Comments on: [1629] Of is biofuel the cause of the food crisis? http://maddruid.com/?p=1635 Reasonably libertarian Wed, 15 May 2013 13:10:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Rajan R http://maddruid.com/?p=1635&cpage=1#comment-23943 Rajan R Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:37:11 +0000 http://maddruid.com/?p=1635#comment-23943 Nobody is blaming biofuel per se for the rising food prices – just biofuel subsidies and mandates. Yes, reducing tariffs like the kind slapped on Brazillian ethanol would go a long way to increasing the use of biofuels, but it is unlikely such environmentally-friendly biofuel sources would be capable of supplying the biofuel market.

The problem is biofuel mandates. European petrol pumps need to comply with biofuel mandates, meaning they need the biofuel. They are going to be targeting the cheapest source of the biofuel component. Currently, it is from what could otherwise be food.

I’m skeptical that if markets were to open to environmentally-friendly sources of biofuel, it would solve the crowding out of the biofuel sector in the agriculture sector and escalating food prices. Alleviate – yes, but I’m not sure it would make a huge difference.

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