[B] According to the U.N., world food prices hit a record high in January, meaning food is now more expensive than it has ever beenin real terms since the U.N. first began tracking the numbers in 1990. At a time when much of the global economy is still strugglingto bounce back from the crisis of the past few years, high food prices could push millions back into poverty and cause millions moreto go hungry.        Less clear is what’s actually behind the spike in food prices. Bad weather plays a major role — a devastating heat wave inRussia last summer ruined grain harvests and prompted that country to suspend exports, jolting global markets. Excessive heat in theMidwest stunted the corn crop, leading to a 5% drop in production last year. Rising demand for food — especially meat, whoseproduction requires lots of grain and water — in the richer parts of the developing world is straining supplies. And then there’sethanol, the production of which sucks up grain and cropland that could be used for food.        Princeton researcher Tim Searchinger, in a column last week in the Washington Post, argued that biofuels are contributing to thefood crisis. He noted that biofuels — both corn-based ethanol in the U.S. and biodiesel, which depends on palm oil, elsewhere —now consume more than 6.5% of the world’s grain and 8% of its vegetable oil. That’s up from 2% and virtually nothing in 2004. In atight world food market, tightened by bad weather, that diversion of grain and oil makes a difference for food prices, especially indeveloping countries where a rise in the price of staples is passed directly to consumers. In developed countries, marketing andpackaging often make up the lion’s share of food value, cushioning consumers from a rise in staple grains. “Today, the market is outof equilibrium,” Searchinger wrote.       The ethanol industry in the U.S., though, is hitting back against the suggestion that it is pushing up food prices. In a press call onFriday, Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis complained that a “highly well-funded and highly orchestrated campaign of misinformation”was overstating the impact of biofuels on food prices. While 4.9 billion bushels of corn may be used for ethanol in the U.S., Buis saidthat the industry uses “No. 2 yellow corn” — a strain fed to animals, not humans. Also, some of the corn remains after its distillationfor food. The industry claims that up to 2 billion bushels of that original quantity can be recovered and used for animal feed, bluntingthe impact on food prices. “Ethanol today is 10% of our nation’s fuel consumption,” said Buis. “If it went away, you would have tofind more petroleum to replace that, and you’d see fuel prices go up.”       No one is arguing that biofuels are solely responsible for driving up food prices. Rising demand and bad weather play significantroles — droughts, heat waves and floods could become more common in the future as the climate warms. Speculators who buy upfood futures as investments contribute to price volatility, too, though it can be tough to trace their exact role. But it’s clear that in atighter market, diverting corn and other crops to biofuels will only act to raise prices. That might be worth it if biofuels providedsubstantial environmental and economic benefits, but there’s significant research showing that corn ethanol's carbon footprint isn’tmuch better than that of oil. Nor has ethanol done much to wean the U.S. off foreign oil — replacing 90% of our oil consumptionwith ethanol would require four times more corn than American farmers produce in total. The world will have 219,000 more mouthsto feed tomorrow, and another 219,000 the next day. We’d be wise to use our food for food, not for fuel.
【題組】23. What’s the best title of the article?
(A) The Abating Controversy Surrounding Biofuels
(B) The Imminent Food Crisis and How to Address It
(C) Why Biofuels Help Escalate World Food Prices
(D) Climate Change: The Culprit for Global Food Crisis