Meat + Poultry - May 2008 - 29

As reported by Steve Bjerklie on www.MEATPOULTRY.com

"The worst time"
Don't expect food prices to drop
any time soon
At this point, not a day goes by without new reports
of the impact of sharply rising food costs on the global
economy. Today it's how Australia's drought is causing a
rice shortage in Asia. Yesterday's headline bunched new
food riots in Haiti, Bangladesh Mozambique, India, Argentina and Egypt under the words, "Agriculture Needs a
New Image." A year ago, 75,000 people were arrested in
Mexico during riots over the rising prices of tortillas.
The steady stream of dire reports could end, says Dennis Avery, if only the United States government scrapped
its current policy on biofuels. "It's the single biggest and
best thing we can do," he advises.
Avery directs the Center for Global Food Issues in
Churchville, Va., a policy branch of the Hudson Institute
think tank. He's on record as a strong supporter of the Coalition
for Balanced Food and
Fuel Policy, which was
founded by the American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen's Beef
Association, National
Chicken Council, National Meat Association and other meat and livestock organizations in response to ethanol-driven increases in the
cost of feedgrains and therefore of livestock and meat production. The CGFI is also a strong supporter of biotech
improvements in crop yields and in nuclear energy as the
best alternative to fossil fuels. (CFGI has called the claim
that the world's population could be fed solely by organic
agriculture "a fabrication.")
The cost of corn, which recently reached the recordhigh $6-per-bushel stratosphere, is the most visible
symptom of a biofuels policy Avery calls "idiotic," but he
says it's only the sign of a larger, more fundamental issue. "The demand for land is the real problem," he told
MEAT&POULTRY. "The biofuel policy has put unprecedented pressure on demand for good cropland. Basically, we can't grow all this corn and grow the other food
crops we need. The land can't do it. Good cropland is
one of the scarcest resources on the planet."
High food prices are, right now and in the short-term,
a boon for exporting U.S. food pro cheapest available for
the quality. But in the long term, high food costs destabilize economies and societies, and across history have
been the driving cause of many changes of government,
both good and terrible. Consider the overthrow of France's
"let them eat cake" royalty to the emergence of the Nazi
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party on the heels of Germany's economic collapse following World War I, when the price of bread doubled
every day and meat became impossibly expensive to all
but the elitist of the elite. In South America, the regimechange continent, radical agricultural policies have destroyed native economies and cultures without benefiting
the large working class.
This past month, the World Bank said that over the
past three years global food prices have increased 80
percent, with at least 33 nations facing social unrest as
a result. But, says Avery, "there is no reason to expect
food prices to come down as long as the ethanol mandate is in effect."
Moreover, biofuels, which have been promoted as a
double-benefit solution to America's energy problems -
they'd reduce the U.S.'s dependence on imported oil while
reducing the global-warming carbon footprint that's created
by oil-fueled industry - won't accomplish either goal, he
adds. "Every bit of biofuel we produce actually results in
a carbon debt, not a benefit." And if more and more cropland is given over to corn production for biofuels, then
"supplemental irrigation is something we're going to have
to do," creating even more pressure on an already dwindling fresh water supply. That likely means water would
have to be imported from Canada or some other source,
which would require more fuel and energy.
"There is fi nally some rational reason for all the worry
you read in the newspapers," Avery opines. "It's the worst
time in human history to create a demand, by policy, for
biofuels, because it comes exactly when we knew there
would be food shortages."

Citizen beef
At Hearst Ranch, cattle are "biological
pieces in a biological system"
The owners and managers of Hearst Ranch in California could
be forgiven for thinking that obtaining certification from the
Humane Farm Animal Care organization that Hearst's grass-fed
beef operation meets humane-handling standards would be a
good thing indeed. Especially in the wake of the Hallmark/
Westland debacle, how could anyone think that certification
from a program requiring third-party audits of handling procedures would be a slap in the face to the industry?
But that's exactly what a few members of the beef business have told Brian Kenny, who manages Hearst Ranch,
in the past few days in the wake of the ranch's announcement last week that it had obtained certification. Brian
told MEAT&POULTRY that it's disconcerting that "doing
the right thing has put some people on the defensive."
The industry, he says, "is like a fraternity, and there's a
lot of pressure to conform."
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Meat + Poultry - May 2008

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