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Biofuels
Biofuels, fuels made from crops, have been touted by the EU, US and some major companies as a sustainable alternative to diesel and petrol. But the industrial production of biofuels is contributing to climate change; damaging biodiversity and threatening to make staple foods unaffordable for the world’s poor.
Picture: Brazil’s landless movement protests against sugarcane plantations
In theory, biofuels can be environmentally friendly, as they absorb carbon dioxide when growing and release it when converted into fuel.. But that’s not the whole picture. Industrial production methods have turned the dream of sustainable energy into a social and ecological nightmare.
Massive plantations of sugarcane to make bio-ethanol have forced people off land they grew food on. The USA’s hunger for bio-ethanol made from corn has already pushed up the price of wheat and maize on the world market, making these staple foods even more expensive for the world’s poor, who already spend 50 to 80 per cent of household income on foodstuffs. In the words of one African campaigner, “We’re taking away food from poor people’s tables and putting it into rich people’s cars.”
The massive plantations of soya and oil palm to produce bio-diesel have involved ripping up forests and draining peat bogs – both of which are massive natural storehouses of carbon – which speeds up climate change instead of slowing it. And the plantation workers are forced to use severely toxic pesticides like Paraquat.
The world’s poorest people will already suffer most from climate change. Widespread industrial biofuel production risks hurting them even more, while doing little or nothing to halt global warming. There is no substitute for shifting to a low carbon economy.
Find out more
Agro-fooling ourselves, Red Pepper October/Novemeber 2007 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/article551.html
Biofuelwatch http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/
Seedling magazine, agrofuels special http://grain.org/seedling/?type=68
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