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| Ethanol Campaign
In recent years the production of agricultural bio-fuel, especially the production of corn based ethanol, has been hailed by many as 'green' alternative to the Western world's reliance on petroleum. Not only could the corn be grown domestically, liberating the US from reliance on problematic 'foreign oil', but a switch to ethanol was expected to reduce emissions of global-warming causing green house gases. Unfortunately this 'solution' has proved to cause as many problems as it has solved, causing spiking food prices around the world and increasing air and water pollution, with no aggregate reduction in the amount of green house gas emissions. As part of our Ethanol Campaign, MEA is committed to:
Diverting Food to Fuel In the United States we have taken food for granted. We are embarrassed, because for many food is not a given. Consider these staggering statistics: Nigerian families spend 73 percent of their household budgets on food; Vietnamese, 65 percent: and Indonesians, 50 percent. Food prices are rising daily (corn prices are up 25% since last year) and the consequences are falling disproportionately on the poor. More than 100 million people are being driven into hunger and poverty by a “silent tsunami” of sharply rising food costs, which have sparked riots in Haiti, Egypt, Senegal, and Cameroon, among other places. Each day 25,000 people worldwide die from hunger-related causes. While population growth, economic progress, agricultural disasters (some possibly caused by global warming) and high energy prices all contribute to the global food shortage, there is a growing consensus that equally important cause – if not the most important one – are our own shortsighted policies of diverting food crops, like corn, into biofuels to feed our insatiable appetites to drive. In the United States, 20 percent of our corn crop is now used to brew ethanol for motor fuel – that share is expected to reach 30 percent by year 2010. Wisconsin is currently home to nine corn ethanol production facilities, with more in line to be constructed. We are the seventh largest ethanol producing state in the nation. Where once the Midwest could claim to be the ‘bread basket’ of America, we are now sacrificing our own natural resources to fill up our gas tanks, at the expense of hungry people the world over. Greener then Gasoline? Corn ethanol is not the “green” panacea it once seemed, or a solution to our dependency on foreign oil and global warming. In fact, the carbon impact from corn ethanol is worse than conventional gasoline! When forests and grasslands are destroyed to make way for cornfields, the release of carbon emissions overwhelms the gains from burning a “cleaner” fuel. Our local communities are suffering too. In addition to hunger, ethanol facilities pose serious public health problems. As emitters of large amounts of fine particulates, and volatile organic compounds (VOC), these ethanol production plants contribute to lung disease, asthma and other respiratory problems. MEA supports providing jobs for rural communities, but through sustainable agricultural practices and crops, not through the planting of corn for biofuels. In fact, with costs of farmland soaring throughout the Midwest, it is likely that only the large agribusinesses will benefit from the corn bio-fuel boom, leaving family farmers further behind. |
Cases |
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John Domino, et al. v. Didion Ethanol Clean Water Action Council of Northeastern Wisconsin v. Utica Energy |
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Media Archive |
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Environmentalists Take On Ethanol Plant Ethanol Plant Sued for Pollution Environmentalists Take On Ethanol Plant Suit Filed Against Didion Group Says It Will Sue Two Ethanol Plants Didion Ethanol Could Be Headed To Federal Court Cambria Board Wonders If Yellowish Water Is Drinkable More Than Half of Wisconsin Ethanol Plants Face Violations The Great Corn Debate: Food Versus Fuel Making the SWITCH Jefferson Ethanol Plant Has Unplanned Waste Discharge Hung Over At The Ethanol Party |
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MEA is working to mitigate the harmful effects of corn-based ethanol production while encouraging real solutions to the global energy crisis. 