The Other 'Miracle'

By and large, we have focused on policy measures to mitigate and avoid global warming and other environmental impacts of transportation: CAFE, CfC, gasoline tax, cap-and-trade, etc. We have also given some time to technological "fixes," usually electric and hybrid vehicles. (For more on different worldviews through which one can view environmental problems, Clapp and Dauvergne's Paths to a Green World is a fantastic treatment). Perhaps it is because they are so fraught with problems, we have not talked much about biofuels. One of their many problems is the theory that biofuels will raise food prices. This impact is no longer hypothetical:

But with food prices rising sharply in recent months, many experts are calling on countries to scale back their headlong rush into green fuel development, arguing that the combination of ambitious biofuel targets and mediocre harvests of some crucial crops is contributing to high prices, hunger and political instability.

Seems that we might just have to change our behavior.

From New York Times