RE: SV: SV: [OPE] The genocidal implications of biofuels

gerald_a_levy@msn.com

Hi Martin:

Thanks for calling our attention to this WB Policy Research 
Working Paper by Ivanic and Martin.  The authors of the study 
speak to the issue made in our exchange in the following: 

"The high shares of staples foods in the expenditures of poor
people increase their vulnerability to food price rises, while
*the limited share of output marketed by small, subsistence 
farmers reduces their benefits*" (p. 20, emphasis added, JL)

Hence, one has to go beyond looking at this issue in terms 
of "differentiating between producers and consumers". One
should also differentiate among producers.

In solidarity, Jerry

> though, go beyond simply differentiating between producers and consumers. They note > This is the first study I've seen on the global increase of food prices. They have attempted to perform an analysis differentiating between producers and consumers, similarly to what I've suggested earlier on this list. The conclusions reached by the World Bank authors paint a very dismal picture. The net impact, they claim, will set back poverty reductions several years. > "Summary: In many poor countries, the recent increases in prices of staple foods raise the real incomes of those selling food, many of whom are relatively poor, while hurting net food consumers, many of whom are also relatively poor. The impacts on poverty will certainly be very diverse, but the average impact on poverty depends upon the balance between these two effects, and can only be determined by looking at real-world data. Results using household data for ten observations on nine low-income countries show that the short-run impacts of higher staple food prices on poverty differ considerably by commodity and by country, but, that poverty increases are much more frequent, and larger, than poverty reductions. The recent large increases in food prices appear likely to raise overall poverty in low income countries substantially." > http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20080416103709ed: from f1n7.sp2net.wfu.edu (f1n7.sp2net.wfu.edu [10.1.16.117]) by f4n1.wfunet.wfu.edu (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id m6OEpWtg019771 for <cottrell@ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu>; Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:51:32 -0400

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