Global Food Crisis: The Struggle Between Biofuel and Famine

In a previous entry entitled, "Redirecting India's Economy: Shifting Dependence from a Service-Based Economy," I explored the blogosphere to discover the new developments in India being debated while leaving my personal comments and questions to contribute to the discourse. This week, I have decided to blog about the intensifying topic of the global food crisis (see graphic, right) that is making headlines across the world. The major debate takes place as an international financial crisis has led to rising commodity prices, which have inflated food prices to levels unaffordable for the rural poor in underdeveloped countries that exist on less than $1 a day. To better understand the gravity of this situation, statistics report that the world experienced a 181% increase in global wheat prices with a 83% rise in overall global food prices over the thirty six months leading up to February 2008. In fact, the World Bank is meeting today to discuss an international plan proposed to reduce hunger by providing food aid to desperate people. Meanwhile, more economists are pointing to the surge in biofuel production as the principle, preventable culprit in rising food costs. In an effort to combat global warming, biofuel has become big business in countries looking to reduce their dependence on foreign oil. Incentives through government subsidies have sparked the allocation of domestic agriculture towards the production of biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel. The tradeoff of utilizing the crop for fuel instead of its traditional purpose as a food source has contributed to the higher global food prices, which have resulted in violent protests from Brazil to Egypt. As a daily reader of international news that analyzes the effects of events on the BRIC nations, I became attracted to this debate and chose to offer my personal thoughts on two highly regarded blogs. The first post I commented on, Biofuels: A Threat and a Cause of World Hunger is written by Maggie Thornton, a professional journalist who produces daily entries on the Maggie's Notebook blog. While she only addresses biofuel production as the root problem to world famine, I found a second external post entitled, Left’s Favorite Economist Paul Krugman: Biofuels Are A Scam, which provides a diversified set of reasons that have created this global hunger. Published by Iraq war veteran, Pat Dollard, on the Pat Dollard blog, this entry originates from an excerpt taken from an opinions article written by the reputable economist, Paul Krugman, of the New York Times. In addition to publishing my comments directly on the authors’ respective blogs, I have also posted these comments below.

"Biofuels: A Threat and a Cause of World Hunger"
Comment:
Thank you for a concisely constructed post on the evil effects of biofuel production on global famine. You clearly have conducted extensive research and gathered relevant quotes to support your argument against biofuels. I believe the unique structure of your entry, which incorporates passages from various secondary sources, is an effective method to engage your readers. By providing extracts from these external websites, which you justify and support with your own opinion, the readers are presented with a multitude of viewpoints on which they can accept or reject on their own discretion. For example, you take excellent snippets of information from the NY Times and the UK Telegraph which validate the credibility in your underlying argument. Having read other articles regarding this topic, I was pleasantly surprised to witness a fellow blogger lambasting an American biodiesel company and the hypocrisy of former vice president, Al Gore. I agree with your remark that in both cases, it is all about the money. Despite asserting to be an environmentally friendly company and compensating his own carbon footstep by unscrupulously purchasing carbon credits respectively, you accurately disprove their illegitimate claims. Given the ulterior motive of money that seems to be a common theme amongst governments and politicians around the world, what do you think should be done to provide greater transparency in political decision making? It is a sad reality that most Americans are not even aware of the negative effects of biofuel production (see image, left), such as starvation in developing countries, which is why I am glad that this crisis has found itself in the headlines of news media around the world lately. Overall, this is a strong post that addresses critical issues, but could benefit from the following suggestion. Although your first excerpt from the NY Times does mention both rising energy costs and a growing middle class in India and China as forces accounting for increasing food prices, you did not personally elaborate on these alternative causes nor did you consider any additional reasons, such as droughts and poor political policies. I feel your post could have been even stronger if you identified these factors, instead of solely focusing on biofuel production as the primary culprit. At this point in time, do you think it is more important to reduce reliance on foreign oil through biofuel subsidies or prioritize the same agricultural land for food consumption needs to prevent future global famines?

"Left’s Favorite Economist Paul Krugman: Biofuels Are A Scam"
Comment:
I would like to thank you for your clear cut analysis regarding the current world hunger crisis. This topic is a emerging global dilemma that has caught my interest in the past couple of weeks. I had not previously considered the "biofuel scam," which critics blame for the starvation that is currently plaguing the world, until I came across your well construed post. As evidence from the article's persuasive tone, I firmly believe your ability to exude charisma through your prose is a quality trait that distinguishes you as a successful writer from others. In terms of the context, I also concur with the four key causes of this global emergency: the increased demand in emerging markets, high oil prices, bad weather, and most importantly, the rise in subsidized biofuel production. While I believe the facts and statistics that you incorporated in your entry are necessary elements, some of them are not well supported and seem a bit deceiving. For example, you claim that Brazil's use of ethanol from sugar cane actually "accelerates the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation." Even though ethanol production in Brazil may be indirectly related to global warming due to deforestation, you do not provide any empirical evidence supporting your assertion. How can you be so sure that Brazil's ethanol initiatives contribute more to global warming, rather than serving their intended objective of abating it? Although I understand the logic behind your statements, you lack well supported facts that would make your argument much more plausible. By integrating more numerical statistics throughout your entry that are linked to external sources, I am certain your work will become even more solid than it already is. Aside from my suggestions, I have much more to gain than criticize about this topic, such as learning about the shrinking of precautionary grain inventories. In response to this current food shortage, what are your thoughts on implementing mandatory grain reserves in the supplier countries to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future? Lastly, I admire your initiative in providing valid solutions in your closing remarks, as I too, hope to see a pushback against biofuel to ensure that no human has to starve to death because of excessively inflated food prices.