Food Farmers Or Energy Farmers?

As global demand for ethanol and other plant-based energy sources booms, farmers have to make the choice between feeding people or feeding their energy habits. Many predict they will increasingly opt for the latter, causing food shortages worldwide.

1 minute read

August 28, 2007, 10:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg

"Stomachs and petrol tanks are for the first time in competition and farmers everywhere are asking themselves a novel question: am I planting food or energy?"

"The economics of food - what is affordable, what it costs, and what that money buys - are creating unprecedented waves through all continents. From nut plantations in Indonesia to barley fields along the Rhine, farmers are all adjusting to this new world."

"Part of the result is tortilla riots in Mexico, the astonishing leap in Brazilian chicken leg prices and mayonnaise price spikes in Western Europe."

"These, say industry insiders, are the first skirmishes of a conflict that could soon dominate geopolitics: the war for resources between the world's 800 million cars and its six billion stomachs. In the developed world, the war will come down to price and choice; in the developing world it could come down to survival."

FULL STORY: To eat . . . . or to drive?

Monday, August 27, 2007 in The Times

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