Ethanol Mandates Hitting Urban Poor
March 18th, 2008 by Chris KinnanAgribusiness welfare– from farm subsidies to the ethanol fuel mandate– is helping drive up feed and food costs throughout the supply chain. Congressional and Bush Administration policy favors corn farmers over everyone else, and higher prices are the result of recent changes in U.S. energy (and monetary) policy. Higher global food prices mean starvation in the poorest parts of the world, and they mean belt-tightening in the neediest corners of America. The New York Times covers the impact in a poor Brooklyn neighborhood:
The price of corn is high because of rising global demand for food and because of a new government mandate to increase production of ethanol, a motor fuel made from corn. With the stockpile of corn diminished, less is available to feed cows, a situation that in turn makes it more costly to raise cows and hence increases the price of milk.
Such explanations are of little comfort to shoppers in Crown Heights, where one-fourth of residents have annual incomes at or below the official poverty level, which is $21,200 for a household of four.
Sonya Castro, a medical assistant who was shopping with her 7-year-old daughter, Kimberly, paused to listen to Mr. Baez’s analysis, then chimed in with her own thoughts.
“What can I say?” Ms. Castro said. “What I used to buy with $20, now it costs $30. I leave with fewer bags and spend more money.”
Milk is near the top of the list of staples — others are bread and eggs — whose prices have climbed by 25 percent or more since inflation began to soar in July.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Where were you when the corn syrup opponents were making exactly these same arguments?
It’s not that I disagree with you, it’s that you guys only get involved in helping out “the poor” when there’s some lefty idea causing a problem. Problems with food supply have been going on for years. We need a whole new approach to how we deal with our nation’s food supply and crop subsidies. Demonizing a poorly-thought-out environmental mandate won’t necessarily get us there.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Ethanol mandates are a perfect demonstration of Armey’s Axiom: “The politics of greed always comes wrapped in the language of love.”
We oppose the sugar program too (which creates the price ceiling for corn syrup sweeteners to be profitable).
Agree we need wholesale reform of U.S. Ag policy.
April 12th, 2008 at 5:03 am
I just finished watching an expose on the farm bill on pbs done by the washington post and it got me so mad on the waste of government subsidies,15billion dollars in waste to farmers who didnt deserve a penny, but the big problem of this subsidies is going to be our reputation we advocate for free trade around the world, when we practise protectionism in very obvious ways, we had better start taking the log out of eyes. By the way doha is just around the corner, dont expect any breakthroughs coz the farm bill will be 1000 pund gorilla in the room.