Transition to a Global Biofuels Economy

Farm Foundation hosted another segment in their “Transition To A Bio Economy” conference series last week in Washington DC, focusing this time on “Global Trade and Policy Issues.” There were a number of very interesting presentations made at the conference, but here is just a sampling that provided commentary relevant to corn.

Seth Meyer with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) discussed how biofuels policies are affecting commodity prices, trade and exports. “I think the last couple of years of proved that there are a lot of moving parts here, there are a lot of other things affecting export volume,” Meyer says. “It’s important to put biofuels policies in context.”

He noted that it’s difficult to predict the future for biofuels policy and how it might impact producers. “Things are very much in flux,” said Meyers. “There’s potentially a lot of policy risk for producers.”

Chuck Zimmerman interviewed Seth at the conference:

Another interesting presentation at the conference had to do with the impact of biofuels policy on global poverty.

Tom Hertel of Purdue University says they conducted an international study of 16 developing countries and the impact of biofuels production on the poverty level and found that “it’s a very complex issue” because higher food prices may have a greater or lesser impact depending on whether the poverty is located in more urban or rural areas. Since more poor live in rural areas, when agricultural prices are higher, they can actually benefit from higher returns.

You can listen to an interview with Tom here:

More coverage from the Farm Foundation conference can be found here on Agwired.com.