(Space)Ship of Fuels

 

Percent rise in overall global food prices, 2005–08
 83

###

Percent decline in global cereal stocks, 2006–07 to 2007–08
 5
Years since global stocks have been as low as they were in 2007–08
 25

###

Consecutive years of severe drought in Australia, as of 2007
 6
Global rank of Australia as cereal exporter, 2004
 3rd

###

Percent rise in global demand for meat, 1997–2007
 29
Average kilograms of grain required to produce a kilogram of meat
 5

###

Percent rise in world average spot price of oil, May 2005 to April 2008
 154

###

Estimated percent of average global grain price increase due to biofuels demand
 30

###

Food share of household spending in the United States, percent
 10
In poor households in Nigeria
 52
In poor households in Pakistan
 55

###

Estimated annual global spending on pet food $42 billion
Estimated annual value of wasted food, U.S. households $43 billion
 

 

SOURCES: Food prices: World Bank. Cereal stocks, Australia export rank, meat demand: UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Australia drought:
various news sources. Grain-to-meat ratio: Biofuels Digest, “Meat vs. Fuel: Grain Use in the U.S. and China, 1995–2008.” Oil price rise: Energy
Information Administration. Grain price increase due to biofuels: International Food Policy Research
Institute. U.S. household spending on food: U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nigeria and Pakistan
household spending: World Resources Institute. Spending on pet food: petfoodindustry.com.
Wasted food: T. Jones, University of Arizona.

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Published in World Watch Magazine, July/August 2008, Volume 21, No. 4