Ethanol: Boom or Bust?

The price of corn doubling in the last year has had a ripple effect on other food as well.

Ethanol fever is gripping the United States.

With the production of ethanol from corn expanding massively in the United States, environmentalists are hailing it as a way to combat global warming and energy dependency.

But others argue that the boom will drive up world food prices, putting additional pressures on low-income countries that import food. One study predicts there could be as many as 600 million more chronically hungry people in the world by 2025 as a result of the biofuels expansion.

People & Power’s Bob Abeshouse investigates the tension between the ethanol push and world food prices, and the impact it’s having on developing countries like Mexico.

This episode of People & Power airs from Sunday 16th September 2007 at the following times:

Sunday: 14:30GMT
Monday: 01:30GMT
Tuesday: 06:30GMT and 13:30GMT
Saturday: 03:00GMT and 20:30GMT

Watch Part One here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqma95Rc8Ow

Watch Part Two here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C4W9Z0rt6M

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