Biofuels = Expensive beer

That title got your attention, didn’t it?

The Oregonian reported Sunday that biofuel production is increasing the price of beer, threatening significant impacts on Portland’s thriving microbrewery industry.

“Hops and barley acreage has been declining — hops because of a 10-year glut and barley because many farmers are planting corn for ethanol instead. Ethanol has also diverted corn from the feed market, often making it more lucrative to sell barley for feed instead of to the malting houses that supply brewers.”

OK, now can we start talking about the moral and economic impacts of burning food for fuel? Can we discuss the trade-offs in Oregon’s agricultural, microbrewery, and other industries, related to biofuels? We’re not talking about raising the cost of staple-food tortillas in Mexico now, we’re facing increases in the price of Portland’s beers.

Future state and local subsidies for biofuel crop production should include analysis of what is not going to get grown/eaten/drunk if farmland is used to grow stuff for fuel. If either humans or animals eat a crop, that product shouldn’t be used for biofuels. Cellulose, waste products, used fryer oil – sure, convert them all to biofuels. Land where nothing edible can grow, and hardier plants suitable for conversion can be sustained without significant environmental impacts? Waste not, want not, as the saying went during World War I. Corn, canola, and other foods are needed for hungry people and animals, not car engines. Portland’s brewers and the people who enjoy their products are stakeholders in the City’s subsidies of biofuels. Care and attention must be given to which biofuels to support.