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202. Biofuels Impact on Crop and Food Prices: Using an Interactive Spreadsheet
- Author:
- Scott Baier, Mark Clements, and Jane Ihrig
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the effect that biofuels production has had on commodity and global food prices. The innovative contribution of this paper is the interactive spreadsheet that allows the reader to choose the assumptions behind the estimates. By allowing the reader to choose the country, time period, supply and demand elasticities, and the size of indirect effects we explicitly illustrate the sensitivity of the estimated effect of biofuels production on prices. Our best estimates suggest that the increase in biofuels production over the past two years has had a sizeable impact on corn, sugar, barley and soybean prices, but a much smaller impact on global food prices. Over the past two years (ending June 2008), we estimate that the increase in worldwide biofuels production pushed up corn, soybean and sugar prices by 27, 21 and 12 percentage points respectively. The countries that account for most of the upward pressure on these prices are the United States and Brazil. Our best estimates suggest that the increase in U.S. biofuels production (ethanol and biodiesel) pushed up corn prices by more than 22 percentage points and soybean prices (soybeans and soybean oil) by more than 15 percentage points, while the increase in EU biofuels production pushed corn and soybean prices up around 3 percentage points. Brazil’s increase in sugar-based ethanol production accounts for the entire rise in the price of sugar. Although biofuels had a noticeable impact on individual crop prices, they had a much smaller impact on global food prices. Our best estimate suggests that the increase in worldwide biofuels production over the past two years accounts for just over 12 percent of the rise in the IMF’s food price index. The increase in U.S. biofuels production accounts for roughly 60 percent of this effect, while Brazil accounts for 14 percent and the EU accounts for 15 percent. The key take- away point is that nearly 90 percent of the rise in global food prices comes from factors other than biofuels.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Food, Biofuels, and Ethanol
- Political Geography:
- United States, Brazil, South America, and North America
203. Fisheries Trade in India: Understanding Potentials and Barriers.
- Author:
- Meenakshi Rajeev
- Publication Date:
- 08-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The fisheries sector assumes significance in the Indian economy in several respects. The most important amongst them is the providence of livelihood to many poor households especially located in the coastal areas. These households can generate income from the sector due to the fact that many varieties of marine fishes have been exported from the country including chilled and dried items, fish oil, shrimp and prawns. Thus from the point of view of employment and income generation, international trade has considerable significance as well. It is the trade aspect of the sector that would be the focus of the current paper.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Demographics, Economics, and Food
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
204. The Future Control of Food: A Guide to International Negotiations and Rules on Intellectual Property, Biodiversity and Food Security
- Author:
- Caoimhín MacMaoláin
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- Food law and policy has recently shot to the top of many agendas. Much political, economic, and legal decision-making around the globe is concerned with its reform. Food safety matters have received attention in the European Union since the outbreak in the 1990s of 'mad cow disease', or BSE, culminating in the creation of many new rules and regulations. The formation of the European Food Safety Authority is one of the consequences of this trend. The World Health Organization has been actively coordinating the international response to actual and potential incidents of avian influenza and the related threat of the development of a deadly human strain of the disease. Regulating the production and marketing of genetically modified organisms has been the subject of fierce debate in many countries. In addition to all of this, trade in food is now central to several of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, in particular the Agreement on Agriculture, the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). These increased attention levels have intensified further as food prices continue to soar, raising serious concerns about global food security.
- Topic:
- Food
205. Cold Case Files: The Athenian Grain Merchants, 386 B.C.
- Author:
- Wayne R. Dunham
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Food price increases have always been politically sensitive. Price spikes like those that have occurred recently create the demand for action on the part of government to alleviate the problem. Yet, government intervention can often do more harm than good. This article examines one such example of a counterproductive response that occurred in 388 B.C. in Athens, Greece. In response to a negative supply shock to the grain market, regulators encouraged grain importers to form a buyers' cartel (monopsony), hoping that it would reduce retail prices by first lowering wholesale grain prices. In reality, the decrease in wholesale prices resulted in a decrease in the willingness of producers in other regions to supply grain to Athens, and retail grain prices increased substantially. Grain importers soon found themselves on trial for their lives in what is probably the earliest recorded antitrust trial. This article uses the information presented at that trial and other contemporary sources to evaluate the grain merchants' actions. More generally, it analyses the impact of a buyer's cartel or monopsony on prices and consumption.
- Topic:
- Food
- Political Geography:
- Greece
206. Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food
- Author:
- George Kent
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Georgetown University Press
- Abstract:
- Each year, more than 10 million children die before their fifth birthdays, about half of them from causes associated with malnutrition. This is a silent holocaust, repeated year after year. Malnutrition leads to death, illness, and a significantly reduced quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. This book's central concern is that very many people do not get adequate food, in terms of quantity or in terms of quality.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, International Law, and Food