| Author: Lester R. Brown |
| InfoShare Partner: Earth Policy Institute |
| Publication Date: January 2007 |
| Type of Document: Article/Report/Paper |
| Topics: Environment and health/population, Financing/management, Nutrition |
| Region: Global |
| Language: English |
| Number of Pages: 4 |
| File Size: 53 KB |
| File Format: MS Word To view Microsoft Word documents, you must have MS Word installed on your computer or you can download a free copy of the viewer from Microsoft [download here]
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Investment in fuel ethanol distilleries has soared since the late-2005 oil price hikes, but data collection in this fast-changing sector has fallen behind. Because of inadequate data collection on the number of new plants under construction, the quantity of grain that will be needed for fuel ethanol distilleries has been vastly understated. Farmers, feeders, food processors, ethanol investors, and grain-importing countries are basing decisions on incomplete data.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects that distilleries will require only 60 million tons of corn from the 2008 harvest. But here at the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), we estimate that distilleries will need 139 million tons—more than twice as much. If the EPI estimate is at all close to the mark, the emerging competition between cars and people for grain will likely drive world grain prices to levels never seen before. The key questions are: How high will grain prices rise? When will the crunch come? And what will be the worldwide effect of rising food prices?
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