The Moral Maize (v3) (non-fiction) - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

(Based on an article in the Toronto Star, July 2008)

What has the world come to when its corn is being grown to sell, not as food to feed hungry people worldwide, but to create fuel to fill our cars’ gas tanks?  It creates a real moral dilemma when the production of “biofuels”, like ethanol (ethyl alcohol), has given the notion that “food is fuel” an entirely new meaning.

        For some time now, experts have been watching the production of ethanol in the U.S. from plant matter that has been broken down by enzymes, then fermented and distilled.  There are 8 stages in the production of ethanol – from the milling of corn to make corn meal to the production of co-products (besides ethanol), for example, carbon dioxide resulting from the fermentation stage (and sold to the food industry). 

Ethanol can be made from corn, or starch, or sugar-based crops, like wheat, barley, soybean, sugar cane, and potatoes.  Ethanol can then be blended (in stage 7 of production) with petrol (gasoline) to make “E10” (10% ethanol mixed with 90% petrol) or “E85” (85% ethanol mixed with 15% petrol).  These products are known as “biofuels” because they are actually fuels produced from the processing of biological matter.

The production of ethanol as a “biofuel”, coupled with the trend of global warming that is now upon us and its associated food shortages in the foreseeable future, is truly cause for alarm.  In fact, 130 million people worldwide could suffer from these food shortages by the year 2050.  Also forecasted (by the year 2030) are drought and higher seas in Australia and New Zealand, which could result from climate changes. 

According to the experts’ predictions, countries such as Brazil, the U.S., and China predominantly, followed by India, France and Russia, are the top six ethanol producers, no doubt, because they are the countries most likely to feel the effects of these forecasted food shortages.  This is where climate changes from global warming will have their most deleterious effects on world food supplies.  After all, they are among the most populated countries of the world.  Canada’s own production of ethanol, unfortunately, ranks second to last on this list, probably due to less population, but Canada is certainly not invulnerable to hunger and food shortages.

So, the question becomes:  “Do we want to produce agricultural crops to supply food for people or to supply fuel for our automobiles?”  This question was posed by two researchers, Kurt Klein and Danny LeRoy, in their report released in March 2007 out of the University of Lethbridge, Alberta.  A debate has been raging among those who claim that “ethanol (or canola or soybean) ‘biodiesel’ [biologically-based diesel] fuel is solving one problem by creating another.  The stage is being set for direct competition for grain between two huge groups - the 800 million people [worldwide] who own automobiles and the world’s 2 billion poorest people.”  It has been said that, in Mexico, where tortillas recently rose in price by 60% causing riots in the streets that “the world’s breadbasket is fast becoming the U.S. fuel tank” according to Leslie R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute.

However, others, like farmer Don Kenny, don’t agree.  Kenny says that “food accounts for only 10% of corn usage, while the remainder is used for [animal] feed.  The production of ethanol uses starch [primarily], leaving high-protein, fat, and vitamin-rich feed for cattle and sheep.”

To appreciate what the production of ethanol really means, Brown puts it into perspective.  “The amount of grain it takes to produce enough ethanol to fill a 75-litre fuel tank would feed one person for a year.  Production of one litre of ethanol takes between 4 – 8 litres of water.  A production plant in Lloydminster, Sask., for example, will require 500 million litres of water during production, mostly from underground sources.”

The experts warn that “food prices will soar worldwide as a result of the soaring use of corn for ethanol [production] in the U.S.”  This, in turn, will lead to food shortages and [of course] hunger among poor people.  What does this mean for Canada?  “Canada needs to keep pace with this growing demand and drive its own economy, domestically, with more ethanol plants.” Kenny warns.  According to Kenny, furthermore, then-President George W. Bush is planning [at the time of this article] to increase (by five times) the amount of “biofuels” sold in gasoline in the U.S. by the year 2017.  Last month, Canada pledged a mere $2 billion for new incentives to create “biofuels” here, while the U.S. already has 80 ethanol distillery plants operating.  [By contrast], Canada only has about a dozen ethanol plants that are currently under construction. 

Is this really good enough for us, as Canadians?  What incentives are there for Canada to create its own ethanol plants when the U.S. will soon be in a position to grow corn, produce ethanol and ship it here to be sold?  Will Canada then become even more dependent on the U.S. than it already is?  This is where Canada may, indeed, be at its most vulnerable in the future.

copyright 2014, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.