Connection - Hunger, Meat and Ethanol

by Shannon Turner
January 7, 2011

Every person who goes vegetarian or vegan does so for different reasons. Some do it for their health, others because they care about the lives of animals. Some are concerned about the environmental impact of factory farming. There are dozens of great reasons to go vegetarian or vegan – and no matter the reasons you choose, you’re making a powerful impact with every meal.

But if you’re still not convinced, or would like another arrow in your quiver for when that inevitable question Why are you vegetarian? comes up, read on. I’d like to share with you one of the biggest reasons why I chose to be vegan – and why I continue to make that choice with firm conviction at every meal. I hope you’ll decide that this reasoning is as compelling as I believe it to be, and I hope you’ll share it with others.

In the latter half of the aughts, big promises were made about biofuels and how they would usher in a new era of energy independence. Specifically, hopes (and subsidies) were pinned on ethanol derived from corn. Unfortunately, corn ethanol is a poor substitute for oil. Not only is it far less energy-dense, but it is more expensive to extract. The amount of corn, energy, and money it takes to create the equivalent of one barrel of oil makes the process barely worth it. And you need a lot of corn, which that can’t be eaten by anyone, which due to the spike in demand, drives up the price of corn for people and feed animal alike. (As I mentioned in a previous article, the price of grain is sharply inflated due to the inherent inefficiencies in raising animals for meat.)

In the face of the 2008 global food riots, which were largely sparked by rising prices and the fear of further price spikes to come were the US continue to pursue corn biofuel, many concluded that it simply wasn't worth it. Producing corn ethanol means diverting food from plates to our gas tanks in a way that consumes a great deal of corn for a small amount of fuel; producing meat means diverting food from plates to our farm animals in a way that consumes a great deal of corn for a small amount of meat. Both systems are grossly inefficient. Both corn ethanol and meat raise prices of grain worldwide - but as a society we've only connected the dots in the case of ethanol.

Corn ethanol raises grain prices. Meat raises grain prices. So what? The recession aside, Americans have largely absorbed the cost of rising food prices relatively painlessly. That's because on average, we spend only around 12-17% of our income on food. In impoverished nations the world over, the average household might spend up to 50% of their income on food. When the price of our corn goes up 20%, we complain and move on - or eat something else. When that happens in the rest of the world, people riot - and go hungry.

We've rejected corn ethanol because it's inefficient and unconscionable to fill our gas tanks with food when people are starving. For the same reasons, we should reject meat. By going vegetarian, you're helping to lower the global price of grain for the people who can least afford the artificially inflated price - those living on less than $2 a day.