Election Section

As a graduating Berkeley student majoring in the biological sciences, a left leaning member of the San Francisco Bay Area and a voter wishing to make informed decisions, not a day goes by that I don't hear something on campus or in the news about biofuels. Biofuels are the controversial topic of conversation today, and with politicians voicing their support and violent food riots occurring in Haiti, perhaps it is time to seriously question the merits of biofuels and take some time for self reflection.  

The first time I began to really hear people discuss biofuels was during the recent financial agreement my university made with British Petroleum to the tune of $500 million dollars. This money was to go toward the research and development of alternative energy solutions, primarily biofuels. This deal was immediately met with student, faculty and public outcry concerning the ability of Berkeley to maintain its academic integrity and whether biofuels should have such heavy funding over other types of alternative energy.  

After all, biofuels promote the use of controversial GMO crops, and actually increase greenhouse gases when conversion of natural ecosystems to biofuel production land is taken into account. Not only that, but even if all of America's corn and soybean farms were converted to biofuel production, only 12 percent of our gasoline and 6 percent of our diesel needs would be met. Some people may suggest that this unmet need could be an opportunity for farmers in third world countries. However, these opportunities manifest themselves only through environmental degradation, and the displacement and starvation of the worlds most impoverished. 

As developing countries create momentum for biofuel production, the intensified industrial farming practices and rapid expansion of agricultural frontiers into ecosystems results in regions of soil degradation, poor water quality, and strained water tables. More than 91 million acres of rainforest and grassland have already been cleared in South America for soybean production, with an addition 143 million needed to meet world demand.  

Along with a damaged environment, farmers are pushed off their land so that biofuels can be grown in place of food crops to meet the energy demands of the United States. These practices have put the food security of many countries at risk. Recent weeks have seen food riots and unrest in Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Haiti. World food staple prices have risen by 83 percent in the past three years and threaten to put 100 million of the world's most impoverished people deeper into poverty. Specifically, corn tortillas prices in Mexico have gone up 400 percent. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk for starvation and the recent rise demand for biofuels is no coincidence. When starving people are weighed against filling up a 25 gallon tank with ethanol that could have feed a person for a year, perhaps other solutions to our energy problems should be examined. 

Yet my left leaning colleagues, politicians and government energy policies continue to push for biofuels. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama support further research in biofuels and government energy programs believe that biofuels are the key to fixing our energy dependence problems and meeting the quotas we have set for ourselves regarding sustainable energy. 

Not only do politicians fail to see the problems mentioned above, but they fail to recognize that biofuels are only a band-aid to our energy consumption and transportation system problems. They allow us the illusion that we are doing our part for the environment and foreign policy troubles, while still affording us the luxury of driving everywhere to meet our most basic needs.  

If we are to truly try to reduce our energy consumption, we must rethink the built environments that we live in and recognize that our dependency on other countries for oil, and soon for biofuels, is due to most people's complete dependency on their cars. How do we fix this problem? Living in high density, mixed use areas or Transit Oriented Developments and opting to walk, ride bikes and take public transportation are much larger steps of progress than the millions of dollars going into the production of GMO seeds for biofuels. This is not a problem that is easily fixed by buying a different type of fuel for our SUVs. It is one that requires a commitment toward changes in our lifestyles. 

At the end of the day, we must realize that biofuels help neither the environment, nor our energy dependence and start to look more closely at the ways in which we live our lives to find the solutions that researchers, politicians, and my university are struggling to find. 

Elizabeth Jean Dow is a UC Berkeley  

student.