Satellite picture

The World Health Organization states:

  • Poor nutrition contributes to 1 out of 2 deaths (53%) associated with infectious diseases among children aged under five in developing countries.
  • 1 out of 4 preschool children suffers from under-nutrition, which can severely affect a child’s mental and physical development
  • 1 out of 3 people in developing countries are affected by vitamin and mineral deficiencies and therefore more subject to infection, birth defects and impaired physical and psycho-intellectual development.

The United States Department of Agriculture anitcipates in his baseline projections to 2015:

Large increases are projected in corn used for ethanol production over the next several years. The Renewable Fuel Program of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates the volume of renewable fuel to be included in gasoline (with biodiesel credits) for each calendar year through 2012, reaching almost double current levels.

This program predominantly affects ethanol production, which is primarily produced from corn. Additionally, relatively high prices for oil contribute to favorable comparative returns for ethanol production, providing further economic incentives for expansion in production capacity over the next several years.

Lester R. Brown goes deeper and writes in a recent article at earth-policy.org:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects that distilleries will require only 60 million tons of corn from the 2008 harvest. But here at the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), we estimate that distilleries will need 139 million tons - more than twice as much.

If the EPI estimate is at all close to the mark, the emerging competition between cars and people for grain will likely drive world grain prices to levels never seen before. The key questions are: How high will grain prices rise? When will the crunch come? And what will be the worldwide effect of rising food prices?

and concludes:

The world desperately needs a strategy to deal with the emerging food-fuel battle. As the leading grain producer, grain exporter, and ethanol producer, the United States is in the driver’s seat.

We need to make sure that in trying to solve one problem - our dependence on imported oil - we do not create a far more serious one: chaos in the world food economy.

Distillery demand for grain to fuel cars vastly underestimated - World May Be Facing Highest Grain Prices in History, Earth-Policy.org

Picture credit: Peggy Greb, ars.usda.gov