September 24, 2009
ADM says improved yields enough to meet food, ethanol demand
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), the world's largest grain processor, expects improved yields will deliver enough crops to meet rising demand for ethanol without hurting food supply in the next 40 years.
ADM, based in Decatur, Illinois, planned to boost output and storage capacity as global food needs rose, Chief Executive Officer Patricia Woertz said.
Rising use of biofuels in the US hadn't cut available food supplies because of greater crop yields, Woertz said.
USDA data showed that increased yields had provided for greater exports in recent years even as ethanol production consumes almost a third of the US corn crop.
Corn surged to a record price last year in Chicago, partly as oil and gasoline rallied, before plunging as the global recession eroded demand.
The grain has tumbled 20 percent this year, touching the lowest level in almost three years. The US is the world's largest corn grower and exporter.
The UN said that by mid-century, food supplies must double to feed the global population.
Crop and livestock output might instead fall as much as 25 percent by 2050, unless food production and handling practices were altered as water shortages increase and climate change affected land-use patterns, the UN warned in February.
Farmland degradation, dwindling fish stocks, the use of cereal grains for animal feed and crops for fuel might weigh on the food supply, the UN said.
Increased corn yields in the US, commercialisation of cellulosic-ethanol technology and the development of alternative biofuel crops on marginal land worldwide should ease conflicts between food and fuel, Woertz added.
