Last month a Wall Street Journal story said renewable energy venture capitalist Vinod Khosla should "take a vow of embarrassed silence" for his suggestion that ethanol production has had only a minor role in the growing global food crisis.
Khosla responded with an editorial in the Washington Post, clarifying his view that all types of ethanol do not have the same impact on the environment and food supplies–a view shared by SustainableBusiness.com.
Khosla states a statistic given last month by Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer: "Only 3 percent of the more than 40 percent increase we have seen in world food prices this year is due to the increased demand on corn for ethanol."
He also notes that corn ethanol is an important intermediate step in reaching full-scale cellulosic (non-food sourced) ethanol distribution and overcoming reliance on fossil fuels.
The food vs. ethanol debate is not black-and-white and requires a close examination of all contributing factors.
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