Already the world market for sugar is seeing reduced supply and rising prices because Brazil has shifted huge amounts of sugar cane from export markets to making domestic ethanol, Brown explained. Brazil is one of the world’s top sugar producers.
"In Europe the margarine producers are complaining because they’re having difficulty getting vegetable oil because biodiesel is sucking it up," Brown noted. The problem will also affect meat, dairy and egg production, Brown pointed out, since just about all animal feed can be made into fuel.
What’s needed, he said, is an international body to oversee the biofuel/food problem. Right now, he noted, "in effect no one is in charge."
And that, said Brown, could lead to economic instability, civil unrest and even the collapse of governments.
Brown’s dire outlook is not shared by those in the ethanol fuel trade, however.
"No one’s saying we’re going to take every kernel of corn and turn it into ethanol," said Mat Hartwig, spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association in Washington, D.C. "In the fuel versus food debate it’s not an either or situation. We can do both."
Even individual kernels of corn can be used in both food and fuel, Hartwig explained. Corn can be processed to extract the sugars for making ethanol, leaving behind a high-protein "distiller’s grain" that can then be used for animal feed, he said. "It’s not as though we’re taking that entire kernel out of the food process."
There is also the future prospect of cellulosic ethanol to consider, said Hartwig. That’s ethanol that can be made from cellulose — the husks and other inedible parts of plants. It’s harder to do, but there is a lot of investment and work going on now to make cellulosic ethanol viable by 2015, he said.
As for the economic implications, so far it’s been good for U.S. farmers and reduced the need for federal subsidies, said Hartwig. "This is a growing market that’s creating economic activity in rural areas that are the last to feel economic up turns and the first to feel slow downs."
