biofuel

Eli Witek
CHEM 111


The Trouble With Biofuel

Biofuels are problematic not only because the process may use sources of food in a time when people go hungry, and may actually take more net energy to produce than traditional fuels (two common criticisms), but because, fatally, a handful of multinational corporations (in particular the biotech agriculture industry) have a monopoly over the market. The oligopoly controls the two main sources of the sugars necessary for the seemingly most viable biofuel, bioethanol: corn and sugarcane. Biotech agribusiness can patent plant genetic material-- i.e. seeds-- enabling a few huge companies to control all corn and sugarcane production, which has resulted in genetically modified monocultures that require pesticides and fossil fuel based fertilizers, conveniently made by the same handful of corporations.

Currently, according to the Erosion, Technology, and Concentration Group (which examines the socioeconomic effects of biotechnologies) three companies control 39% of the world market of seeds, and 44% of seeds under intellectual property: Monsanto, Dupont-Pioneer, and Syngenta. Monsanto alone controls 90% of all genetically modified seeds. According a Washington Post article published November 29th, 2009 they are responsible for 93% of all soybeans produced in the U.S. and 80% of all corn. Some perspective on corn production in the U.S. is necessary to fully understand why these statistics currently make biofuel a nightmare proposition.

Corn is in the particular position of being a steadily increasing crop that, paradoxically, farmers sell at a dollar less than what it costs them to grow. Farmers rely on government subsidies to make up the difference; the Farm Subsidy Database calculates “..Corn subsidies in United States totaled $56.2 billion from 1995-2006.” And yet, farmers are forced to squeeze more and more bushels of corn per acre than ever before, creating a flood of cheap corn, mostly from Monsanto’s GMO seeds.

Monsanto, a one-time manufacturer of napalm and Agent Orange, controls these GMO seeds, modified to withstand the insecticide Roundup that they manufacture. Farmers who once saved their seeds over generations now buy their seeds (and pesticides) from Monsanto. Those that do not are vulnerable to lawsuit for patent infringement from seeds that blow into their fields. Even if they have not violated any laws, Monsanto, who can afford it until the farmer is bankrupt, can indefinitely prolong a lawsuit.

The GMO corn and soybeans owned by Monsanto function as raw materials in an industrial food system that obscures what we eat from where it came from. As chronicled by authors like Michael Pollan (The Omnivores Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), the majority of surplus cheap corn is found in our food, where items are overly processed, allowing corporations like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland to siphon away direct profit from the farmer, now less than 1% of the total U.S. population. The meat we eat is by virtue of corn: the industrial meat industry cost effectively feeds chickens and pigs corn as well as salmon and cows (grass eaters). The vast, seemingly irrational state of affairs has been underwritten by the U.S. government for the sake of private profit of agribusiness aristocracy. When the government subsidizes the farmer, they really enable increasing earnings and control for a few private businesses. The U.S. government also subsidizes the sale of ethanol, another boon to the companies.

One of the problems with conceptualizing the argument as food or biofuel is that the same corporations have a firm grip over both. Biofuels in this context are just another way agricultural corporations manipulate a demand for excess crops. The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of ethanol, mostly produced by corn. (Renewable Fuels Association) Clearly, Monsanto has good reason to be heavily invested in biofuel production. In 2007 they entered a 1.5 billion dollar partnership with the German company BASF Ag, the largest chemical company in the world, with the aim of expanding GMO crops to supply the increasing demand for biofuels. (Monsanto.com)

The push for corn as a source of biofuel is not because it is a green alternative, but because that is what the corporations want. Monsanto is just one example of powerful corporate interest (corn is just one example of biomass they are invested in): Syngenta, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Novartis, Tyson (who allied with oil company Conoco-Philips to produce biodiesel from animal fat) ConAgra, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, are just some of the predatory businesses that have converged on biofuel. Biomass as fuel is a problem in a capitalist and oligopolistic market, where powerful companies can patent plant material—patent biomass, essentially---and promote it as a green alternative in fuel to the detriment of people and the environment. Biofuel is touted in a redux of the environmental crisis in 20th century brought about by toxic chemicals and “a better living through chemistry” (DuPont’s one-time motto). Biofuel from bioengineering may seem like a plausible solution, but the leaders in biotechnology are the big corporations.

How actually green, how efficient is bioethanol? First of all, “…growing corn to produce ethanol, according to a 2007 study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, consumes 200 times more water than the water used to process corn into ethanol.” (http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2251) And according to Michael Pollan,

“…(Corn) consumes tremendous quantities of fossil fuel. Corn receives more synthetic fertilizer than any other crop, and that fertilizer is made from fossil fuels — mostly natural gas. Corn also receives more pesticide than any other crop, and most of that pesticide is made from petroleum.” (http://pollan.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/the-great-yellow-hope/#more-24)

The idea that growing crops out of fossil fuels which you can then make into biofuel to replace fossil fuels is an absurd proposition generated by our agricultural paradox: lots of corn that costs more to make than it is worth.

And are these GM crops even safe?

“In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers have linked organ damage with consumption of Monsanto’s GM maize.” (http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/three-approved-gmos-linked-to-organ-damage/)

The consequences of monopoly control are by no means limited to the United States. The corporations are multinational, and have the ability to manipulate the global market with far-reaching impact. In a globalized context, corporations like Monsanto have undermined the self-sustainability of local economies. Weighing in on the food or fuel debate, Monsanto claims “…there is virtually no connection to biofuels and these unfortunate shortages around the globe” (Monsanto.com). But according to a leaked report from the World Bank, “…biofuels have forced world food prices up by 75%” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/03/biofuels.renewableenergy). While, as Michael Pollan writes in The Omnivores Dilemma “…Since the Nixon administration, farmers in the United States have managed to produce 500 additional calories per person every day (up from 3,300, already substantially more than we need)” (103), the number of people who chronically go hungry has exceeded 1 billion. (U.N. World Food Programme) Food shortages, oil price spikes and biofuel demands have only benefited the corporations: the social justice non-governmental organization GRAIN reports “…for 2007, Cargill's profits increased 36%; Archer Daniels Midland's by 67 %; ConAgra by 30%; Bunge's by 49%; and Dreyfus's profits in the last quarter of 2007 grew by 77%. Monsanto's profits increase was 44% over 2006 and Dupont-Pioneer's 19%.” (http://alainet.org/active/23996)

Empirical science ignores the larger context of biofuel creation and is open to some degree of manipulation. Private biotech companies fund and present research as they see fit (which is why we hear about the energy efficiency of converting corn to ethanol, and not the extreme inefficiency in the process of growing corn). When agribusinesses successfully lobby the government to promote ethanol, they are bending public perception away from the very serious issues concerning the larger picture of biofuel production in the current situation; namely, biofuels will only benefit them.




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