Hungry Planet / Thirsty SUV's

Reading thoughtful and disturbing article in yesterday's Independent gave me cause to think about a number of different issues: global poverty, human induced climate change and the abusive power of unfettered markets.

The article points out that 2006 will be sixth of the last seven years in which the global harvest will be less than that which is required to feed the planet. Even though some food prices are rising this shortfall is unlikely to be noticed immediately as the reduction in yield is coming from major food exporters such as Australia and the United States which means that effects of this will not be made obvious by such short term disasters as mass famine in sub-Saharan Africa.

Coupled with this shortfall in production is a dramatic increase in the use of grain, primarily in North America, as a fuel. In 2006 the amount of grain used to produce ethanol in the US will probably equal that exported as food.

How will "the market" react when hungry humans in Africa and Asia are competing for grain with suburban soccer moms in their four wheel drives? According to Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute "Just a single fill of ethanol for a four-wheel drive SUV uses enough grain to feed one person for an entire year." If an American is willing to pay more for fuel than a third world person can afford to pay for food who should get a scarce resource? The amorality of free markets do not provide an acceptable answer.

This situation also highlights the fallacy of the prevailing opinion in America (as well as much of Europe) that technology will save us and that climate change can be prevented without sacrificing life style. I am afraid that by the time we either wake up to this realization or are forced to deal with it due to economic circumstance it will already be too late.

I hope I'm wrong.

In the meantime I'll try and walk more, use public transport as much as possible, pay attention to food miles and eat less meat. (However I'm not giving up bananas. I don't care how far they have to come!)