[Agri Alert-116] Biofuels & Global Hunger.

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Agri-Alert 116 06.04.07

Let us grow foOd, not money,

Let us work towards a Green Orissa.

Contents:

1 Biofuels & Global Hunger.

Comments: Fidel Castro is down but not out. He has written a very realistic

article criticising the decision to produce biofuel from corn. We have already

carried a similar article earlier which showcased how converting corn into

biofuel would entail a huge loss of energy that no one is willing to admit. It

is also being pointed out that growing the amount of corn that would meet the

fuel needs of developed countries itself would require 90% of America's

agricultural land to be diverted to this produce. Fidel Castro thus questions

the wisdom to push developing countries to chase this dream.

As usual we would request you to kindly share similar stories from your own

areas and experience.

Agri Alert was temporarily suspended as we at Living Farms were engaged in

conducting a seminar on " Rice is our identity " which was held at Bhubaneswar on

the 4th of April. Regards.

Biofuels And Global Hunger

By Fidel Castro

01 April, 2007

CounterPunch

More than three billion people in the world are being condemend to a premature

death from hunger and thirst. It is not an exaggeration; this is rather a

conservative figure. I have meditated for quite a long time on that after the

meeting held by President Bush with the US automakers.

The sinister idea of turning foodstuffs into fuel was definitely established

as the economic strategy of the US foreign policy on Monday, March 26th last.

A wire service story issued by the AP literally reads:

WASHINGTON (AP), March 26 - President Bush touted the benefits of " flexible

fuel " vehicles running on ethanol and biodiesel on Monday, meeting with

automakers to boost support for his energy plans. Bush said a commitment by the

leaders of the domestic auto industry to double their production of flex-fuel

vehicles could help motorists shift away from gasoline and reduce the nation's

reliance on imported oil.

" That's a major technological breakthrough for the country, " Bush said after

inspecting three alternative vehicles. If the nation wants to reduce gasoline

use, he said " the consumer has got to be in a position to make a rational

choice. "

The president urged Congress to " move expeditiously " on legislation the

administration recently proposed to require the use of 35 billion gallons of

alternative fuels by 2017 and seek higher fuel economy standards for

automobiles.

Bush met with General Motors Corp. chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner,

Ford Motor Co. chief executive Alan Mulally and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler

Group chief executive Tom LaSorda. They discussed support for flex-fuel

vehicles, attempts to develop ethanol from alternative sources like switchgrass

and wood chips and the administration's proposal to reduce gas consumption by 20

percent in 10 years.

The discussions came amid rising gasoline prices. The latest Lundberg Survey

found the nationwide average for gasoline has risen 6 cents per gallon in the

past two weeks to $2.61.

I think that reducing and recycling all fuel and electricity operated engines

is an urgent and elemental necessity of all humanity. The dilemma is not in the

reduction of energy costs, but in the idea of turning foodstuffs into fuel.

Today we know with accurate precision that one ton of corn can only render as

an average 413 liters of ethanol (109 gallons), a figure that may vary according

to the latter's density.

The average price of corn in US ports has reached 167 dollars per ton. The

production of 35 billion gallons of ethanol requires 320 million tons of corn.

According to FAO, US corn production in 2005 reached 280.2 million tons.

Even if the President is speaking about producing fuel out of switchgrass or

wood chips, any person could understand that these phrases are far from

realistic. Listen well: 35 billion gallons, 35 followed by nine zeros!

Beautiful examples of the productivity of men per hectare achieved by the

experienced and well organized US farmers will come next: corn will be turned

into ethanol; corn wastes will be turned into animal fodder, with a 26 percent

of proteins; cattle manure will be used as raw material for the production of

gas. Of course, all of this will happen after a great number of investments,

which could only be afforded by the most powerful companies whose operations are

based on the consumption of electricity and fuel. Let this formula be applied to

the Third World countries, and the world will see how many hungry people on this

planet will cease to consume corn. What is worse, let the poor countries receive

some financing to produce ethanol from corn or any other foodstuff and very soon

not a single tree will be left standing to protect humanity from climate change.

Other rich countries have planned to use not only corn but also wheat,

sunflower seeds, rapeseed and other foodstuffs to produce fuel. For Europeans,

for example, it would be a good business to import the entire soybean production

of the world to reduce the cost of fuel for their automobiles and feed their

animals with the wastes of that legume, which has a high content of all kinds of

essential amino acids.

In Cuba, alcohol was produced as a sugar cane by-product, after three

extractions of sugarcane juice. Climate change is already affecting our sugar

production. Severe droughts alternate with record rainfall values, which hardly

allow our country to produce any sugar during a period of 100 days with adequate

yields during our very mild winter. So, in Cuba, we are either producing less

sugar per every ton of sugarcane, or the number of tons of cane per hectare has

been reduced due to the long lasting droughts in the plantation and harvest

seasons.

I understand that Venezuela would not export alcohol; it will use it to

improve the environmental safety of its own fuel. Therefore, despite the

excellent technology designed by Brazil to produce alcohol, its use in Cuba to

produce alcohol from sugarcane juice is nothing but a dream, the ravings of

those who entertain such ideas. In our country, the land which would otherwise

be devoted solely to the production of alcohol could be better used to produce

foodstuffs for the people and protect the environment.

All countries of the world without exception, whether rich or poor, could save

trillions of dollars in investments and fuel if they only replace all

incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs, which is what Cuba has done in all

the residential areas of the country. This would be a palliative that will

enable us to cope with climate change without killing the poor people in this

planet with hunger.

As can be seen, I am not using adjectives to describe either the system or

those who have become the owners of this world. That task will be brilliantly

accomplished by the information experts, the many honest socio-economic and

political scientists in this world who continuously delve into the present and

the future of our species. A computer and the increasing number of Internet

networks will just be enough to do that.

For the first time a truly globalized economy exists and a dominant power in

the economic, political, and military spheres that is in no way similar to the

ancient Rome ruled by emperors.

Some people may wonder why I am speaking about hunger and thirst. And I will

answer: this is not about the other side of a coin, but of the many different

sides of quite another object, maybe a six-sided dice or a polyhedron which has

many more sides.

This time I will quote an official news agency, founded in 1945, which is in

general very familiar with the economic and social problems of the world: TELAM.

It literally said:

Within hardly 18 years, nearly 2 billion people will inhabit countries and

regions where water might seem a far away memory. Two thirds of the world

population could live in places where the lack of water could bring about social

and economic tensions that could lead peoples to go to war over the precious

" blue gold " .

In the course of the last 100 years, water consumption has grown at a pace

which is more than twice the population growth rate.

" According to the World Water Council (WWC), the number of persons affected by

this serious situation will increase to 3.5 billion by the year 2015.

On March 23, the United Nations Organization observed the World Water Day,

urging all member countries to cope with the international water shortage as of

that day, under the auspices of FAO, with the aim of emphasizing the increasing

importance of water shortage in the world and the need for greater integration

and cooperation to ensure a sustainable and efficient management of water

resources.

" Many regions in this planet suffer from severe water shortage, where the

annual rate of cubic meters per person is less than 500. Every time there are

more and more regions suffering from a chronic shortage of this vital resource.

" An insufficient amount of the precious fluid necessary to produce foodstuffs,

the impaired development of industry, urban areas and tourism, and the emergence

of health problems are some of the consequences that derive from water

shortage. "

So much for the TELAM wire service.

I have not mentioned other important facts, such as the ice that is melting

down in Greenland and the Antartic, the damages caused to the ozone layer and

the ever higher titers of mercury found in many fish species which are part of

the regular people's diet.

Other topics could be addressed, but in these few lines I simply intend to

make some comments about the meeting held by President Bush with the chief

executives of US automakers.

--

Living Farms ( a project of DRCSC, Kolkata )

Plot No- 1181 / 2146

Ratnakar Bag - 2

Tankapani Road

Bhubaneswar -751018

Orissa

Phone- 9938582616

www.drcsc.org

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