Clean food and fuel, which one?

Among the factors that increase the price of wheat, corn and some other grains have the impact of biofuels such as ethanol (made from wheat and corn), biodiesel (made from soybeans or rapeseed). Ethanol, biodiesel is a clean fuel that the governments of rich countries are encouraging to produce to replace expensive and expensive petrol and greenhouse effect, causing global warming. Between clean food and fuel, which one to choose?

Thousands of Mexicans have been on the road many times this year in protest at the price of Tortilla (meat pie) doubling this year. The main reason is that ham exporters sell corn to the US to produce ethanol. It's also hard to blame them, because selling corn to the US is more expensive than selling it in the country or selling it to other countries. The US government is always ready to support higher purchase prices than usual.

The above protests reflect a new war affecting the price of world-wide agricultural products between food on one side and energy on the other. Wheat, corn or sugar is the raw material for biofuel production to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many governments are very interested in producing clean fuels because it ensures energy security during a time when crude oil prices have soared to nearly $ 100 per barrel.

Story of no one

Ethanol production plant from corn (Photo: employee)

The same situation in Australia is similar to that of Mexico, only one thing is that in Australia, flour is the number one agricultural product. Australia is the world's largest wheat exporter. But this position may no longer exist after the government intends to add ethanol (made from wheat) to gasoline. With the amount of wheat available, Australia is capable of producing enough ethanol to replace three-quarters of gasoline demand. But this is ineffective.

According to David Lamb, of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), if replacing ethanol with petroleum, 'Australia must stop eating and export grain'. He predicted that conflicts in land use and water resources would multiply in the name of conflicting requirements such as environmental protection and production of food, energy and textile fibers.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCDE) also warned that the use of agricultural products to produce clean fuels would increase food prices because demand exceeded supply. Last October, a report by OCDE stated: ' The rapid development of the bioenergy industry could create a fever of food prices for at least 10 years '.

Fearing rising food prices, Australian consumers objected to projects that add ethanol to the government's gasoline, oil and subsidies for biofuels. Helen Murray, chairman of the ALFA Foundation, defended the rights of Australian producers, speaking at the ethanol conference in the state of Brisbane: 'We have just experienced very bad drought years for food and livestock production. feed. If the quota of ethanol is imposed, the pressure to increase food prices will be even worse. '

In the US, the controversy about food and biofuels is equally intense . The farmers took advantage of the government's subsidy policy for ethanol to increase corn acreage (to produce ethanol), narrowing the area of ​​other grains such as soybeans. It is easy to understand why the price of cereals in the United States has increased constantly. And those who receive enough consequences are none other than consumers, first of all people of poor countries. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the need to import grain from poor countries in the 2007-2008 period amounted to US $ 52 billion. With the current rise in food prices due to excess demand, these countries have to spend an additional $ 28 billion to import the expected quantities. In that situation, they have to cut down on food and food imports for people of poor countries to become a luxury.

Bagasse, ethanol production of the second generation (Photo: Laborer)

The consequences of the price hike of food prices in the past have left blood lessons. Carl Weinberg, chief economist of analytical office High Frenquency Economics in New York, said world food reserves are at their lowest level since 30 years ago. This situation happened in 1972. At that time, the price of food and foodstuff price plus high crude oil price made the US economy recession leading to the world economy. This shows the danger of increasing food and food prices.

There was an exit

In that situation, should we abandon the policy of producing biofuels from cereals? According to The Wall Street Journal, the Chinese government stopped issuing licenses to build ethanol plants from corn. But the United States and Europe are still determined to maintain their stance to replace petroleum with biofuels. Biofuel advocates argue that using cereals to produce clean fuels today is only temporary. Scientists are focusing on research and production of second generation clean fuel test.

According to them, the future clean fuel will be produced from crops on bad lands such as eucalyptus trees or discarded things such as straw, corncobs, bagasse, etc. These things do not compete with the army. So the cup will not affect food prices. This material also has a cheap advantage and the ability to reduce the greenhouse effect is also higher.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), the US has invested more than 600 million USD in second generation biofuel production technology. The aim of the US is to produce ethanol according to new technology that is twice as much as corn-based ethanol from now until 2020. The Australian Government has also invested AU $ 15 million into a similar program but has to wait another 5-10 years Newly commercialized this fuel. Anyway, this is a good solution, avoiding the need for clean fuel to sacrifice food.

VAN ANH