We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits. ‘The reality is that people are dying already,’ said Jacques Diouf, of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). ‘Naturally people won’t be sitting dying of starvation, they will react,’ he said. The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted ‘massacres’ unless the biofuel policy is halted. We are all part of this drama whether we fill up with petrol or ethanol. The substitution effect across global markets makes the two morally identical. Mr Diouf says world grain stocks have fallen to a quarter-century low of 5m tonnes, rations for eight to 12 weeks. America – the world’s food superpower – will divert 18pc of its grain output for ethanol this year, chiefly to break dependency on oil imports. It has a 45pc biofuel target for corn by 2015. The EU has targeted a 5.75pc biofuel share by 2010, though that may change. Europe’s farm ministers are […]