It’s bad enough that corn is grown for ethanol, but cassava? Many populations depend on cassava for food.
According to today’s New York Times, cassava is the new “go to” crop to burn for fuel. Doing this, of course, prices cassava beyond what people can afford:
It can be tricky predicting how new demand from the biofuel sector will affect the supply and price of food. Sometimes, as with corn or cassava, direct competition between purchasers drives up the prices of biofuel ingredients. In other instances, shortages and price inflation occur because farmers who formerly grew crops like vegetables for consumption plant different crops that can be used for fuel.
The Times graph of the increase in use of food for biofuel is sobering:
New York Times, April 7, 2011
The rise in food prices has stopped temporarily, but prices are still an astonishing 37% higher than a year ago, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
None of this makes sense to me. We need a sensible food policy and a sensible energy policy.
I am honored (hugely) to be the recipient of the 2023 Edinburgh Medal, at which I give a speech as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival. My talk, “Food Politics: Why it Matters Now” is at 7:00 p.m. Information about the Science Festival is here. A Tweet announcing my award is here.