Comments by a United Nations official have cranked up the decibel level on the food versus fuel debate.
Jean Ziegler, the UN’s expert on the right to food, called for a five-year moratorium on grain-based ethanol production because it is taking food out of the mouths of starving people.
He said the transformation of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of corn, wheat and palm oil into fuel has been “absolutely catastrophic” for the world’s hungry people.
In just one year, world wheat prices have doubled and corn prices have quadrupled. That means 33 African nations forced to buy their food on the world market must cut back their purchases resulting in more starvation and malnutrition.
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“It is a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into soil which produces food stuff that will be burned into biofuel,” Ziegler told reporters in New York during an Oct. 26 news conference.
Those provocative words triggered a terse response from North America’s biofuel industry.
“Genocide is a crime against humanity. War crimes are a crime against humanity. Any act of persecution to a large scale of people is a crime against humanity. Finding solutions to a global energy problem while continuing to provide food to the world is not a crime against humanity,” said U.S. National Corn Growers Association chief executive officer Rick Tolman.
He said it is a travesty when a public official makes statements that are irresponsible, inaccurate and inappropriately damning.
“If this is an example of how Mr. Ziegler carries out his responsibilities he should resign his post immediately. Hunger is not something to trifle with and those in positions of responsibility need to be accountable in their statements.”
Robin Speer, director of public affairs with the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, had a similar reaction to Ziegler’s remarks.
“It’s very unfortunate because it is irrational. He’s completely wrong.”
Speer said the surge in commodity prices has done more good than harm in the developing world.
The U.S. treasury saved more than $6 billion in corn subsidies in 2007, which means farmers in the developing world are no longer competing with heavily subsidized product.
Biofuel is the only way to keep high oil prices in check, which has been an impediment to development in third world countries.
Speer noted that a byproduct of grain-based ethanol is dried distillers grain, a significant feed source for the livestock industry, so it is false to assert that the biofuel industry is ridding the world of important food crops.
“Ethanol does not take protein, fibre or fat from the food supply. It simply takes the starch from the grain,” he said.
But according to Ziegler, continued biofuel production will exacerbate the problem in which one out of every six people inhabiting the globe, are “gravely, permanently undernourished.”
An estimated 100,000 people die from hunger or its consequences every day, including one child every five seconds. Instead of continuing to convert food crops into fuel, Ziegler proposed waiting until cellulose ethanol becomes a commercial reality.
“The scientific research is progressing very quickly and in five years it will be possible to make pure fuel and pure diesel from agricultural waste,” he said.
Tolman said there is no need to wait because expanding corn acreage and better yields will ensure there is enough to meet the needs of global hunger, offset petroleum use and provide feed for livestock.
Speer said Canada’s ethanol industry is expected to consume 472,000 tonnes or just over two percent of this year’s estimated 20.6 million tonne wheat crop.
“Canada is still going to be a massive wheat exporter,” he said.
The amount of wheat consumed by the ethanol industry is sure to grow, but crop breeders are developing higher-yielding, high-starch lines of wheat for industrial purposes and once GM wheat is approved it will also contribute to increased supply, said Speer.
