Burning Food Increases Starvation, Worldwide

WOW, ya think that would do it? Since 2007 the price of food around the world has just about doubled.

Bad harvests, inflation, or George Bush didn't cause this price increase. According to a secret report from the World Bank, reported in the UK's Guardian, 75% of the increase in price has one source: "Biofuels." This contrasts with US claims of only a 3% biofuels-caused increase. The World Bank also says that rising food prices have pushed 100 million people worldwide below the poverty line. Riots have been sparked from Bangladesh to Egypt.

Where is the outrage? Where are the MSNBC stories on food riots? Where is Sean Penn?

The Holy Grail of the Left in recent years is Climate Disruption (formerly known as Global Warming and Climate Change). Much ink has been spilled and much airtime has been devoted to pushing the Green Agenda. Legislation has been passed in the US, Europe and other places to address this so-called crisis. Incandescent bulbs have been banned, and mercury laden CFLs required. Coal-fired power plants are shuttered, raising the price of energy. Vast oil fields are placed off limits. "Cap and Trade" rules threaten our already reeling economy. Among other measures, Congress mandates that gasoline contain 10% by volume of ethanol. As a result, the US is currently burning about 25% of its corn crop as fuel. Government subsidies and mandates work quite well at converting food into fuel, thus reducing the amount of food. As anyone with more than a room temperature IQ knows, less of something results in higher prices. Hungry people? Pssh! Saving the planet takes precedence.

American Thinker has the rest here:

Biofuels Driving Up Food Costs 75%

I have pointed out for some time now that so-called biofuels are an environmental and economic disaster. A huge hoax, a copmpletely ineffecient use of energy. How do I know, look at the prices, ethanol costs about $4.56 a gallon, about the same for biodiesel.

Now The Guardian, of all places, reports on a leaked report they have obtained. The report, from the World Bank, says that the biofuels craze has driven the cost of food up by 75%.

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.

When the pilot program went bad

Everyone knows going too fast can be as bad, if not worse, than going too slow. But when talking biofuels, and unproven industry, it's best to go slow.

Bush had a pilot program, but that wasn't good enough. We had to have massive production now -- It's the Democrat Marxists in Congress and the European Socialist who are behind this scheme to cripple western economies and leave the people in shackles. The White House had an exploratory pilot program, before the Democrats decided to push it further and blame the white House. The White House was on the 'switch grass' kick, if you recall, fuel from waste grasslands, like ANWR. And there is the pièce de résistance ...

"It is clear that some biofuels have huge impacts on food prices," said Dr David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser, last night. "All we are doing by supporting these is subsidising higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle climate change."

Yes that is exactly what is happening. The whole notion that using more energy, getting less fuel mileage, and driving up food costs is good, only a liberal could understand that twisted logic in that.

Oh yeah I forgot, pay more in taxes so the government can pretend to control the weather. I suppose they will also include 'pretend to control the sun' because without that it's going to get really cold, soon.

The world is sick, so says Harry Reid, indeed there is a sickness, and Harry Reid and his cohorts are behind the whole scam.

Energy use has allowed man to increase lifespan and a whole host of life enhancing discoveries have evolved from energy use. Modern life is dependent on oil and other fossil fuels, mostly because the anti-nuclear crowd won't allow nuclear power plants, there is no known substitute.

Ethanol Vehicles for Post Office Burn More Gas, Get Fewer Miles

The U.S. Postal Service purchased more than 30,000 ethanol-capable trucks and minivans from 1999 to 2005, making it the biggest American buyer of alternative-fuel vehicles. Gasoline consumption jumped by more than 1.5 million gallons as a result.

So isn't this the wrong way, gas consumption is up?

``You're getting fewer miles per gallon, and it's costing us more,'' Walt O'Tormey, the Postal Service's Washington-based vice president of engineering, said in an interview. The agency may buy electric vehicles instead, he said.

Yes, that's what people say, about 30% less mpg, thanks for checking that out on the taxpayers dime. A suggestion, next time, why not buy just one, and run some tests -- Did you have to buy 30,000 just because you could?

The experience shows how the U.S. push for crop-based fuels, already contributing to the highest rate of food inflation in 17 years, may not be achieving its goal of reducing gasoline consumption. Lawmakers are seeking caps on the use of biofuels after last year's 40 percent jump in world food prices, calling the U.S. policy flawed.

Yaw think, why is that? Drives up both food and energy costs, isn't that what the Democrat Socialists want?

``Using food for fuel has created some unintended consequences: food shortages, the high price of livestock feed,'' said Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican. ``I think it's leading a lot of people to wonder whether our corn-based ethanol goals need to be adjusted.''

Stimulating Demand

Lost in the debate over the fuel's contribution to food scarcity is the possibility that the ethanol policy itself isn't working, said David Just, an associate professor of economics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It may stimulate demand by making gas cheaper, he said, an argument supported by at least two U.S. government studies.

Really, what was your first clue? Could it be that ethanol is a lousy fuel, that's why Henry Ford switched to gasoline, helps to know your history. Yes, a similar path was taken with diesel, it was first peanut oil, but the refining and use showed how much superior oil was, so the biodiesel was dropped. Why do we think it's any different today?

The Energy Independence and Security Act, passed in December, called for ethanol production to more than double to 15 billion gallons in 2015 from 6.5 billion last year. The U.S. pays oil refiners like Exxon Mobil Corp. 51 cents in tax refunds for each gallon of ethanol they blend into regular gasoline. Automakers get extra credit toward federal fuel-efficiency standards for models that can run on ethanol.

One tankful is all you will need, then you too will know that miles per gallon goes substantially down, while paying the same price or higher for fuel. Sound like a good deal to you?

Original URL

European Leftists To Do U-Turn ?

Disastrous stupid policy in the first place, to lead the world in showing they support the hoax

The European commission is backing away from its insistence on imposing a compulsory 10% quota of biofuels in all petrol and diesel by 2020, a central plank of its programme to lead the world in combating climate change.

Burning food is a dumb idea, the last to figure that out will be the leftists in the US Congress.

... they invent phony wars on objects, conditions, institutions, thought, diseases, and all manner of silly things. These are not wars. These are challenges and tasks. Assuming they are even real, and not merely political inventions. ..... Pat Dollard

Watch the video at Pat's site.

Liberals Never Think Anything Through

Liberals are driven by pure emotion. We have to act now, panic people, don't let anything get in their way. OK, they got their way with biofuels so now what? If we wanted energy independence, why would burning food and deforesting the planet be the path you would choose. Why not just drill for oil in areas we have yet to do so. To think mankind will replace oil in the next 100 years is foolish, absurd to the end. The answer is because they are liberals, and liberals cannot think things through.

Like with DDT before, this has the potential to be another bad decision, resulting in many deaths worldwide. I doubt it will top the 30 million who died for lack of DDT, but it could. What if the cold winters cause crop failures?

Global food price rises are leading to "silent mass murder" and commodities markets have brought "horror" to the world, the United Nations' food envoy told an Austrian newspaper on Sunday.

Jean Ziegler, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, told Kurier am Sonntag that growth in biofuels, speculation on commodities markets and European Union export subsidies mean the West is responsible for mass starvation in poorer countries.

Ziegler said he was bound to highlight the "madness" of people who think that hunger is down to fate.

"Hunger has not been down to fate for a long time -- just as (Karl) Marx thought. It is rather that a murder is behind every victim. This is silent mass murder," he said in an interview.

Ziegler blamed globalisation for "monopolising the riches of the earth" and said multinationals were responsible for a type of "structural violence".

"And we have a herd of market traders, speculators and financial bandits who have turned wild and constructed a world of inequality and horror. We have to put a stop to this," he said.

Ziegler said he believed that one day starving people could rise up against their persecutors. "It's just as possible as the French Revolution was," he said.

There is only so much food available on Planet Earth, and the population has grown to the point where the amount of food roughly equals the amount of people needing it. Change that balance and disaster awaits.

source.

Liberal Ignorance on Basic Economics Causing Hunger Crisis

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) admitted that some of his colleagues “had come to realize that Congress made a mistake in backing biofuels, not anticipating the impact on food costs.” He went on to say: “If there was a secret vote, there is a pretty large number of people who would like to reassess what we are doing.”

Liberals are basically stupid, they avoid reality and impose their own weird version. President Bush had a policy of 'try before you buy' limited testing, but that wasn't good enough for Liberals, they wanted full production, now. Who will tell the world's poor?

More here.