Corn: Fuel or food?
February 08, 2007: The number of hungry people worldwide could grow
by more than 50 percent by 2020 (13 years from now), as corn, sugar
and other food staples are increasingly devoted to making fuel here
and abroad, according to the projections by C. Ford Runge and
Benjamin Senauer. They believe the ranks of the world's hungry will
rise to 1.27 billion people by 2020. This winter's imposition of
tortilla price controls in Mexico in an attempt to quell unrest is
an early indication of the consequences of food price shocks, the
two write.
From September 2005 through August 2006, the USDA reported 1.6
billion bushes of corn went to U.S. ethanol plants, or 15 percent of
the crop.
But some 73 more plants are under construction, or an increase of
two-thirds in less than two years when the new facilities come
online by 2008. Feeding those plants will raise total ethanol
demand, "requiring 35 percent of the total corn crop even in a good
harvest," they write.
Meanwhile, 82 low-income countries already suffer "food deficits,"
by U.N. measures, even before the effects of food-to-fuel take hold.
[2]
Average U.S. farm prices increased by 15 percent in 2006,
Agriculture Department data show. The cost of buying corn farms in
Argentina , the world's second-largest exporter of the grain, jumped
27 percent, according to Buenos Aires industry newsletter Margenes
Agropecuarios.
Less Farmland
The rally is helped by a reduction in the number of acres available
for planting. About 5 million to 8 million hectares of the world's
total of 1.5 billion (3.7 billion acres) of farmland goes fallow
each year because of deteriorating quality, according to the
Worldwatch Institute in Washington, which does research on food
production. Crop land also is lost because of development and lack
of irrigation, the institute said. U.S. farmland declined by 9.6
million acres, or 2.8 percent, in the two decades ending in 2001.[1]
1.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/newspid=20601109&sid=a4C7n_GCfjYw&refer
=home
2. http://www.startribune.com/535/story/977495.html
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NEWSLETTER has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this
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originator.)
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February 08, 2007: The number of hungry people worldwide could grow
by more than 50 percent by 2020 (13 years from now), as corn, sugar
and other food staples are increasingly devoted to making fuel here
and abroad, according to the projections by C. Ford Runge and
Benjamin Senauer. They believe the ranks of the world's hungry will
rise to 1.27 billion people by 2020. This winter's imposition of
tortilla price controls in Mexico in an attempt to quell unrest is
an early indication of the consequences of food price shocks, the
two write.
From September 2005 through August 2006, the USDA reported 1.6
billion bushes of corn went to U.S. ethanol plants, or 15 percent of
the crop.
But some 73 more plants are under construction, or an increase of
two-thirds in less than two years when the new facilities come
online by 2008. Feeding those plants will raise total ethanol
demand, "requiring 35 percent of the total corn crop even in a good
harvest," they write.
Meanwhile, 82 low-income countries already suffer "food deficits,"
by U.N. measures, even before the effects of food-to-fuel take hold.
[2]
Average U.S. farm prices increased by 15 percent in 2006,
Agriculture Department data show. The cost of buying corn farms in
Argentina , the world's second-largest exporter of the grain, jumped
27 percent, according to Buenos Aires industry newsletter Margenes
Agropecuarios.
Less Farmland
The rally is helped by a reduction in the number of acres available
for planting. About 5 million to 8 million hectares of the world's
total of 1.5 billion (3.7 billion acres) of farmland goes fallow
each year because of deteriorating quality, according to the
Worldwatch Institute in Washington, which does research on food
production. Crop land also is lost because of development and lack
of irrigation, the institute said. U.S. farmland declined by 9.6
million acres, or 2.8 percent, in the two decades ending in 2001.[1]
1.
http://www.bloomber
=home
2. http://www.startrib
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit for research and educational purposes. MY
NEWSLETTER has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this
article nor is MY NEWSLETTER endorsed or sponsored by the
originator.)
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my book, http://groups.
http://groups.
and http://groups.
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