ENVIRONMENTALISTS FUEL WORLD HUNGER

There have been food riots in Africa and, closer to home, in Haiti. The price of food has risen so much that many people in the third world can no longer afford to eat, hence the riots. And what has led to the high cost of food? The environmentalists are resonsible because they have successfully pushed legislation mandating the use of biofuels, primarily ethanol, in order to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

At the behest of environmental groups, backed by agricultural conglomerates, Congress passed the 2005 energy bill which mandated that 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel (mostly corn-based ethanol) must be added to the gasoline supply in 2006. That amount rises to 4.7 billion gallons for 2007 and 7.5 billion in 2012. These targets represent a large percentage increase in ethanol use but are still only a small fraction of the 140 billion gallons of gasoline that the U.S. currently uses every year.

The 2005 energy bill resulted in a demand for the use of corn to produce ethanol. This year, about 25 percent of our corn production will be used for biofuel. Next year it will be a third of our corn production. Because the biofuel industry is enriching corn growers, farmers are growing less corn for use as food and livestock feed. To cash in on the higher profits from supplying ethanol plants with corn, wheat farmers are now switching to the production of corn. That is why the world is facing a shortage of both wheat and corn.

These shortages have driven up the price of grains, with corn prices rising over 60 percent from 2005-07. Since most of our cattle, hogs and chickens are grain fed, and by factoring in the skyrocketing cost of fuel for transportation, the price of meat, milk and eggs has increased significantly. The price of cereals, bread and other grain related products has also increased to the extent that elderly Americans who subsist on fixed retirement incomes are now finding it exceedingly difficult to feed themselves adequately.

Will the change to ethanol and other biofuels reduce our dependence on fossil fuels? Not to any meaningful degree, according to a number of studies. Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency has found that plants which convert corn into the gasoline additive ethanol are releasing carbon monoxide, methanol and some carcinogens at levels "many times greater" than they promised. The EPA said the problem is common to "most, if not all, ethanol facilities." On top of that, a recent study from Stanford University suggests that pollution from ethanol could be even worse than from traditional gasoline.

Admittedly, part of the food shortage problem in Africa can be attributed to a severe drought which environmentalists, of course, blame on global warming. However, the main problem is that we have created a "food for fuel nightmare" which has reduced our export of grains while raising the price of corn, flour and other staples beyond the means of most Africans and Haitians to pay for them. The next time you see pictures from Africa of those starving skeletal children with their bloated bellies and bulging eyes, THINK AND BLAME ENVIRONMENTALISTS!