June 02, 2007
Biofuels and Beer Prices
This ethanol bit is getting out of hand--it's started to push up the price of beer:
Like most Germans, brewer Helmut Erdmann is all for the fight against global warming. Unless, that is, it drives up the price of his beer.
And that is exactly what is happening to Erdmann and other German brewers as farmers abandon barley -- the raw material for the national beverage -- to plant other, subsidized crops for sale as environmentally friendly biofuels.
In the past two years, the price of barley has doubled to $271 a ton as farmers plant more crops such as rapeseed and corn that can be turned into ethanol or biodiesel, a fuel made from vegetable oil.
HT: Michael Sanera of the Locker Room
Posted by E. Frank Stephenson at 10:59 AM in
Economics
