In the push to achieve net-zero emissions, Canada’s rapid expansion of the biofuels sector could have negative consequences as studies show that biofuels production leads directly to food price increases, an environmental economist says. “There’s been a long-standing theme in the economics literature around ethanol and biofuels policy that there’s competition with the food supply,” said Ross McKitrick, professor of economics at the University of Guelph, in testimony to the Commons Committee on Natural Resources. “The run-up in corn prices in the later part of the last decade was attributed to an expansion, especially in the United States, of the ethanol mandate, and we would expect to see the same kind of effect here in Canada.” Biofuels, typically produced from agricultural crops, are essentially of two main types: ethanol and biodiesel. Ethanol is usually derived from corn and sugarcane while biodiesel comes from canola, soy, and palm. “If you’re going …
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