Looking beyond the "food or fuel" trade-off
April 11, 2008, 09:18 PM
Riots in Egypt. Protests in Haiti. Clashes in Indonesia. These conflicts are all driven by the price of rice, which has almost doubled in the past year. The World Bank says 33 countries are at risk of social unrest over food scarcity. Why are we seeing this now?
Many blame biofuels for food shortages, which they say are now competing with our stomachs for corn.
But Professor Amani Elobeid, from the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at Iowa State University, says it’s not as simple as a "food versus fuel" debate — and that there are more fundamental problems.
We talked with Professor Elobeid about why we're seeing food shortages and price increases now, how much biofuel demand is to blame, whether this is actually a new problem, and what could end the emergency.
Takeaway facts:
- Global food prices have risen 83 percent over the past three years.
- he United Nations World Food Programme calls the current global food crisis the "silent tsunami."
Guest: Amani Elobeid, international sugar and ethanol analyst with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at Iowa State University.
- North Dakota Oil Diary: "It's always scary, until you get used to it"
- The Takeaway for October 9, 2008
- Finding humor in the things that could still go wrong
- The Dow falls below 9,000 and world markets have another bad day
- A rare glimpse into the oil rigs on Alaska’s mysterious North Slope
- The Takeaway for October 8, 2008
- Fear Factor: How the economy affects our psychological health (and vice versa)
- Peggy in Amherst, N.H., asks, "What don't you know and how will you learn it?''
- The healthcare plans of John McCain and Barack Obama
- The Takeaway for October 10, 2008
The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International,
in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
