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You Can’t Blame High Food Prices Completely On Ethanol
By Mr Ethanol | February 12, 2008
CNET News:
It’s become a staple of conventional wisdom that increased ethanol production has caused food prices worldwide to skyrocket.
Unfortunately, many experts and crop data say that’s not a complete answer. Granted, production of corn ethanol has surged in the U.S. and has boosted pricing pressure. 
Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute noted in a recent column on Cleantech.com that demand for grain by ethanol distillers jumped from 54 million tons in 2006 to 81 million tons in 2007. That jump of 27 million tons effectively doubled the annual growth rate. Brown said that ethanol creates instability in the food pricing market.
The annual growth rate, however, only represents a small fraction of the grain actually produced. In 2006, world production of grain came to 1.992 billion tons of grain while consumption came to 2.043 billion tons. In 2007, production rose to 2.075 billion tons while consumption went to 2.098 billion tons. Thus, ethanol only represents about 4 percent of worldwide grain consumption.
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