What are Notable Leaders Saying About Food-to-Fuel Mandates?

Academics

"Global demand for grains has been rising in recent years due to the strong global economic environment. However the primary catalyst for the rise in the price of corn (as well as other food inputs) has been ethanol production."- Bill Lapp, President, Advanced Economic Solutions

In a May 28, 2008 New York Times op-ed, Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen wrote: "Misdirected government policy plays a part here, too. In 2005, the United States Congress began to require widespread use of ethanol in motor fuels. This law combined with a subsidy for this use has created a flourishing corn market in the United States, but has also diverted agricultural resources from food to fuel. This makes it even harder for the hungry stomachs to compete. Ethanol use does little to prevent global warming and environmental deterioration, and clear-headed policy reforms could be urgently carried out, if American politics would permit it. Ethanol use could be curtailed, rather than being subsidized and enforced."

Jeffrey Sachs, the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University and a top adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said on May 5, 2008 that the U.S. biofuels program, the world's largest, represents a "huge blow to the world food supply."

"[I]f, all other things being equal, the prices of staple foods increased because of demand for biofuels . . . the number of food-insecure people in the world would rise by over 16 million for every percentage increase in the real prices of staple foods. That means that 1.2 billion people could be chronically hungry by 2025 — 600 million more than previously predicted." - University of Minnesota Professors C. Forde Runge and Benjamin Senauer

"The biofuels policy that is driving higher prices of corn, other grains, and soybeans will cost the U.S. economy more than $100 billion from 2006 to 2009." - Dr. Thomas Elam, President, FarmEcon LLC

Anti-Hunger Groups

"In light of the current hunger crisis, Congress must reexamine the policies that spur the conversion of food into fuel. The impact of corn-based ethanol on world hunger is especially clear."-Rev. David Beckmann, President, Bread for the World before Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

"The increased biofuel demand [from 2000-2007], compared with previous historical rates of growth, is estimated to have accounted for 30 percent of the increase in weighted average grain prices." -International Food Policy Research Institute, "Biofuels and Grain Prices: Impacts and Policy Responses"

"The drive for more biofuels means more investment is going into those crops, meaning less land and less investment going in for food crops, causing a massive conflict and resulting in rising prices, which is having a huge negative impact, especially on developing countries," -Clare Oxborrow, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth

Environmentalists

On January 24, 2008, Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute wrote: "We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before. The world is facing the most severe food price inflation in history as grain and soybean prices climb to all-time highs. Wheat trading on the Chicago Board of Trade on December 17th breached the $10 per bushel level for the first time ever. In mid-January, corn was trading over $5 per bushel, close to its historic high. And on January 11th, soybeans traded at $13.42 per bushel, the highest price ever recorded. All these prices are double those of a year or two ago. As a result, prices of food products made directly from these commodities such as bread, pasta, and tortillas, and those made indirectly, such as pork, poultry, beef, milk, and eggs, are everywhere on the rise. In Mexico, corn meal prices are up 60 percent. In Pakistan, flour prices have doubled. China is facing rampant food price inflation, some of the worst in decades."

"What we are saying is that growing biofuels is probably of no benefit and in fact is actually making the climate issue worse." -Kevin Smith, co-author of "N20 release from agro-biofuel production negates global warming reduction by replacing fossil fuels," published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

"I don’t know of any organization that believes ethanol is the sole cause of rising food prices, but it is very clearly a leading cause and the one cause that we can control. To suggest otherwise is a straw man argument being put forth by defenders of food-to-fuel policy. This is a serious issue and it should be taken seriously." -Ken Cook, Co-founder and President of the Environmental Working Group

"More and more, people are realizing that there are serious environmental and serious food security issues involved in biofuels. There is more to the environment than climate change," he said. "Climate change is the most pressing issue, but you cannot fight climate change by large deforestation in Indonesia." -Greenpeace biofuels expert Jan van Aken

Government Agencies and Think Tanks

In 2016, under a 16 billion gallon renewable fuel mandate, consumer food expenses would rise by $11.9 billion above the baseline level. - Global Insight, Winners and Losers of Increased Renewable Fuel Mandates: Agricultural Producers and U.S. Consumers, June 2007

Producers in much of the South cut back on rice area in 2007 because they could earn higher returns by planting alternative crops such as wheat, corn, sorghum and soybeans. -USDA’s Chief Economist, Joseph Glauber, before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

"Study results suggest that weather-reduced corn supplies confronted by a biofuels blending mandate would place severe pressures on the U.S. and global corn market- with the mandate in place, corn prices would increase to an eye-popping $8.62/bu compared with $7.28 without the mandate." -Congressional Research Service, May 6, 2008

"Between 2002 and 2007, the quantity of U.S. corn used to produce ethanol rose by 53 million metric tons. The accounted for 30 percent of the global growth in wheat and feed grains use." -USDA Economic Research Service, Robert Trostle, "Global Agricultural Supply and Demand: Factors Contributing to the Recent Increase in Food Commodity Prices"

"The concerns over "food versus food" are valid and increased RF mandates would result in disproportionately large increases in U.S. food costs." -Global Insight, "Winners and Losers of Increased Renewable Fuel Mandates: Agricultural Producers and U.S. Consumers," June 2007

Political Leaders

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R- Tex.) had an April 25, 2008 Op-Ed in Investor’s Business Daily called Undoing America's Ethanol Mistake. "When Congress passed legislation to greatly expand America's commitment to biofuels, it intended to create energy independence and protect the environment. But the results have been quite different. America remains equally dependent on foreign sources of energy, and new evidence suggests that ethanol is causing great harm to the environment… As a recent TIME cover story pointed out, biofuel mandates increase greenhouse gasses and create incentives for global deforestation. … Congress must take action. I am introducing legislation that will freeze the biofuel mandate at current levels, instead of steadily increasing it through 2022."

"...not all biofuels are created equally, and my objection is to biofuels that are created with food. I think food should go into someone's belly and not into someone's gas tank," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), on CNN’s American Morning.

Speaking at the inaugural World Science Festival on May 28, 2008, New York City Mayor Bloomberg said: For years, politicians have hailed corn ethanol as the answer to climate change. It was all so simple. Instead of requiring fuel efficiency, or funding mass transit, we could have our cake, or in this case corn, and drive cars with it too, and, in the process, divert millions of tax dollars a year to farm states. The only problem was this policy wasn’t based on science. For years, research has questioned the environmental benefits of corn ethanol, and now widespread production of corn ethanol has turned out to be an environmental and economic calamity. It not only imperils the world’s climate by encouraging the widespread destruction of climate-crucial forests and wetlands, but also drives up the cost of one the world’s most important cereal crops.

"That is far too late for the urgency of this problem," said Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.) on May 1, 2008, who along with Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) has asked Bush for at least $550 million in emergency food aid now. "If you're hungry and your government is collapsing, waiting until December 2008 or January 2009 for food to hit the ground is just too late." Sen. Richard Durbin was also quoted in The Hill as saying, "I’ve supported ethanol from the beginning. The object of having homegrown fuel in America is a good goal, and it’s one we’re moving toward ever so slowly. But we have to understand it’s had an impact on food prices. Even in the Corn Belt, we’d better be honest about it."

On the May 4, 2008 edition of NBC's "Meet the Press," Democrat Barack Obama said the federal government might need to rethink its support for corn ethanol because of rising food prices, "And what I've said is, my top priority is making sure people are able to get enough to eat. If it turns out we need to make changes in our ethanol policy to help people get something to eat, that has got to be the step we take," said Obama, (D-IL), "We have rising food prices around the United States. In other countries, we're seeing riots because of the lack of food supply, so this is something we're going to have to deal with," he said.

In an open letter to the EPA signed by 24 U.S. Senators, including Republican presidential Candidate John McCain (R-AZ), the Senators wrote: "Although many factors may contribute to high food costs, food-to-fuel mandates are the only factors that can be reconsidered in light of current circumstances… American families are feeling the strain of these food-to-fuel mandates in the grocery aisle and are growing concerned about the emerging environmental concerns of growing corn-based ethanol."

The Media

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed on May 18, 2007, Kimberley A. Strassel, a member of the Journal’s editorial board said: "Just as the smart people warned, the government's decision to play energy market God and forcibly divert huge amounts of corn stocks into ethanol has played havoc with key sectors of the economy. Corn prices have nearly doubled, which means livestock owners can't afford to feed their animals, and food and drink manufacturers are struggling to buy corn and corn syrup. Environmentalists are sour over new stresses on farmland; international aid groups are moaning that the U.S. is cutting back its charitable food giving, and many of these folks are taking out their anger on Congress."

A Wall Street Journal editorial on May 7, 2008 said: "To create just one gallon of fuel, ethanol slurps up 1,700 gallons of water, according to Cornell's David Pimentel, and 51 cents of tax credits. And it still can't compete against oil without a protective 54-cents-per-gallon tariff on imports and a federal mandate that forces it into our gas tanks. The record 30 million acres the U.S. will devote to ethanol production this year will consume almost a third of America's corn crop while yielding fuel amounting to less than 3% of petroleum consumption."

"The time has come for Congress to rethink ethanol…specifically it is time to end an outdated tax break for corn ethanol and to call a timeout in the fivefold increase in ethanol production mandated in the 2007 energy bill."-New York Times, Editorial, May 11, 2008

World Leaders

On April 5, 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said: "We need to be concerned about the possibility of taking land or replacing arable land because of these biofuels."

Global food prices for staples like wheat and rice have surged recently, causing hunger, riots and hoarding in poor countries. The trend is typically blamed on a combination of factors like higher food consumption in fast growing economies like China, and on bad weather that has hit crops. But a global push to ramp up ethanol production is also seen pushing prices higher, and World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on May 7, 2008 that the United States should take this into account. "The country has to assess the effect of that on the overall set of humanitarian issues in terms of the price of food products," Zoellick told a news conference in Mexico City.

On April 22, 2008, ahead of a UK summit on the world food crisis, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "Now we know that biofuels, intended to promote energy independence and combat climate change, are frequently energy inefficient. We need to look closely at the impact on food prices and the environment of different production methods and to ensure we are more selective in our support."

On October 26, 2007 Jean Ziegler, the United Nations' independent expert on the right to food, called the growing practice of converting food crops into biofuel "a crime against humanity,'' saying it is creating food shortages and price jumps that cause millions of poor people to go hungry. Ziegler called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production to halt what he called a growing "catastrophe'' for the poor.

"We should be very, very careful about coming up with biofuel solutions that have major impact on production of food grains and may have an implication for overall food security," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

"Rising biofuel production in the United States and the European Union has boosted demand for corn, rapeseed oil, and other grains and edible oils. Although biofuels still account for only 1½ percent of the global liquid fuels supply, they accounted for almost half the increase in the consumption of major food crops in 2006–07, mostly because of corn-based ethanol produced in the United States. Biofuel demand has propelled the prices not only for corn, but also for other grains, meat, poultry, and dairy through cost-push and crop and demand substitution effects." -World Economic Outlook, April 2008. International Monetary Fund

"Almost all of the increase in global maize production from 2004 to 2007 (the period when grain prices rose sharply) went for bio-fuels production in the U.S., while existing stocks were depleted by an increase in global consumption for other uses. Other developments, such as droughts in Australia and poor crops in the E.U. and Ukraine in 2006 and 2007, were largely offset by good crops and increased exports in other countries and would not, on their own, have had a significant impact on prices. Only a relatively small share of the increase in food production prices (around 15%) is due directly to higher energy and fertilizer costs."-World Bank, "Rising Food Prices: Policy Options and World Bank Response,"

"By abandoning them (biofuel targets), we would send a strong signal to the markets that the price of food crops will not infinitely rise, thus discouraging speculation on commodity futures…I have therefore proposed a freeze on all new investments and subsidies favouring the production of fuel by growing crops on arable and non-degraded lands, when such lands are suitable for the production of food crops." -UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter