Fueling A Food Crisis

Want to lessen world hunger? Try waving the Renewable Fuels Standard. 

That’s the message in a report issued in October by the international anti-hunger organization ActionAid USA. The report said an RFS waiver is needed to ease pressure on soaring food prices, which are hitting the poor in under-developed countries especially hard.

ActionAid sent the report to the Environmental Protection Agency as part of its comments on a waiver. A cover letter with the report was cosigned by three domestic environmental organizations: Friends of the Earth, the Environmental Working Group and the Clean Air Task Force.

The groups joined numerous livestock organizations, including NPPC, in supporting a waiver. The RFS requires a set amount of corn-based ethanol to be blended into gasoline each year. The summer drought re-ignited the debate over how much corn should be diverted to fuel cars in light of spiking food and fuel prices.

In its comments, NPPC said a waiver is “an urgent matter.” “EPA’s granting of a full or partial waiver … is necessary to avert the severe economic harm that has been experienced in 2012 by pork producers and the communities and states they live in …,” NPPC said. EPA is expected to announce a decision in mid-November.