Rising food prices
Introduction:
Food prices have been on the rise and have become a global issue. Prices have soared over the past year and a half and threaten to go up further if issues are not addressed immediately. Below is a look at how prices have been over the past year. Figure 1. FAO Food Price Index: February 2007 - January 2008
Source FAO, 2008
In this project, we attempt to find out the causes for this price rise, the trends of the rise and the effects that this rise has had on us.
Causes:
1. High demand for food in developing countries:
The growing world population is demanding more and different kinds of food. Rapid economic growth in many developing countries has pushed up consumers' purchasing power, generated rising
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5. Bio Fuels:
With oil prices at an all-time high of more than US$100 a barrel and the U.S. government subsidizing farmers to grow crops for energy, U.S. farmers have massively shifted their cultivation toward bio-fuel feed stocks, especially maize, often at the expense of soybean and wheat cultivation. About 30 percent of U.S. maize production will go into ethanol in 2008 rather than into world food and feed markets. Worldwide, ethanol accounts for around 5 percent of grain production, according to statistics from the Earth Policy Institute.
The spike in corn prices began with the Energy Security Act of 2005, which increased the goal for ethanol use in the U.S., and Hurricane Katrina. Replacing the gas additive MTBE also contributed.
Rising food prices have led to a sharp change in tone in the biofuels industry. In the U.S., a number of senators, including presidential candidate John McCain, have called for relaxing or suspending the ethanol mandates and subsidies that are fueling an industry boom. Rising demand for biofuels, used in both ethanol and biodiesel production, has pushed up prices of commodities such as corn and rapeseed. Around 30% of the United States' corn production will be used to produce biofuels by 2010.
Source: EarthTrends, 2007 using data from Earth Policy Institute, 2006.
What can be done?
Sound Policy Actions for the Short and
California laws have very high support for advanced biofuel development. The California Legislature urges the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to amend the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard to favor non-food crop biofuel. As a result, this would promote the development of advanced fuels by simply using grasses, wood, algae and other plants to make cellulosic ethanol. Because cellulose makes up nearly half of all plant biomass, cellulosic ethanol is considered the largest potential source of biofuel in the near future. This would eliminate the need to rely on other countries for fuel when the U.S. can establish their own industry. The positive externalities would be more jobs and less pollution in America. However, the process of converting plant-life into ethanol is much more difficult that it is for starch to become ethanol. Consumers may yet face exceedingly high prices for cellulosic ethanol from within U.S. borders.
Switching from the expensive oil to alternative fuels has moved from a dream to reality. Today, there are dozens of alternatives to oil that are currently available us to be used. One alternative to oil that is being used more today is ethanol. Derived from plant materials, ethanol can be a cheaper, cleaner alternative to the gasoline that our vehicles run off. When going to gas pumps, one will notice that much of the gasoline is up to 10 percent of ethanol. According to our text, most ethanol in the U.S. is made from corn, yet ethanol can be made from any biomes-- including garbage. (Turk & Bensel, 2011)
I believe this switch is vital to our future. With gasoline prices volatile and the Obama administration committed to easing the United States ' addiction to oil, many Americans seem to be taking more interest in pursuing alternative fuels. These alternative fuels include those derived from farm crops and other renewable organic sources. Among the most widely available are biodiesel and vegetable oil, both of which can be used to power a diesel engine.
The higher price of ethanol in many areas is made worse by ethanol’s second disadvantage that it, regardless of the price you pay for it, contains less fuel efficient energy than gasoline. In short, this means cars won’t travel as far on a tank of gas, and most cars fuel economy will decrease by 20-30 percent. This is very
4). When ethanol was first being produced, it could not survive on its own, so ethanol producers lobbied the government to pass the Energy Tax Act of 1978, which gave fuel blenders forty cents for each gallon of ethanol blended with gasoline (Corn Ethanol Subsidies par. 3). This bill was in effect until 2004, when the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC), which gave gasoline blenders fifty-one cents per gallon of ethanol blended, was enacted (Corn Ethanol Subsidies par. 3). In 2008, the Farm Bill reduced the subsidy to 45 cents per gallon of ethanol blended with gasoline (Corn Ethanol Subsidies par. 3). The ethanol industry also receives tax breaks such as The Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit, which provides a thirty percent tax break for gas stations that use biodiesel or 85 percent ethanol (E85) blender pumps (Federal Subsidies for Corn par. 3). These subsidies and tax breaks create artificial incentives for gasoline blenders and gas stations to use ethanol in their gas, all while rewarding ethanol producers and corn farmers with more money. These subsidies are harmful to taxpayers because these industries are fully matured and extremely prosperous, they do not need handouts that the consumers have to pay for. The ethanol industry also receives aid from the
Many go hungry because of the lack of access to food. Fruits and vegetables are not available because those farms are not subsidized, much of government funding goes towards bigger farms that produce wheat and other grains. The end result is making carb-based foods cheaper and easier to buy. The purpose of this is to explain the hunger crisis here in America, why the cost of certain foods is higher than others, and how to help the crisis.
That fuel source is called corn-ethanol, and a majority of people can see the main ingredient, which is, corn in America 's farm fields. Corn is grown annually and it does not take millions of years to reproduce. Oil is a fuel source that takes millions of years to reproduce. A biofuel is the process of taking any once living plant and abstracting the plant 's energy to make a fuel. People in America are supporting Biofuels, including corn-ethanol because it does not require oil. It also reduces green house gasses, which makes it better for the environment (Cassman 59). The common view of ethanol is that it is just a research project to make the environmentalists happy but that is not true. It has the potential to keep America 's economy rolling, supply a fuel source, and still feed livestock with its byproducts. The key to success as a country is to use what we already have an abundance of in this country. The evidence is all there for this argument many Americans just need to become educated about this topic. The main
As the revenue of developing countries goes up, the more meat and dairy they will eat. Therefore, the more crops needed to feed livestock. This also cuts down of the crops that can go towards food for the people. Since the demand for corn increases exponentially because of the demand for food and ethanol, the price of corn rises accordingly. Not only does the price of corn rise, but also anything that involves corn will rise. Anything from snacks, cereals, and even meat will experience a increase in cost just because the input costs of corn. In addition, ethanol contains less energy than oil, so this hurts the gas mileage of vehicles causing costumers to have to fill up their vehicles more
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), the ethanol business' entry add up to, guarantees that ethanol time manufactures the cost of corn by developing sales. The RFA claims that ethanol time has positive cash related impact for US ranchers, yet it doesn't illustrate the impact for different masses where field corn is a touch of the staple
Ethanol is a much cleaner burning source when compared to regular gasoline, which has been a hot media topic for some time now. Another positive that truly benefits everyone is the fact that it is also cheaper when compared to regular gas, much cheaper, ranging anywhere from 15 to 30 percent cheaper. To many consumers around the world this is actually a really big deal. While researching I was able to learn some pretty interesting facts about this product. According to fuelfreedom.org, Ethanol does in fact have less energy contents than gasoline, however I learned that the engine efficiency gains from ethanol likely means that E85 can cost less per mile to use (fuelfreedom.org). That’s not all, there are also other ways ethanol could potentially be better as well, and that is by creating thousands of new jobs. I learned that Iowa leads the nation in ethanol production having 47 percent (1.3 billion bushels) of the corn grown right there in Iowa, which goes to create roughly 30 percent of all American ethanol. The renewable fuels industry (including biodiesel) supports around 43,000 jobs in Iowa. Primarily this accounts for approximately $4.6 billion of Iowa’s GDP.(iowacorn.org). Another really hot topic that people love to debate is our planet. Well, Ethanol is also better for the environment. “Mother Nature is all about ethanol”. We were actually able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 41.2 million metric tons due to the 14.7 billion gallons of ethanol produced in 2015. To put that in perspective, that would be like removing 8.4 million cars from the road. On top of that ethanol production requires less water than gasoline, by a three to one margin (iowacorn.org). Next we can talk about how Ethanol is also good for energy security. I was able to read in a information article that, “Without 14.8 billion gallons of domestic ethanol used in the U.S. in 2015, the United
Fuel prices and food prices most often go hand in hand. In today’s “agribusiness”, fuel is a major source of production and distribution, from farm machinery, delivering operating supplies and necessities, to the end point, transporting to the consumer. During periods of high fuel costs, many companies add a fuel surcharge to their customer’s bills, thereby affecting the cost of the product to their customer and the price of the product to the consumer. Much of the local food movement is driven by the abundance of fuel necessary to feed the population, and is therefore becoming more prevalent in the food system.
Corn is a versatile crop, and that is why we grow so much of it. However, many people believe that corn should be used as a system and not as American agriculture. Due to this, people think this is the problem with food prices increase and causing hardship problems. I’m here to tell you the facts about corn ethanol is far more greater in negativity and that corn ethanol is being put into bad use.
Biotechnology helps reduce the price of crops used for food, such as corn, soybeans and sugar beets by as much as 15-30%. Mercaris, a market data researcher, found that 2013 prices for “non-GMO” corn averaged 51 cents per bushel higher than corn produced using biotechnology.
Food is the foundation of human live and people cannot survive without it. Food security is a vital issue facing the governments around the world. However, food shortage is becoming increasingly severe in this day and age. There are several reasons which led to the universal food shortage and they are interconnected to each other. Increasing world population, extreme weather and the wide spread use of biofuels are the main causes of worldwide shortage of food. These factors lead to food price rises rapidly.