The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a "scam." This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains. But it turns out that even seemingly "good" biofuel policies, like Brazil's use of ethanol from sugar cane, accelerate the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation.And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states.
The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a "scam."
This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains. But it turns out that even seemingly "good" biofuel policies, like Brazil's use of ethanol from sugar cane, accelerate the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation.
And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states.
Krugman agrees with both of you. I think. Now where are we going and what's with the handbasket?
However, in terms of creating famine, subsidized US and EU grains exported to African nations that are not currently experiencing famine certainly create more famine than they relieve ... its arguable that they stand third in line, behind post-colonial policies in African nations squeezing the agrarian sector for the benefit of urban elites, and the misguided (and, fortunately, now fading) World Bank / IMF consensus on promoting manufacturing as the primary development path for Africa.
For the large number of Sub-Saharan Africa nations where agricultural output is rising faster than population growth rates, the increase in commodity grain prices due to US and EU switching their farmer subsidy focus away from 3rd world dumping programs and toward using bogus biofuels to greenwash fossil fuel energy has been a substantial benefit. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
