Bob McCarty Writes

Today marks a rare occasion when I find myself in agreement with anything touted by hard-core environmentalists like Lester Brown, Ken Cook and Jonathan Lewis.

I find myself in partial agreement with the men from “Greenville,” all of whom were invited by the Grocery Manufacturers Association to come to share their views on biofuels with reporters.

During the opportunity, the trio called attention to the serious consequences of Congressional food-to-fuel mandates on the environment, world hunger and American consumers. They also urged Congress to revisit these policies.

They argued that in the rush to find a “homegrown” solution to global warming, the United States ignored the unintended consequences of such policies. The biofuel boom, they explained, has led to increased environmental damage in the form of pollution from coal-fired ethanol refineries, runoff from fertilizer and rapid deforestation in the developing world as farmers rush to take advantage of high commodity prices.

“Congressional biofuel mandates were meant to help reduce the carbon dioxide emissions associated with gasoline consumption,” said Lewis of the Clean Air Task Force. “However, recent studies show that this well-intentioned policy has actually led to greater environmental challenges, including a net increase in carbon emissions from deforestation.”

Food-to-fuel mandates are also having an inflationary effect on food prices, according to Cook of the Environmental Working Group, and they have the potential to prove a major setback to organic farming.

“With over a quarter of American corn being diverted to ethanol production, food prices have been rising at twice the pace of overall inflation,” Cook added. “At that rate, many farmers will opt out of organic agriculture, seeking instead to maximize chemically-intensive conventional production.

The three experts argued that a “flying-blind” approach to U.S. biofuel policy has played a role in recent global strife.

“This Earth Day, it is imperative that we examine the effects our so-called environmental ‘solutions’ are having on vulnerable ecosystems and populations,” said Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute. “As we are rushing to fill our fuel tanks with corn, we are affecting the global price of food and contributing to the destruction of the forests and other vital natural systems we meant to protect. Misguided biofuel mandates are actually exacerbating environmental harms and causing human suffering while failing to truly deliver energy independence,” said Brown.

The panelists also called on Congress to put added emphasis on developing cellulosic fuels that are derived from plant-waste, switchgrass, and other non-food stock.

Lewis noted, “The environment, American consumers, and vulnerable populations around the world need Congress to revisit these food-to-fuel mandates immediately. Our policies to fight climate change shouldn’t make winning that fight more difficult.”

Source: Grocery Manufacturers Association (See This Earth Day, an Unlikely Foe: Biofuels, 4-17-08)

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