Submitted by Josh Tickell on Fri, 07/11/2021 - 9:54am.
This blog was originally posted on the Huffington Post.
For many families in Mexico, the poverty line is an all too familiar tightrope. It's easy to fall off.
Both because of its low cost and regional tradition, tortillas are a
staple food in Mexico. During the past year, the price of corn
tortillas increased by anywhere from 20% to almost 400% in various
regions of Mexico (4). For millions of Mexicans, the rapid and
unexpected price increase means starvation.
So, who is to blame for the increasing cost of corn?
Many fingers point to biofuels, especially ethanol, the alcohol fuel
predominantly made from corn in the US. Ethanol is generally sold
blended into gasoline. It is blended in ratios as low as 5% but
recently, there has been a national push for more "E85" or 85% ethanol
blended with 15% gasoline. Unlike other biofuels such as butanol or
biodiesel, ethanol is derived from the food portion of the crop. As
corn prices have skyrocketed, the wisdom of making fuel from food has
been put under an increasingly unforgiving microscope.
So how does this "wonder crop" really stack up?
Corn is a low-yielding crop requiring an extraordinary amount of
pesticides and fertilizer. The National Corn Growers Association
estimates that 597,388 gallons of water are required per year to grow
an acre of corn (7). In addition, three to four gallons of water are
required to make a single gallon of ethanol, once the crop has been
harvested (1). And then there is the pollution. According to a
University of Minnesota study, "when you look at the entire life-cycle
of ethanol -- from growing to harvest to processing to combustion --
burning E85 (85 percent ethanol) as fuel actually produces more carbon
monoxide, volatile organics, particulates, and oxides of sulfur and
nitrogen than an energy-equivalent amount of gasoline (2) [...]".
However you cut it: ethanol from corn is wasteful. Many claim that corn
ethanol is energy negative: that means that for each unit of energy you
put into making the fuel, you get only one unit or less back in the
final product. (This is not true for other fuels, such as biodiesel
from soy, which is energy positive and requires significantly less
input.)
The exorbitant amount of pesticides used in corn production has lead
to a "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. Nitrogen and phosphate-based
(read: petroleum-based) pesticides and fertilizers are used to
stimulate growth in the corn plants. The compounds that are not
absorbed subsequently trickle to neighboring creeks, rivers, and
ultimately into the Mississippi River and into the Gulf. Just as
fertilizers promote growth in plants, they also promote growth of algae
in this region. The algal blooms deplete the oxygen supply, making it
impossible for any other plants or species to exist there. In 2005,
National Geographic reported that the lifeless span of water in the
Gulf of Mexico was almost the size of New Jersey, ranging 5,000 -
8,000-plus square miles (10).
Corn may be environmentally detrimental, but it is difficult to pin
the systemic problems in our international markets solely on biofuels.
One need only look at the escalating costs of the world's other staple
commodities, such as cement, steel, and coffee to reveal that
escalating costs are not restricted to corn or corn-based products. By
far the largest commodity price increase is not in corn or wheat or soy
or housing -- but rather in oil.
Ironically, every step of the ethanol process relies on the very
fossil fuel it claims to depart from, from driving tractors to making
fertilizers to transporting corn to turning it into fuel. According to
Vinod Khosla, former head of Sun Microsystems turned green fuel
investor, 75% of the price increase in food is due to the increase in
the price of oil.
Due to a complex, globalized commodity chain, food in other
countries is also dependent on oil. The more steps and middlemen
between a product and the oil that it relies upon, the more expensive
the product. This is what happens when Middle Eastern oil fuels U.S.
corn production, which supplies the Mexican diet. Thanks to corn
overproduction in the states, the U.S. exports more and more corn to
its southern neighbor at artificially cheap prices, far below the price
that Mexican producers could offer. Mexico now imports over 25% of its
corn from the U.S., (12) even though it has the capacity to produce
enough corn to fulfill its needs domestically. Thus, a spike in U.S.
oil prices takes dinner off of Mexican tables.
Now, shall we begin the food vs. food debate?
The understanding that forces within the food sector are altering
corn prices reveals another overlooked point -- corn is in an
overwhelming portion of what we eat. Corn feeds not just cows, but
poultry and even farmed fish. Further, 55% of sweeteners are
corn-based. Based on a study conducted by the Corn Refiners
Association, the average grocery store contains 4,000 products that
contain corn in some form, not including poultry, dairy, and beef
products (3). Corn is even used in paint, paper products, cosmetics,
tires, and plastics (9). The makers of the documentary King Corn found
out that 55% of the carbon content of their hair is from corn's family
of plants (8). Corn subsidies encourage overproduction and ensure the
sweet crop is dumped into every possible product.
The overabundance of corn has enhanced our ability to respond to
increasing demands for meat. Now that corn prices are up, however, meat
producers are feeling the economic pinch. In turn, meat demands also
influence corn prices. Demand for crops like corn is rapidly rising as
developing nations are consuming increasing quantities of meat, pushing
prices up and increasing competition for basic carbohydrates and
sugars. Food for thought: it takes 2.6 pounds of corn to produce one
pound of beef and 3.6 to produce a pound of pork (11).
The effects of the oil-corn supply chain are heightened in Mexico
(and many developing nations). This is because both local and foreign
distributors have a near monopoly in the corn market and because the
U.S. cost of corn is set by non-Mexican market forces. Two companies in
Mexico control 90% of corn flour production, enabling them to set the
prices of corn and tortillas (12). Before the corn even reaches the
hands of these giant distributors, outside speculators determine the
price of corn, much like they do with oil. While foreign countries lack
basic foods, thousands of tons of surplus corn sit in grain elevators
in the U.S. There is no shortage of corn, but rather a worldwide supply
system in a failed state.
From your steak dinner to the sweetener in your soda to the ethanol
in your tank, corn is almost as omnipresent in our society as oil. The
two commodities are inextricably linked. The scrutiny of corn has
exposed larger issues in American infrastructure. But just as
starvation and economic crisis cannot be attributed to a single crop,
we cannot solve these problems with a single crop or fuel.
Some hope may lie in combining and balancing sustainable energy
alternatives. Meanwhile, as climate instability and oil price
volatility continue, both food and fuel will get more expensive and
further from the reach of many who can no longer walk the line.
Up next: Do biofuels destroy rainforests?
This blog is based on
Fields of Fuel, an upcoming documentary on the future of energy.