Among the bioenergy crops used for fuel ethanol production, sugarcane is the main feedstock utilized in tropical countries like Brazil and India. In North America and Europe, fuel ethanol is mainly obtained from starchy materials, especially corn. Different countries such as the United States and Sweden have defined strategic policies for the development of this technology in order to pro­duce large amounts of renewable biofuels and diminish their dependence on imported fossil fuels. However, the possible land competition between food and biofuels is not often regulated by the government, being considered the market law as the natural judge for this kind of competition. Different scenarios must be analyzed depending on the type of feedstock and participation of the country in the supply chain (producer or consumer)

12.1.1 Corn in the United States

The United States is a developed country, which will have a future dependence on bioethanol imports (the U. S. is going to become more of a consumer than a producer). This is explained by the fact that this country actually plants about 32 million hectares of corn, but this acreage is not going to be strongly increased in the coming years. The energy products in the United States are expected to be covered by imports from its neighbor, Latin America.

The production of bioethanol in the United States has increased from 4.16 billion liters in 1996 to 24.6 billion liters in 2007 (Renewable Fuels Association, 2008). But the target consumption for 2022 is 56.7 billion liters annually of etha­nol (U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 2007). The country uses corn instead of sugarcane as a raw material (sugarcane is produced with agroecological limitations only in Florida). The energy balance concerning corn conversion into ethanol is negative (for each unit of energy supplied by ethanol, more energy is used to produce it). The bioethanol productivity per hectare of corn is three times less than in the case of sugarcane.

Consequently the bioethanol production costs for corn are 80% higher than for sugarcane. The U. S. ethanol industry is viable only because there are major subsidies for bioethanol production.

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is an important food product from corn. It is more economical because the U. S. price of sugar is twice the global price and the price of corn is substantially low due to government subsidies. Overall analysis shows that, while the United States is a consumer of corn, it also is an exporter of this grain (Table 12.1).

The most important foods in the United States from corn are flakes and HFCS. Table 12.1 shows that these products are not greatly affected by biofuels produc­tion. However, the real concerns about food security in the United States are out­side the country. In past years, Mexico has become a net importer of genetically modified corn, absorbing the massive American surplus. As maize cultivation in Mexico becomes an economically impractical proposition, the farmers aban­don the land to migrate to Mexico City or to the United States. In this case, the consumers suffer the consequences. As an example, between 1994 and 2003, the price of tortillas (Mexican national food) quadrupled. The problem could increase for Mexico if American corn is used to produce fuel ethanol instead of tortillas. This, however, depends on the market and negotiations between the United States and producers in Latin America.

If this occurs, the price of corn will increase substantially. But an import complement to the food security discussion in corn-ethanol production is the existence of the by-product called dried distillers grains (DDGs), which is used

as livestock feed. DDGs are the high protein feed produced through distilling, vaporizing, and drying after fermentation in alcohol production from corn. DDGs contain abundant amino acid, citrine, and diversiform minerals, which are ben­eficial to the growth of the animals. Countries in Europe (especially Ireland), Mexico, Taiwan, Indonesia, Venezuela, Malaysia, and Israel are today importers of DDGs for animal feeding. Therefore, any change in the actual protectionist policies of the United States for corn and ethanol production could drastically affect the price of different food products inside and outside this country.