The World Resources Institute has published a new
working paper that says if crops such as corn, sugar cane or vegetable oils
were used for food rather than for fuel, the world’s food needs would be
largely met.
Called “Avoiding Bioenergy Competition for Food Crops and Land,”
the paper notes that “phasing out the use of crop-based biofuelds” … is “a
potent strategy for sustainably meeting future food needs.”
Authors Tim Searchinger and Ralph Heimlich say that
biofuels made from what is essentially waste product, such as forest and
agriculture residues, leftover municipal waste and methane gas captured from
landfills, are functional without setting up competition for food production.
On the other hand, the tremendous political support
for other types of biofuels from corn and the like benefit from what is a
double-counting of its benefits.
The authors note that estimates are that food
production must rise by 70 percent by 2050, but that allowing "crop-based
biofuels (to be) were phased out, (means) the 2050 crop calorie gap would
decrease from 70 percent to about 60 percent, a significant step toward a
sustainable food future."
While there has been much written about the choice of marketing crops as food or fuel, the real issue boils down to how much money farmers want to make from crops, and that matter of money does not take the affordability of food or hunger into account.
