China has lost fertile land equivalent of about the size of Maine each and every year for the past decade. To feed its population adequately, it should be adding that amount. Even Mervyn King -- Ben Bernanke's counterpart at the Bank of England -- recently blamed food prices on a weather-induced drop in supply.
Australia is facing such water shortages that the government is on the verge of turning off irrigation to 50,000 farmers. Rice production has dropped over 90% and cotton production has more than halved. Even wine grape production is impaired. With food prices set to triple, Australians may be set to go on a national diet.
Investing in Soft Commodities: The Biofuels Revolution
The emerging mania surrounding biofuel only exacerbates the problem. With corn-based ethanol the latest (government subsidized) rage, demand for crops as biofuel is set to double by 2030. Today, one out of five bushels of corn produced in the United States is going toward ethanol. With half of Detroit's cars set to run mixed fuels by 2012, ethanol demand is set to jump substantially. To meet its green goals, Europe will have to allocate 25% of arable land toward ethanol production.
Here the law of unintended consequences kicking in. Land shifted toward corn in the United States make soybeans more expensive. Ditto with wheat and barley, as traditional fields are turned toward rapeseed crops. The new demand for corn means a bidding war has erupted between livestock producers and the ethanol industry. We'll be driving cleaner cars, but eating less meat as global output of beef, pork and chicken is expected to plummet by $2 billion as a result.
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