Biofuel And Food Prices
Is Using Crops To Make Gas Raising Food Prices?
Is Saving Money at The Pump Making You Pay At The Table?
Now, unless you happen to live in a cave that does not require oil for heating you will have noticed that gas prices are going up and up. You have probably also noticed that the price of food has gone up. Is there a connection between the two price rises?
It seems to be obvious that increasing gas prices would add increases to food prices. After all, food has to be moved from place to place, and if that costs more, you can bet that it is going to be the consumer that makes up the difference. The more the gas prices go up, the more food goes up as well. What you might not expect is that attempts to save some money at the gas pumps may be costing you at the dinner table. No, they have not yet found a way to tap the raw power of a Twinkie. Although they are surely working on it. No, according to some, part of the rise in food prices is related to two of the most popular ways to cut imports of oil and save on gas prices.Biodiesel and ethanol.
Biodiesel is a kind of vegetable oil that can be used in diesel vehicles. Biodiesel is made from a number of plants, but most of what we use is a made from soybeans. Ethanol is an alcohol that can be used in many cars, and is made from corn. Right now, 15 percent of US corn production goes towards ethanol, and a somewhat smaller percentage of soybeans goes towards biodiesel. This creates an increased demand for the crops, which then causes higher food prices.
You may think you don't eat all that much corn or soybeans, unless you eat a lot of tofu tortillas, in which case this will directly affect you but the problem for the rest of us is that both of these are used as livestock feed. Each time prices go up, so does the cost of feeding animals, which causes the meats, dairy products, and poultry to rise in price. This is then further compounded by the fact that planting more corn causes fewer soybeans and other plants to be cultivated, which again causes the costs of food as a whole to rise.
What can you do about this? Well, you could start by supporting your local farmers, who are less likely to start growing plants for this purpose if you buy your food from them. The place to look will be your local farmers market. A better way is to increase the fuel efficiency of your car. By taking efforts to use less gas. You will not only save money but you help reduce the demand for gas and alternative fuels, which will help lessen both the cost of gas and food. By increasing your fuel efficiency you can save at the pump and the supermarket.
