WASHINGTON, June 23, 2016 - The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) says it
is
satisfied with a report finding that biofuels from crops do not harm fuel
supplies. The report, Reconciling
food security and bioenergy: priorities for action, was funded by the Energy
Department, the World Bank and other groups, and recently published in the
journal Global
Change Biology Bioenergy.
“This report should end the debate with those that continue
to perpetuate the outdated and inaccurate ‘food versus fuel’ myth. There is
clearly more than enough corn to feed and fuel the world,” says RFA President
and CEO Bob Dinneen
The expansion of ethanol production in the U.S. and Brazil
occurring in tandem with a global price spike in food and commodities in
2007–2008 led many to argue that a causal relationship exists between biofuels
expansion and food insecurity. The report, however, says there are problems
with that claim.
The researchers say that many studies attribute the food
price spikes in 2008 primarily to other factors, such as oil prices, economic
growth, currency exchange rates and trade policies. Speculation in food
commodities also contributed to price spikes in 2008 and 2011, the researchers
say, and correlations did not persist as global biofuel consumption continued
to grow and cereal prices fell or showed distinct patterns over the last six
years, driven by oil price, national agricultural policies and exchange rates.
The report notes that while drought in the U.S. in 2012 caused
some ethanol plants to reduce output or temporarily shut, due in part to the
ethanol “supply cushion” and market flexibility, there was not a notable jump
in commodity prices as the 2012–2013 crop was harvested, despite the drought
affecting 80 percent of U.S. agricultural land.
“These findings reflect what many in the academic community
and biofuels sector have been saying for some time — there is no meaningful
relationship between growth in biofuels production and food security or food
prices,” says Dinneen. “U.S. farmers have produced the three largest corn crops
in history in the last three years and global grain supplies are at record
levels. More grain is available for food and feed use globally today than ever
before. Further, one-third of every bushel of grain that enters the ethanol
process is enhanced and returned to the feed market in the form of protein-rich
distillers grains.”
The report concludes that “bioenergy can contribute to
improved food security through production systems designed to increase
adaptability and resilience of human populations at risk and to reduce
context-specific vulnerabilities that could limit access to local staples and
required nutrients in times of crisis.”
To view the report, click here.
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