Fuelling a famine

from The Toronto Sun

'Grain gasoline' takes food off world's table

By SHARON LEM, SUN MEDIA

Soaring global prices for food and fuel, apart from sweeping hardship and expense, have soured relations between two traditional allies.

Aid workers have watched helplessly these past weeks as the escalating cost of staples translated into less food globally for those who need it most.

In pointing the finger at causes, they blame in part increased use of greener, cleaner biofuels made from crops such as corn.

Effectively, biofuels are taking food out of the mouths of the poor, they maintain.

"The increased price of a bushel of corn results in the inability of a family to feed themselves and we have more people driven into poverty," Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Canada told the Sunday Sun.

WRONG SOLUTION

The amount of ethanol it takes to produce biofuels is as great as they themselves provide so it is actually the wrong solution to the climate change problem, Fox said.

Such suggestions have stung and are viewed as heresy by environmentalists.

But who is right?

The idea of using corn to create ethanol moved out of the laboratory in 1973 when world oil prices spiked to record levels and a search began for alternatives. Biofuels use plants like corn to produce liquid energy, which is mixed with gasoline for cars.

Ontario already has a law requiring gas companies to use corn-based ethanol in gasoline sold in this province and on Thursday, the House of Commons in Ottawa passed a 5% renewable fuel standard mandate to ensure that oil companies use 5% ethanol in gas. Canada already produces more than a billion litres of ethanol and 100 million litres of biodiesel a year, enough corn to feed a lot of people.

The U.S. goal is ethanol supplying 10% of fuel within 12 year (Canada is expected to follow suit) and American biofuel production would dwarf what's produced here.

In addition to the food debate, biofuel critics and environmentalists have locked horns over whether production of ethanol produces more greenhouse gas emissions than it's worth environmentally and in dollars and cents.

Six years ago farmers were practically giving their corn away while nowadays it has become a heavily subsidized crop, especially in the U.S. Corn has doubled in price from two years ago at $2 to $4 a bushel, along with other crops such as wheat, soybean and rice, and shortages of the latter have caused hoarding in Vietnam, China and India.

Meanwhile, rapid industrial growth in India and China is a major underlying factor in the rise of crude oil prices and a higher demand for all crops due to their appetite for higher-protein diets and driving more cars.

In turn, the higher commodity prices are up largely due to the rising cost of fuel. It costs farmers more to grow and transport crops and that is passed onto consumers.

The end result for the average Canadian is that it's increasingly costing more at the grocery check out counters and gas pumps.

QUADRUPLED IN PRICE

Oil and gas prices have quadrupled in price since 2002 when oil was trading at around $28 per barrel and gas was 65 cents a litre. It hit $116 per barrel this week and $1.23 a litre for gas at the pump.

While an economic concern in industrialized nations, rising crop prices have made it almost impossible for the billion people in the world living on less than a dollar to eat.

Coming out swinging in the opposite corner of the ring are ethanol producers. "No one has claimed that biofuels are perfect," said Robert Gallant, president and CEO of Greenfield Ethanol. "But they are the best, most available, most accessible and most affordable response we have to practical pressures that confront us."

Gallant argues ethanol is a much greener and cleaner source of energy and that grain ethanol reduces greenhouse gases by 55% compared to fossil fuels. "Biofuels are not the problem, they are a substantial part of the sustainability solution," Gallant said.

"The price of crude oil is being driven by a higher demand," he said.

"China and India are adding 80 million people to their middle class every year and the demand for soyabeans, rice and aluminum are all up," Gallant said.

Science lends some objective evidence to the debate.

"Most in the scientific community believe you get a positive energy balance with corn-based ethanol," said Dr. Warren Mabee, a bioenergy and forestry research associate at the University of British Columbia.

"If you put in one unit, you get 30% more energy out at 1.3 units," Babee said. "A bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds (25.5 kilos). It produces 10 litres of ethanol, and it also makes CO2, carbon dioxide, which is put into greenhouses to enhance vegetables by 50% yields and the remaining residue feed goes to feed cattle."

Meanwhile, the energy cost to grow and transport crops and make fertilizers has gone way up in response to industrialization in parts of the world, he said. There's more demand for commodities in China and India, a growing middle class, growing demand for meat and with increasing demand for grains.

"It all starts to eat away at the surplus," Mabee said but suggests biofuels are here to stay. "We need alternatives for transportation fuels and we need those to be greener to lower the environmental impact, safer, sustainable and renewable because that's the long term security of our economies," he said.

Meanwhile, at an advocacy level, debate over biofuels is heating up and even some environmental groups are raising questions.

"We do not endorse biofuels because we think they have only limited benefits in limited circumstances," said Dan McDermott, Ontario director of the Sierra Club of Canada. "They are not going to solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions or air pollution emissions on a broad scale," McDermott said.

Finally, there is the future.

The next generation of biofuels is now being developed and involves using waste residue from forestry, corn stover and wood chips to convert the cellulose into ethanol.

Gord Surgeoner, president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, a consortium of major farm producers, said solutions have to start with people reducing their own environmental footprint, along with maintaining agricultural production to ensure farmers get a return for their investment.