Earth Equity News

Corn Ethanol: One Thing We Can Do Something About. By Andrew Martin, NYTimes, April 15, 2008. "At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with [food] price spikes, [with] several [demanding] a reconsideration of biofuel policies... While there is agreement that the growth of biofuels has contributed to higher food prices, the amount is disputed. Work by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington suggests that biofuel production accounts for a quarter to a third of the recent increase in global commodity prices... [But] ethanol supporters maintain that any increase caused by biofuels is relatively small... [and] support [in the U.S. Congress] remains solid... Rep. Jim McGovern, D-MA, said he had come to realize that Congress made a mistake... [and] need[s] to reconsider its [biofuel] policy, though he acknowledged [a reversal at this point] would be difficult... C. Ford Runge [of] the University of Minnesota... [While] little... could be done, [he said,] to mitigate the effect of droughts and the growing appetite for protein in developing countries, 'ethanol is the one thing we can do something about'... [Stopping ethanol subsidies is] about the only lever we have to pull, but none of the politicians have the courage to pull [it].'"