With global food prices rising and more corn being diverted to the production of ethanol fuel, Bill Clinton is warning of food riots in poor nations. Speaking recently at USDA's annual Outlook Forum in Arlington, Va., Clinton said that while producing biofuels is important for reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, farmers should also look beyond domestic production and consider the needs of developing countries.
"I think the best thing to say is we have to become energy independent, but we don't want to do it at the cost of food riots," Clinton said.
Clinton's foundation has worked to develop agribusiness in African countries such as Malawi and Rwanda. He said the United States needs to look at the long term, global effects of its farm policy.
National Corn Growers Association President Bart Schott took exception to Clinton's remarks. "Every year, America's farmers produce more than enough corn to meet all the needs of the expanding markets of feed, fuel and food both in the United States and across the world and the ethanol industry is not an exception," said Schott. "New reports show that the rising cost of oil, not ethanol production, is a major cause of increased food prices. With the continuing unrest in the Middle East and Northern Africa, it is imperative that we continue to support a home-grown fuel industry that helps keep our country safe and creates jobs."
Renewable Fuels Association spokesman Matt Hartwig said, "The driver behind rising food prices has been and remains oil" and pointed that [r]ising oil prices, even before the unrest in the Middle East and Northern Africa, have made everything we buy from food to clothes to oil more expensive."
Congress recently reinstated a $1-per-gallon tax credit to spur biodiesel production and voted to renew a 45-cents-per gallon ethanol tax credit. And that, said Glauber, should push U.S. biodiesel production up to the government-mandated minimum production levels of 800 million gallons this year and 1 billion gallons in 2012. Refiners are on track to produce 13.5 billion gallons of ethanol this year, Glauber said, more than the 12.6-billion-gallon mandate.
