Food prices rise, riots follow
I don’t remember when I saw the writing on the wall but I did. The articles on the internet forewarned of the upcoming food shortage, how it was to happen sooner than later. According to this article on CNN, the shortage is now.
All over the world, poor countries in particular, riots have started as a reaction to a severe increase in food prices. In just the past two months alone, the prices of rice has increased 75% globally and more in certain areas, while the price of wheat has increased 175% when compared to last year. In already poor countries where food grains are the dietary staple, increases of this kind can push already desperate people to the edge and over. Living here in the United States, we seem to be ignorant to these types of dramatic changes. It’s hard to fathom the world’s population as being near starvation or living below the poverty line when there’s a McDonalds around ever corner.
There are those that blame the “food-as-fuel” movement as a huge part of the problem. Our government is subsidizing the growth of corn to be used in ethanol based fuel. As a result, farmers are turning their lands over to grow more profitable corn instead of other food grains.
The issue is also fueling a rising debate over how much the rising prices can be blamed on ethanol production. The basic argument is that because ethanol comes from corn, the push to replace some traditional fuels with ethanol has created a new demand for corn that has thrown off world food prices.
Jean Ziegler, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, has called using food crops to create ethanol “a crime against humanity.”
“We’ve been putting our food into the gas tank — this corn-to-ethanol subsidy which our government is doing really makes little sense,” said Columbia University’s Sachs.
Former President Clinton, at a campaign stop for his wife in Pennsylvania over the weekend, said, “Corn is the single most inefficient way to produce ethanol because it uses a lot of energy and because it drives up the price of food.”
Of course the environmentalists disagree with this argument citing the rising costs of oil to be the main culprit to the rising costs of food. Whether or not you know it, we use oil in just about everything. At the most obvious level, we use processed oil as fuel to transport these grains from one location to another and as fuel to power farming machines. Less obvious but no less important is the use of oil in many day to day items we take for granted. Most plastics are petroleum based and if you think about all the applications where plastic is used, from shopping bags, containers, packaging, computer parts, one can see how pervasive plastic has become ingrained in our society.
“The contrived food vs. fuel debate has reared its ugly head once again,” the Renewable Fuels Association says on its Web site, adding that “numerous statistical analyses have demonstrated that the price of oil — not corn prices or ethanol production — has the greatest impact on consumer food prices because it is integral to virtually every phase of food production, from processing to packaging to transportation.”
Analysts agree the cost of fuel is among the reasons for the skyrocketing prices.
Others still point to the ever increasing rise of the world’s population as a huge drain on resources. Countries such as China and India are in the midst of a population boom while a huge number of the existing population in China is transitioning from the lower to middle class. This socioeconomic shift is leading towards a rise not of just staple food products (rice, wheat, soybean, etc.) but of the finer consumables such as beef and seafood. The initial pinch is being felt by staple food stuffs but I predict an increase in other consumables as well. In fact, they’re probably on the rise already.
So what? How does this affect the beer industry?
The beer industry is already feeling the effects of a world-wide barley shortage resulting from a poor harvest as well as, to no surprise, farmers growing alternative crops such as rape, colza, and corn for use in the biofuel industry. While the use of barley as a food crop in today’s world has been limited to health food and malting, it’s main use has been as animal feed. One may speculate a shortage of rice, wheat and other staple grains may see a shift back to barley as food crop, further driving up demand and prices for one of beer’s main ingredients. Brewers domestic and worldwide are having to consider using lower grade barley to brew beer. How this will affect how our favorite beers will eventually taste remains to be seen.
The major breweries have huge contracts in place already hedging their bets against wild price fluctuations for raw materials as well as guaranteeing consistent supply in times of demand. Smaller production brewers and brew pubs aren’t as fortunate. Many have had to raise the cost of their beers to match the increased cost of raw materials, while others have had to scramble just to find enough barley and hops to even make beer. Like everyone else up on the food chain, homebrewers are feeling the pinch in the form of increased prices for hops, barley and beer kits.
As brewers know only too well, the saccharification of malted grains into fermentable sugars is a cornerstone of brewing. The production of consumable alcohol is what makes homebrewing, and drinking as a whole, all worthwhile. Without that, we might as well as be drinking grape juice instead of wine, or barley tea instead of beer. Scientists and environmentalist have now perverted the fermentation process to support our need for power.
Food as fuel, in my opinion, is a horrible idea. Food should be used for food, period. Corn should be grown to be eaten on the cobb, wheat should be grown to make whole grain breads, soy beans to supply edamame, and barley for beer (whiskey and bourbon to a lesser extent). There are hundreds of thousands of Americans living below the poverty line and they need food as much as the next Fortune 500 CEO. Instead, we should look at other forms of biofuel like cellulosic ethanol or algaculture.
The environmental movement has its heart in the right place. We need to lower our dependence on foreign oil as a fuel source and start investigating alternative means such as solar energy, wind power, wave power and biofuels. Finding alternative fuel sources is a great idea but not at the expense of food crops or global hunger. As a result, prices for staple crops such as rice and wheat are at an all time high because farmers are switching to growing corn because it pays more. As a result, you get rioting, political instability and desperation on a global level. All I’m saying is let’s just keep food crops for food. It’s hard enough trying to find a good beer in San Jose, let alone having to pay through the nose for it and a sandwich.