A new report from the International Monetary Fund estimates that biofuels are responsible for as much as 30% of the global food shortage. Despite this fact, at the United Nation's emergency food summit in Rome, USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Edward Schafer, defended the U.S. government's decision to spend billions of dollars subsidizing corn and soybean-based ethanol and biofuel, falsely claiming that biofuels contributed only 2% to 3% of the overall increase in global food prices over the past year. According to USDA spokesman, Jim Brownlee, Mr. Schafer was unaware that his statistics were off by nearly 90%.
Myths and Facts about Biofuels
I suspect that estimates may differ, and I don't think this question has been definitively answered, but I do oppose subsidizing biofuels. I suppose we'll see about the effect they have on food prices in a few years when we have better data, but the other detriments are enough to convince me for now.
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