Saturday, July 05, 2008

Leaked World Bank study asserts that 75% of recent food price hikes are due to biofuels

It's finally slipping into the mainsteam that biofuels aren't the panacea that Washington would like us all to think they are. They're actually worse, and it seems that continuing to pursue them as a viable alternative source of energy will invariably mean that more and more people will go hungry. As it stands now, food prices will almost certainly hike significantly over the next several months as price increases for raw materials end up trickling down to consumers who'll pick and choose 'em off grocery store shelves. I hope that this report has an impact on governments currently rolling in minimum biofuel content requirements in their respective countries.

Read the Guardian article on it here.

1 comment:

J said...

This is something that has long been pretty obvious to many, but to "hear" it from the World Bank just solidifies it even more.

To me, the whole biofuels thing is just another illustration of how we are just as stupid as we are smart. Yes, we do need to do something about our transport and shipping networks, but harvest the fuel from fields that could feed people is a pretty backwards idea.

Argh.