Priorities of the Capitalist System

One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new analysis.
"The grain grown to produce fuel in the US in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels," said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute.

A World Bank report argues that the drive for biofuels by American and European governments has pushed up food prices by 75%. That is in stark contrast with the White House's claims that using crops for fuel, rather than food, has only pushed prices up by 2-3%.Rising demand for food from China and India, back-to-back droughts in Australia are the report says, marginal.

"Rich countries are directing their attention to high fuel prices and turmoil in the financial sector, but the number of malnourished people in the world rose by 44 million in 2008," Oxfam said. "Nearly one billion people are now going hungry."

"The needs of the hungry must come before the needs of cars," said Meredith Alexander, biofuels campaigner at ActionAid in London.

SOYMB can safely say , that while capitalism remains the need for profit will always come before the needs of the hungry - that is the system we live under.