Cars vs. food

The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels. More than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year. With 200 ethanol distilleries in the country set up to transform food into fuel, the amount of grain processed has tripled since 2004.

The hungry crossed 1 billion mark. When the growing demand for corn for ethanol helped to push world grain prices to record highs between late 2006 and 2008, people in low-income grain-importing countries were hit the hardest.

The amount of grain needed to fill the tank of an SUV with ethanol just once can feed one person for an entire year. The average income of the owners of the world's 940 million automobiles is at least ten times larger than that of the world's 2 billion hungriest people.

That is a clear indictment against food crops being turned into biofuel.

The United States is the world's leading grain exporter. The automotive hunger for crop-based fuels is increasing. The Earth Policy Institute has noted that even if the entire U.S. grain crop were converted to ethanol (leaving no domestic crop to make bread, rice, pasta, or feed the animals from which we get meat, milk, and eggs), it would satisfy at most 18 percent of U.S. automotive fuel needs.

Truly a funny world we inhabit today, where cars can take away the food from a hungry populace. There seems to be nothing much that will change, at least in “Corporate America’ which has just seen the Supreme Court giving more powers to corporate entities to use money power and influence political decisions.

Should we be looking at other ways to fuel our vehicles? Like EVs? True, the electricity that drives them comes at present from fossil fuel plants. But as the shift to renewables happens, that could be a better option. If only the subsidies were in the right place, things can shift. Look at how a Danish island is totally powered by renewable energy.

All it requires is the will.