Why is the U.S. Feeding Cars Instead of People?

Over the past year at Change.org, we've documented the rising number of families that are dealing with hunger on a regular basis -- many for the first time ever -- as one of the worst economic recessions in our country's history continues to take its toll.

Despite the fact that food security remains a challenge for many Americans, farmers in the country are growing more than 100 tons of grain a year to feed cars rather than people.  According to figures released by the USDA, and analyzed by the Earth Policy Institute, the grain that farmers devote to ethanol production in the U.S. could feed an estimated 330 million people worldwide.

The blame for this wasteful production should not be placed on the farmers growing the grain, but rather on the misguided attempt by the most-recent President Bush to move away from our dependence on foreign oil by subsidizing the ethanol industry. In 2007, he challenged U.S. farmers to increase grain harvests -- specifically to be used in the production of the biofuel additive -- five-fold over the next ten years. In addition, the crop subsidies and incentives for ethanol contained in the most-recent farm bill have driven prices for corn and many staple food items through the roof over the past several years.

This strategy seems still more ill-conceived when you realize that even if the U.S. devoted its entire grain supply to ethanol production, we would meet a mere 18% of our automotive fuel needs.

Proponents of ethanol say that there is plenty of grain to go around, and that there is no need to choose between fuel and food.  However, many experts see a clear link between the production of biofuels, such as ethanol, and the volatility of food prices.

As the Earth Policy Institutes's Lester Brown points out, "the irony is that U.S. taxpayers, by subsidizing the conversion of grain into ethanol, are in effect financing a rise in their own food prices."  That's right folks, it's your tax dollars that are being used to make your food more expensive.

The next farm bill cycle is only two short years away.  Seems to me that it might finally be time to start committing tax dollars to encourage the production of healthy food instead of an inefficient biofuel.

Photo credit: Aunt Owwee