The University of Iowa’s student paper, the Daily Iowan, recently explored what has become an international debate: the effect of biofuels on food prices worldwide. In response to a report recently issued by British newspaper The Guardian asserting that 75% of the increases in food prices are due to biofuel production, The Daily Iowan interviewed local agricultural and political experts who felt The Guardian’s estimates were unreliable. Iowa State University economist David Swenson said the report failed to account for important factors that have contributed to the rise in food prices – including energy and fertilizer prices, and the decline of the dollar – while members of the Iowa ethanol industry expressed disbelief at the report’s assertion, attributing the high price of corn to the lack of surplus stock from previous years and pointing out that worldwide ethanol production uses less than 3% of the world's corn crop.

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Read The Guardian’s original report