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The Biofuel Economy

January 22, 2008 on 5:24 pm | In Main Category | No Comments

Last week, we touched on the impact that the biofuel boom is having on food costs and over the weekend, the NY Times published an interesting article on the topic. The article is a bit on the long side and you can read it here. A few lines that jump out:

This is the other oil shock. From India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food.

Open Hand has been tackling the challenge of rising food costs for the better part of the last 9 months with the biggest impact coming to proteins, most notably dairy items. The cost increases are hitting across the board and as this article makes clear, food costs are going to continue rising:

There may be worse inflation to come. Food experts say steep increases in commodity prices have not fully made their way to street stalls in the developing world or supermarkets in the West.

Again, it’s an interesting article that spans topics like globalization, the quest for renewable energy and a little bit about the law of unintended consequences.