World Bank: "Biofuel Caused Food Crisis" -- LiveWire Teen Forums

Quote: from deadsilence at 12:13 pm on July 7, 2008

Quote: from Frisky Dingo at 7:30 pm on July 6, 2008
It always pissed me off how people thought plant-derived fuels were a good idea.

it is a good idea. the use of more biofuel in the Netherlands cut emissions there by I believe 40%.

That is because the Netherlands imports the biofuel so they don't get hit with the emissions required for growing it. It also doesn't take into account the forests being cleared in Asia and South America that are being done so either as a direct effect or indirect effect of biofuels.
I read some where that 70% of all US corn goes to biofuel meaning much less corn is going to the food stock. Land for growing soy is being replaced by corn because government subsidies make it more profitable to grow corn for biofuel than corn. This is also reducing the price of soy. This has caused large rises in grain prices. It also has the effect of giving farmers in brazil the incentives for using cattle grazing land for soy growth instead because as the soy supply goes down the price and therefore the possible profit margin goes up. The cattle ranches still need to use land for cattle grazing so they destroy more of the Amazon to let their cattle graze. And clearing the amazon requires the decomposition of a lot of bio mass which releases much more CO2 than biofuels make up for. The CO2 released in the process of farming for biofuels also reduce the advantages of biofuels. Also the increased farming acres of land used for agriculture increases the use of nitrogenous fertilizers which are very damaging. And the worst part of all is out corrupt government subsidises this. And these negative effects should have been obvious, I saw the economic negatives that caused the fuel crisis before it happened so why couldn't my negligent government see this.
In response to the OP that estimate seems a bit large though, other economic factors, my libertarian side with argue that most of these factors are government creations, are also responsible for the food crisis, biofuels are just one of the reasons.

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