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Economist Blames Biofuels For Worldwide Food Crisis
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Published: May 6, 2008
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The U.S. and European Union should reconsider a shift to biofuels that has helped increase food prices worldwide by turning agricultural land over to energy crops, American economist Jeffrey Sachs said Monday.
Targets to produce more fuels that release less carbon dioxide when burned "do not make sense now in a global food scarcity condition," Sachs, a special adviser to the United Nations, told reporters before he spoke to EU lawmakers at the European Parliament.
"In the United States, as much as one-third of the maize crop this year will go to the gas tank, and this is a huge blow to the world food supply, so these programs should be cut back significantly," he said.
Top international food scientists recommended last month that the use of food-based biofuels, such as ethanol, be halted, saying that would cut corn prices by 20 percent.
The U.S. biofuel program has had more influence on food shortages, but Europe's plans to boost biofuel output would also start to bite, Sachs said.
"Neither of them makes much sense, actually, in terms of the environmental effect, the energy balance or the food impact, so I would advocate a reconsideration of both under the new market conditions," he said.
European Commission spokesman Michael Mann said biofuels were not a significant factor in pushing up food prices. More important are recent poor global harvests, growing food demand in Asia and export restrictions in Ukraine and Russia, he said.
"In Europe, we use less than 2 percent of our cereals production for biofuels, so their contribution to higher food prices is marginal, if not nonexistent," Mann said.
The U.S. ethanol industry also rejects claims that biofuels are responsible for food price increases, saying ethanol - made from wheat and sugar cane - and other biofuels account for just 4 percent of the price surge.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture puts the figure closer to 20 percent.
Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, said it was unfair to blame financial speculators for soaring prices for basic foods, such as wheat and rice.
"The fact inventories are very low, that food supply is more stagnant compared to food demand, gives a reason for speculators to try and buy and hold grains," he said.
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