responsible and sustainable. Unfortunately politicians support
biofuels because they are considered “alternative” energy that will release us
from our dependence on foreign oil. Farmers love biofuel production
because it stands to make them money. Many others support biofuels because
they stand to save a few cents at the gas pump. Do any of these reasons justify
an increase in human suffering due to food shortages?

The entire biofuel frenzy is misguided. In the United States we are now converting food that could help to feed hungry people into gasoline. It would be considered criminal if we were to physically take food from starving people and use it to run our
expensive and inefficient cars, but since the effects of our actions are clouded
by economics, we are able to ignore the reality of the situation. In
today’s world it is extremely important to realize that globalization has
intricately linked us to the rest of the world. As the richest and most
prosperous nation in history, it is our responsibility to be conscious of how
our lifestyle affects the other 6 billion people on the planet. While gas prices
are high our primary concern is filling our gas tanks, but we need to keep in
mind that there are billions more who are concerned with filling their
stomachs.