A report that was prepared, but not officially released, by a World Bank economist concludes that the increase in biofuel production from corn is responsible for the increase in food prices. Food prices have risen as much as 75% in some areas. The United States is the world’s largest producer of biofuel using corn as a feedstock. Only Brazil produces more biofuel, but Brazil uses sugar cane and sugar cane is not as critical a component of the world’s food supply as corn.

Corn could be considered the foundation food source for feeding the world. Corn and rice are two sources of food that are relied upon to feed the world. Corn is consumed directly by humans, but it also used to produce oils and other products that have a substantial impact on the global food supply.

Many Americans may not think this is a concern, because they don’t eat much corn, corn meal or corn derived products. The poor countries rely on those type of products to raise families, and Americans don’t. But wait, many Americans do like to eat beef. Hamburgers and steaks will be bar-be-qued by many families on July 4th. The beef that we buy has been increasing in price and will continue to do so, because the cattle are grain fed in feedlots. The primary grain is corn.

This considers the supply side of the equation for feeding the world’s population. There is the other side of the equation - demand. The world’s population continues to increase exponentially. Ironically, the countries with the highest population growth are the poorest countries that face difficult issues feeding their populations. What is the answer!

While Americans point at other countries and claim that they have a responsibility to provide infrastructure and feed there own people. There are people in those other countries that claim that Americans are greedy consumers gobbling up all of the world’s resources.

The optimum solution it seems would be to find ways to mitigate the problem on both sides of the equation: both supply and demand. But, until the demand is met it’s not a morally ethical decision to shift food products to automobile gas tanks.

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