July 05, 2008
Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis
Aditya Chakrabortty in The Guardian:
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.
More here.
Posted by Abbas Raza at 11:16 PM | Permalink
Comments
The World Bank and IMF have wrought havoc on the economies controlled by their presence.
Politics al over shared the concupiscence of hunger and poverty with them.
So what's news?
Posted by: Felix E F Larocca MD | Jul 6, 2008 4:53:22 AM
Felix, I was thinking more along the line of "people don't know how to separate resource prices from the price per usage, a conflation which causes the over-use of things which could otherwise be used to actually solve problems. What's new?"
At least it means less high fructose corn syrup in my food, though.
Posted by: Damien | Jul 6, 2008 1:48:47 PM
Less HFCS the better! Not only have I long banned them from my family's food supply (like TFAs) but i am in the depressing position of being accurate about my predictions.
Sadly, though, "they" knew this was coming; if a dolt like me could see this with my basic knowledge of econ and ADM/capitalistic price-fixing, then they knew,
AND JUST DIDN"T CARE!
Posted by: missvolare | Jul 6, 2008 2:41:25 PM
No HFCS at all! would be a better choice, Damien. What I was referring to was to the fact that it was during Richard M Nixon's times when the high fructose corn syrup was introduced by Earl Butz, and it acquired a life of its own thanks at that enemy of the American People the Dept of Agriculture.
The rest is history.
For a good and entertainig read:
Fat Land by Greg Critser.
Posted by: Felix E F Larocca MD | Jul 6, 2008 8:44:39 PM
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
I think it would more tend to embarrass Barack Obama -- who is from Illinois, which is a corn state, a corn-ethanol producing state, and home state of Archer Daniels Midland:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/2/2/52324/18981
Obama is on record as a strong supporter of the corn ethanol program.
Posted by: Slocum | Jul 7, 2008 3:52:06 PM
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