Has the demand for ethanol caused a food shortage?

Question

Has the demand for ethanol caused a food shortage?

Answer 1

It has not created a shortage BUT, yes there is a but, it has raised prices out of many peoples reach, one example is there have been protests in Mexico over the price of corn.

It's not a shortage because the food is there to be had it is just that the demand has significantly increased so they price will also increase, yay the one thing I remember from economics.

Answer 2

Yes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7360...

But also, the price of oil:

http://allafrica.com/stories/20080421037...

Answer 3

NOPE!!! multinational conglomerates buying up food stocks at a rapid pace and holding the poor hostage

Answer 4

Frightening situation, especially for the poverty-stricken.  When we have a lifestyle that allows us to drive a fuel-guzzling SUV to the nearest McDonald's whenever we want a Big Mac, it's easy to forget that around the globe there are children starving.

http://newstatesman.com/200804170025

Excerpt from that article:

"World cereal stocks are at an all-time low, food-aid programmes have run out of money and millions face starvation. Yet wealthy countries persist with plans to use grain for petrol. . . The irony is extraordinary. At a time when world leaders are expressing grave concern about diminishing food stocks and a coming global food crisis, our government brings into force measures to increase the use of biofuels - a policy that will further increase food prices, and further worsen the plight of the world's poor.  What biofuels do is undeniable: they take food out of the mouths of starving people and divert them to be burned as fuel in the car engines of the world's rich consumers. . . "