Are environmentalists to blame for high food prices?

Question

Land that used to produce food is now producing cleaner ethanol. And we're buying a lot of our oil from OPEC and Arab nations, instead of drilling a couple of acres in Alaska. (And burning Arab oil pollutes just as much as burning Alaskan oil).

Can we blame the environmentalists for this. One comforting thought is that the environmentalists are paying just as much for food as the rest of us.

Answer 1

Not necessarily. A lot has to do with the weather and the seasons. Last year there was severe cold weather in places like Florida and oranges and other fruit prices rose drastically. In fact most environmentalists pay more because they buy locally (hoping to prevent people from shipping fruits from other states/countries). Yes crops such as corn has risen a lot but one can not solely blame people for prices.

Answer 2

Most environmental groups specifically campain against bio-fuels. http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodivers...

they are usually from, and promoted by, intensive agri-business requiring huge amounts of their chemical inputs and water, then extra refining & transport. (much is shipped twice across the atlantic to exploit subsidies & tax breaks from both US & EU) and potentially a market for their GM crops which no-one wants to eat. Agri-business & their frinds in the global media seem to have done a good propoganda exercise by implying this is because of environmental pressure, and nothing to do wiht their profits.

We are all paying for the overuse of non-renewable resources; but usually it is the poor that pay most.

Answer 3

No way.  It's not just food prices that are up.  Inflation is close to ten percent (not the official rate, which doesn't include food or energy).  It's because the dollar is down and the dollar is down due to the real estate bubble popping.  Environmentalists have nothing to do with the real estate bubble popping.

Answer 4

Blame ignorance. Too many of us think driving our cars are more important than feeding the poor, so we continue to demand fuel for our leisure and for unnecessary journeys. The obvious result? Market forces will continue to supply fuel. If we all suddenly decided not to drive so much and started demanding rye bread and cornflakes instead of gas, the situation would be reversed. The poor, of course, haven't the means to influence the market in the same way.

Answer 5

The denierrhea seem to be able to blame anybody for anything (they alone are pure as the driven snow!).

The Alaskan oil fields if tapped have enough oil to supply the USA for about 18 months.  Like it or not, 75% of the world's known reserves are in the middle east.

Except in the US, Kazakstan,  and Australia the land used to grow biofuels has been recently cleared, and not previously used to grow food.  In the USA and Australia the farmers make an impressive case with figures that the cause of the higher food prices is higher petroleum costs.  Since they can show production for both food and fuel is increased, the claim that ethanol production has reduced production for food appears vapid and vacuous.  Still the biofuel programs are subsidized by the western governments, principally the EU and USA (not by the environmentalists) and the growing of crops for food is not subsidized in those same countries.

The governments in the grain importing countries blame financial speculation in the grain futures market (by the EU and USA), as does the UN's food advisor (although he takes a shot at biofuels while he's at it).

Answer 6

Well, everyone has blamed the government and the oil companies. While true, it should also be noted that the huge agribusiness corporations are also a culprit.

Keep in mind that giant corporate growers now produce the majority of our food, and have forced small local farmers out of business. Thus, when these few growers decide to divert food crops into the production of bio fuels, the price of food climbs. If there were more local farmers, who actually cared about producing food for people more than just the profit, than there would be more local and affordable food for everyone.

At the forefront of the movement to de-industrialize and de-centralize the food production of the country are, you guessed it, environmentalists. Along with farmers, and social activists for the poor, environmentalists are working to bring food production back to the cities, and re- energize a new generation of Americans to take on the challenge of producing food for their communities.

Check out the Heifer International Urban Agriculture Program for some really awesome examples of work to restructure the food production and distribution system.

Answer 7

Blame the big "oil barons" in the Middle East.

Oil is $120. a barrel now and they know we will pay any price they demand.

Long haul truckers are going broke and have to raise their trucking fees.

That's why grocery prices are so high now.

Answer 8

Not environmentalists.  Blame the credit companies and the mortgage lenders and every greedy American who wants goods now but doesn't want to pay for them until later.  Blame everyone who bought a house they could not afford with the "guarantee" that it would rise in value so much that a simple refinance would enable them to continue paying loans.  

All of these factors weaken the U.S. Dollar, which means it just doesn't buy as much as the equivalent units of other currencies.  That's why oil prices go up.  And unfortunately, we rely so much on it that everything else goes up as a result.  The cost of transporting food from field to market has to be factored in.  Gasoline prices have already risen by over $2.00/gal just in the past five years, and that trend shows no signs of slowing down.  $4/gal gas is a near-certainty by Memorial Day, and some experts predict $5/gal gasoline by Labor Day (I'm inclined to agree).

Increasing the supply of oil by drilling Alaska would only be a temporary fix.  You need to reduce demand, not increase supply.

Answer 9

Yes we can, they are the #1 reason for the mess we are in now, not only can we not touch our oil in Alaska, but we have huge reserves in the Gulf, and the rockies as well.  

The same liars insist that we can not use Nuclear, one of the cleanest sources of energy ever, you cant build a dam or a power plant.  

If it was up to me, they would be the first off the gird, out of a house build with wood, and if caught driving a car that runs on  gas, they would be hung in public, for hyprocrocy.

Answer 10

Hardly. Blame the farmers who receive more money from oil companies to grow corn for ethanol instead of food. Blame the cows that eat the corn while you are at it.

Lastly, blame the OPEC and oil companies for jacking up the cost of fuel. What the h**l do environmentalists have to do with that? If anything, environmentalists wans LESS corn to be grown because of the amount of pesticides and nitrates that need to be added to the soil to grow that stuff. It causes massive problems due to agruicultural runoff entering the Mississippi River and finding its way into the Gulf of Mexico which causes a massive Dead Zone. I am looking a the Mississippi right now and it is pretty d**n nasty from all that c**p

Answer 11

As well as high oil prices. The reason you are paying so much at the pump isn't because of George Bush or the "evil" Oil Companies....it is because a bunch of "Green" activists won't let us drill the cheap oil in Alaska because it will "hurt Mother Earth, man!".

Answer 12

My props to my fellow environmentalists for debunking the ethanol myth! Stop using the world's food supply to feed your SUV.  Reserach and develop sustainable/renewable energy souces: wind, water, etc.

Answer 13

Government subsidies of ethanol and a tanking dollar are the culprit.

Both results of idiotic government policies.