Unintended Consequences of Food-Based Biofuels

Food based biofuels are bad.

Corn is probably the commodity most directly impacted by biofuels. An estimated 25 to 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop goes to ethanol...

The spike in corn prices began with the Energy Security Act of 2005, which increased the goal for ethanol use in the U.S., and Hurricane Katrina.

Overnight the federal government effectively shifted an entire marketplace that impacts every eating citizen of this country.

You can't move 25% of a staple resource like corn and make use of it some other way without an noticeable impact. Though not the only reason for increasing food prices, food based biofuels limit an already valuable resource that our economy needs.

It's simple Econ 101... law of supply and demand. The government created a demand for food-based biofuels where there was none before. So naturally, farmers are going to sell their corn where they can make the most profit, and as the market place is working itself out, 25% - 30% of the supply went to biofuels. That increased the demand for corn's food marketplace, rising it's selling price to match the biofuel's prices.

There is a solution though to meet both our energy and our food needs.

Biofuels from NON-food based biomass. What's biomass? It's not corn.

DuPont Co. has joined a state initiative to build the first pilot-scale biorefinery in the U.S. that would take corncobs and switchgrass grown on Tennessee farms and convert the biomass into ethanol for fuel.

There's still a problem: If farmers grow switchgrass or other more profitable biomass yielding plants in place of their existing corn food crops, the supply will have to be met with new planted acreage or the price of corn will still be higher than it was. But this is a much needed improvement.