Driving others to starvation?

An Associated Press story Tuesday quoted senior scientists from a global anti-hunger network who called for a halt to the use of food-based biofuels such as ethanol in an attempt to reduce corn prices amid a world food crisis. At the same time, the story said, President Bush was calling on the country to increase its use of ethanol to fuel vehicles, citing national energy security and high gasoline prices. What he didn't mention is that diverting more corn to fuel production leads to increases in our food costs. So, what we may save in gasoline - Yeah, right - will probably be erased by our rising grocery bills. Where's the benefit? Ohio State University Professor Rattan Lal, who is not affiliated with the aforementioned global network, had this to say: "We need to feed the stomach before we need to feed our cars. We have 1 billion people (around the world) who are food insecure. We can't afford the luxury of not taking care of them and taking care of gasoline." A pending analysis from the International Food Policy Research Institute targets biofuels as the cause of 30 percent of the overall increase in food prices between 2000 and 2007. A study financed by the biofuels industry put the figure at 4 percent. Gee, I wonder which might be more accurate? Bush said the international food crisis "is of concern," but he said it's in the best interests of the United States "that our farmers grow energy, as opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us." That's pretty much all of the world these days. The whole ethanol push is a drop-in-the-bucket approach to the serious energy issues facing our country. There are many other options that could be pursued that don't have the unwanted side-effects of ethanol reliance. One would be to raise - yes, raise - the gasoline tax significantly to force conservation and, as a result, lower demand for foreign oil. A second approach would be to significantly increase the mileage standards for all vehicles sold in this country. The fact that Hummers are produced, and that people buy them, is obscene in and of itself. Why not offer greater incentives for people to buy hybrid vehicles? We also need to further explore clean, efficient, alternative energy sources, not just for our vehicles but for our homes. I don't speak from an unassailable position. I don't live in a solar-powered hut, recycle pop bottles or ride a bike to work, but at the same time, I don't like seeing my country go down a path that could cause someone on the other side of the Earth to shrivel up and die.