Glowimages/Getty Images
READ MORE ABOUT:
This post is part of a series in which we look at why those basic things that we take for granted--such as water, food, and fuel--are getting expensive and scarce, all at once. Read the first post on peak oil here.
Blame Earl Butz. Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford Secretary of Agriculture brought in the Farm Bill that dramatically increased the amount of corn produced in America. He encouraged farmers to "get big or get out," and to plant crops like corn "from fence row to fence row." Further billions in subsidies to farmers encouraged production, and soon America was awash in cheap grain, and with it cheap meat. Food costs as a portion of the American diet dropped to the lowest level in history; we became corn. Michael Pollan writes: "If you eat industrially, you are made of corn. It holds together your McNuggets, it sweetens your soda pop, it fattens your meat, it is everywhere. It is fed to us in many forms, because it is cheap- a dollar buys you 875 calories in soda pop but only 170 in fruit juice. A McDonalds meal was analyzed as almost entirely corn."
Butz loved modern, industrial farming as well; When environmentalists warned against pesticides and fertilizers, he retorted, "Before we go back to organic agriculture, somebody is going to have to decide what 50 million people we are going to let starve."
But if we are made of corn, corn is made of fossil fuels. Fertilizers are made from it; trucks and combines run on it. When gas prices started going up, so did the price of corn. The American answer to the problem was to throw subsidies to build ethanol plants that use corn for a feedstock. Suddenly a hundred million tons per year, or 5% of the world's production of grain, is being diverted to feed cars instead of people. Lester Brown calls it "the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before."
But that is small change compared to what has happened with meat, which has become increasingly popular among the exploding middle classes in Asia. Now 760 million tons of grain are fed to cows every year, and they don't even like the stuff. Between meat and cars, only 1.1 billion tons of the 211 billion tons of grain grown each year go to feed people. It is not enough; last year global stockpiles shrunk by 53 million tons, in the year of the biggest harvest in world history. Imagine what will happen in the next bad year for crops. (Source: George Monbiot.)
In a flash, a system that was designed to flood the world in cheap corn couldn't cope. People are rioting over food from Haiti to Egypt. Now the speculators and hedge funds are jumping into the grain pool, driving prices even higher.
The Economist writes that "The world of cheap food has gone. With luck and good policy, there will be a new equilibrium. The transition from one to the other is proving more costly and painful than anyone had expected."
But some good things can come out of this. With grain prices high, the small farmers throughout the world can possibly make a living instead of being swamped by cheap American corn. People might follow George Monbiot's advice and eat less meat. "Let's reserve it - as most societies have done until recently - for special occasions." Price distortions that encourage people to eat lousy but subsidized food might fade away, making healthier foods more affordable. We will pay more for our food, but it will taste better and we might live longer, healthier lives.
Read more about the current food crisis on TreeHugger
Food Shortages Drive Global Prices to Record Highs
Food Prices, Food Eaters Run Riot
Rising Food & Oil Prices: A Recipe For Riots Says FAO
Why Ethanol Production will Drive Food Prices Even Higher in 2008
-
- {}
