Ouch! World Bank says biofuels responsible for 75% rise in food prices
Maybe it's a good thing that American biofuel plants are filing for bankruptcy protection. According to a previously secret report conducted by the World Bank and obtained by the Guardian newspaper, biofuel production is hugely responsible for the food price crisis. How much? The report - the "most detailed analysis of the crisis so far," in the Guardian's words - says that biofuels caused global food prices to rise by 75 percent. This is much higher than previous estimates. Food Before Fuel estimated a 30 percent influence, and the Guardian says the U.S. government claims that biofuels were responsible for just a three percent rise.
The kicker? The report was finished in April but has been kept secret "to avoid embarrassing President George Bush," the Guardian writes. We wouldn't want that, now, would we?
Requiring ethanol and biodiesel in national fuel supplies helped push costs up, but sugarcane ethanol from Brazil did not play as big a role. All the more reason to bring out the second-gen biofuels as soon as feasible. Read more here.
[Source: Guardian]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 4:38PM (7/07/2008)
Smoke & mirrors B.S. for the ignorant masses!
Of course the World Bank would say NOTHING about how each individual country's privately owned central bank (“Federal” Reserve) is debasing their nation's currency by increasing liquidity.
In other words, the more credit the central banks create out of thin air to loan at interest to the central government & regional banks, the less that nation's fiat paper currency is worth which makes things cost more. Look at the national debt vs the cost of goods.
It’s the privately owned UN-Federal NO-Reserve banks pumping of liquidity in the credit markets that is debasing our fiat currency and causing things to cost more. They created the housing bubble and they created the national debt with unlimited, cheap and easy to borrow credit created out of thin air with a simple accounting entry!
This has collapsed many countries before U.S.A. and that’s why our Constitution calls for “hard” money backed by Gold that can’t be debased by creating credit out of thin air.
The power to create unlimited credit is the power to destroy its worth
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armmat 2:13AM (7/08/2008)
Hmmmm...
Isn't the world bank the same scum organization that has put half the world's population under huge debt and starving them to death?
Fk the world bank.
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TopaZ 2:48AM (7/08/2008)
Let's not forget to mention the meat industry, which requires 7 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of consumable animal meat.
At the current rate of population growth, a meat-eating global population is simply not sustainable.
The advent of biofuels will only accelerate this inevitable conclusion.
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adam 7:06AM (7/08/2008)
Good point Topaz. Why does everyone always over look the burden the meat industry has on the environment? Why all the talk of placing blame on the biofuel industry and completely overlooking the meat industry. If everyone cut down of meat consumption, you have the capacity to feed a lot more people and also utilize land for other purposes such as biofuel production. I am not saying biofuel production is the answer, but only a part of it.
Nobody Special 11:37AM (7/08/2008)
Good ol' World Bank, still up to the same ol' shenanigans. What a bunch of utter tosh.
Hey, here's a long shot - did they mention water consumption per gallon of fuel? Probably not.
Great comments guys.
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Nathan Schock 5:13PM (7/08/2008)
There's just one problem with the story from the Guardian about the World Bank report: it's not true. It turns out that someone at the WS Journal actually called the source rather than relying on hearsay: http://tinyurl.com/5vmsgs
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radhoo 4:04PM (7/09/2008)
It's said that Diesels where made to run on oil, not on diesel gas. I think that we should leave the performances of the gas for a more friendly environment.
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