With biofuels, consider: Who suffers? Who benefits?

Biofuels, derived from everything from corn to French-fry grease, are being widely touted in corporate advertisements, news stories and recently in the president’s State of the Union address as a silver-bullet solution to global warming, the savior of depressed rural economies and the key to reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

The apparent free lunch of crop-based fuel can’t satisfy our energy appetite – and it will not be free, or environmentally sound.
Industry spokespeople claim they will increase ethanol production by improving extraction technology, raising yields and expanding the acreage of land under production. Intensification comes at a price. Increased productivity requires more water, fertilizer and pesticides and means more genetically modified crops. Opening new farmland could bring some 10 million acres of fragile land protected by the government’s Conservation Reserve Program into production.

The new extractive and genetic technologies for improved biofuels production are being developed through select partnerships among a cozy handful of corporate giants in grain, oil and genetic engineering – primarily Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Monsanto. The convergence of these powerful industries has far-reaching impacts that will transform food systems and rural economies worldwide.

Des Moines Register