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Health & Fitness

Jim Moran Misleads Constituents on Climate Change & The Arab Spring

Jim Moran says climate change solely contributed to the Arab Spring. Was climate change the only reason for the middle east riots?

In a recent floor speech, our Congressman Jim Moran claims that a bad winter in China in 2010 due to man-made climate change contributed solely to the Arab Spring.

Really? Something tells me if Mr. Moran’s car won't start he blames climate change. Liberal policies like ethanol subsidies couldn't possibly have had a greater impact on the Arab Spring now could they? Congressman Moran has noted in the past that ethanol subsidies contribute to food shortages (something he says he supports BTW). You see, the United States over the years has increased its use of corn to make ethanol, pushing up grain and meat prices worldwide. Does Mr. Moran mention that in his floor statement? No.

Let me explain.

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While the weather may have played a part in the Arab Spring, as Steve McCann at the American Thinker notes, there were other reasons besides weather for the Arab Spring.

Today there is a global food shortage and skyrocketing prices. This has become the underlying factor in the riots in Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, where up to 56% of a person’s income is dedicated to the acquisition of food. These riots are now leading to the upheaval of governments and the very real possibility of the ascendancy of the radical elements into control.

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While bad weather in various parts of the world is an element of the accelerating food prices, there are two other factors directly related to the United States and its policies.

First, because of the enormous deficits run up by the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress, the Federal Reserve has had to effectively print trillions of dollars, which have flooded the global market. Commodities are priced in dollars; consequently, emerging markets throughout the world, and the food sector in particular, are suffering from rapidly rising inflation.

[..]

The second factor in the overall global food situation is the American decision to, in essence, burn food in its cars, a policy championed by the environmentalists since the 1990s.  In 2010, the United States produced 13.1 billion bushels of corn.  Of that amount, 4.2 billion bushels went into ethanol (33% of total production).  That represents for 2011, a year in which global stocks are down nearly 8%, over 14% of all corn grown in the world being used in the most inefficient manner possible — being put into American gas tanks.

The Wall Street Journal opined the following about the federal government’s increase in ethanol subsidies.

The global economy is getting back on its feet, but so too is an old enemy: food inflation. The United Nations benchmark index hit a record high last month, raising fears of shortages and higher prices that will hit poor countries hardest. So why is the United States, one of the world’s biggest agricultural exporters, devoting more and more of its corn crop to . . . ethanol?

The nearby chart (at the link provided), based on data from the Department of Agriculture, shows the remarkable trend over a decade. In 2001, only 7% of U.S. corn went for ethanol, or about 707 million bushels. By 2010, the ethanol share was 39.4%, or nearly five billion bushels out of total U.S. production of 12.45 billion bushels. Four of every 10 rows of corn now go to produce fuel for American cars or trucks, not food or feed.

This trend is the deliberate result of policies designed to subsidize ethanol. Note the surge in the middle of the last decade when Congress began to legislate renewable fuel mandates and many states banned MTBE, which had competed with ethanol but ran afoul of the green and corn lobbies.

This carve out of nearly half of the U.S. corn corp to fuel is increasing even as global food supply is struggling to meet rising demand. U.S. farmers account for about 39% of global corn production and about 16% of that crop is exported, so U.S. corn stocks can influence the world price. Chicago Board of Trade corn March futures recently hit 30-month highs of $6.67 a bushel, up from $4 a bushel a year ago.

Demand from developing nations like China is also playing a role in rising prices, and in our view so is the loose monetary policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve that has increased the price of nearly all commodities traded in dollars.

But reduced corn food supply undoubtedly matters. About 40% of U.S. corn production is used to produce feed for animals. As corn prices rise, beef, poultry and other prices rise, too. The price squeeze has already contributed to the bankruptcy of companies like Texas-based Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. and Delaware-based poultry maker Townsends Inc. over the past few years.

Ethanol supporters claim it reduces American dependence on foreign oil, but a Cornell University scientist calculated that even if the entire American crop was used for ethanol, it would satisfy just 4 percent of our oil consumption.

And the Environmental Protection Agency has downplayed assertions that ethanol provides a cleaner source of energy than gasoline, saying it “has a minimal to negative impact on the environment,” according to The Journal.

Noting that Congress voted to extend the $5 billion tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline, The Journal concluded:

At a time when the world will need more corn and grains, it makes no sense to devote scarce farmland to make a fuel that exists only because of taxpayer subsidies and mandates.

If food supplies tighten and prices keep rising, such a policy will soon become immoral.

Yet Mr. Moran doesn't mention one peep about this in his statement now does he?

(Cross-posted at The Alexandrian)

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