Ethanol Fouls US Gulf, UN Fiddles

It's the law of unintended consequences, which liberals need to be told over and over again, as they never learn. [UPDATE: Plus Hijinks at the UN Food Conference.] Ethanol mandates led to more corn planted, equaled more fertilizer usage--and the Gulf of Mexico fouled. Minneapolis StarTribune:

Fueled in part by the growing ethanol industry, more corn was planted in the United States last year -- 94 million acres, including 8.4 million in Minnesota -- than in any year since 1944. While projections indicate those totals will be down this year, they will still be substantial. More soybeans and wheat also will be planted, although they require fewer nutrients. [snip]

Eugene Turner, a professor of coastal ecology and oceanography at Louisiana State University, says his research has shown that soil in the Mississippi Delta area accumulates carbon from year to year, which decreases oxygen in the Gulf and ultimately translates into a larger hypoxic zone.

Although Turner has said that he can't yet scientifically prove that the ethanol boom is causing the growing hypoxic zone, his research points in that direction. The zone's increase in size in recent years corresponds with the increase in corn planting and ethanol production, he said.

And of course along with pricey ethanol, subsidized by the larded up farm bill, food prices are up as corn has been diverted to fuel. This is getting some play at the UN conference on food. Financial Times:

But in a document published on Tuesday, the UN task-force on food also said that the world needed to “reassess” subsidies and tariffs on biofuels.

The US and Brazil have already started the run-up to the summit defending their biofuel policies.

Ed Schafer, US agriculture secretary, said on Monday that some countries had turned biofuels into a “bogeyman” in spite of the fact that, in Washington’s opinion, they contributed only 3 per cent to the recent rise in food prices.

Other estimates put their contribution as high as 30-60 per cent.

The head of the UN study group is French [correction, he's from Senegal, even better], and should also explore the role of the EU in blocking the green revolution in Africa by their Luddite objections to genetically-engineered foods, which has contributed to hunger there. The private sector here has stepped in for a start, perhaps because they understand the discipline of the market, and have a healthy respect for what works in the world and what doesn't.

UPDATE: Times of London:

World leaders attending the UN food summit in Rome settled down today to a "modest" lunch in order not to be accused of "hypocrisy" as they were at the last world food summit six years ago.

Lobster, goose and foie gras have given way to pasta, mozzarella, spinach and sweetcorn. "It does not look good if leaders discussing global starvation are seen to be dining lavishly," an official of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. "At the last summit in 2002 we did not give enough thought to the menu and were open - unfairly, in our view - to the charge of hypocrisy."

The summit six years ago aimed to halve the number of the world's hungry by 2015. Like this week's meeting, it was held amid tight security at the FAO's palatial headquarters, housed in the former Fascist Ministry for the African Empire near the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus.

And they served a "straightforward, but very acceptable wine". If only the conference itself could be concluded in such a manner.

!!!!Bonus, tomorrow's menu:

The inclusion of mozzarella is seen as a UN vote of confidence in the cheese, which is made from buffalo milk. Earlier this year buffalo farms in the Campania region were quarantined because of a scare over allegedly high levels of dioxin, the result of the Naples rubbish crisis, in which uncollected mountains of waste have turned toxic and been set on fire by desperate residents.