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JEFFERSON
CITY, MO
-- The
World Bank recently released a report reversing claims that wrongly
faulted biofuels for food price increases.
"As
the first commercially available advanced biofuel available in the U.S.,
biodiesel plays an important role to cut greenhouse gas emissions and
reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Attempts to perpetuate a
myth of food versus fuel are invalidated as World Bank identifies energy
costs as the true price driver," said National Biodiesel Board CEO
Joe Jobe
The
recent report, "Placing the 2006/08 Commodity Price Boom into
Perspective," drastically reduces estimates of biofuels impact on
commodity prices. World Bank economists now say that initial
estimates were too high and note, "This paper concludes that a
stronger link between energy and non-energy commodity prices is likely to
be the dominant influence on developments in commodity, and especially
food, markets." The report also points out that biofuels only
account for about 1.5 percent of global grains and oilseeds use.
"Food
price inflation of 2008 was all about energy price inflation and the oil
shock - which is what biofuels aim to address by reducing our reliance on
crude oil as the nation's nearly singular source of transportation fuel.
Since the initial study was the basis of opponent's claims, the new
report deflates the hot air behind the tired food v fuel debate and
reinforces that biodiesel provides a renewable alternative to petroleum
without negatively impacting food markets," Jobe said.
Real
facts about biodiesel are often overlooked. Consider:
- In 2008 the global economy saw
significant food price inflation which corresponded with an oil
shock that saw oil more than double in 12 months to $147/bbl.
From April 2008 to September 2008, oil then dropped from $147/bbl to
$33/bbl. Predictably food prices eventually followed. Since
then, global biofuels volumes have steadily increased yet food
prices have stayed moderated.
- Biodiesel made from soybean oil
creates a new market for soybean oil, which is coproduced when a
bean is ground for its 80 percent meal. This increases the
total bean value and makes the meal portion more cost competitive
for protein markets, which has a net positive impact on the food
supply.
- Biodiesel is the most diverse
fuel on the planet, made from a wide variety of regionally abundant
by-products of crop and livestock production. Biodiesel has
the highest fossil energy balance of any domestic fuel, has the
highest energy content of any alternative fuel, and offers the best
greenhouse gas reduction of any domestic liquid transportation fuel.
# # #
Additional
information about biodiesel is available online at biodiesel.org.
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