[FLPERMACULTURE] Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils

[Joseph Wetmore]

ETC Group
Communiqué

November / December 2007
Issue #96

www.etcgroup.org


Go here to view the full 14-page report:
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/ 
materials/publications.html?pub_id=668

Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils

In the name of moving “beyond petroleum,” Big Oil,
Gene Giants,  governments, start-ups and others are
forming partnerships that will  extend corporate
control over more resources in every part of the 
globe – while keeping the root causes of climate
change intact. With
  
grudging recognition that first-generation agrofuels
are neither  economical nor ecological, investors turn
to other life-based  technologies, including synthetic
biology, for the next alternative  fuel fix.

Issue: In OECD countries, massive government
incentives and subsidies  – estimated to be as high as
US$15 billion/year – are stoking the  agrofuels boom
and spurring unprecedented alliances that extend  
corporate power over a larger share of the world’s
resources. Big  Oil, Big Ag, Big Brains (and more) are
teaming up to reap the only  ertain benefit of
agrofuels – increased profits. In this Communiqué,  
ETC Group maps the new corporate alliances propelled
by (and  propelling) the scramble for bio-based fuels.
We also include a new  wave of corporate investors who
are betting that synthetic biologists  
can turn microbes into fuel-producing factories.

Impact: With the agrofuels boom, the South’s land and
labor is once  again being exploited to perpetuate
unjust and unsustainable  consumption patterns in the
North. Fuel crops are competing with food  crops – and
small farmers and poor consumers are losing out.
Because
  
huge amounts of energy are required to grow these
crops, first  generation agrofuels (from crops like
maize and rapeseed/canola) may  actually accelerate,
rather than arrest, climate change. The  2007/2008 UN
Development Programme’s Human Development Report warns
 
that the consequences of climate change could be
“apocalyptic” for ome of the world’s poorest people.
In the face of catastrophic  impacts from climate
change, it is unacceptable to impose the added  risks
and burdens of agrofuels on the global South. The last
thing  the South needs is pressure to grow energy
crops instead of food  crops. Since agrofuels are
neither ecologically nor economically  efficient,
biotech proponents are promoting a new generation of  
feedstocks and techniques to accelerate fuel
production, including  genetically engineered trees.
These alternatives will present a slew  of problems.

Financial Stakes: Energy crops are the fastest growing
segment of the  world agriculture market. According to
industry estimates, the  potential global market for
liquid biofuels could expand from 11  billion gallons
per annum in 2006 to 87 billion gallons in 2020. The  
global agrofuels market was $20.5 billion in 2006,
projected to grow  to $80.9 billion in a decade. In
OECD countries, start-ups and  multinationals are
divvying up the annual ~$15 billion in government  
incentives for alternative fuels.

Policy/Action: Across the globe, civil society
organizations (CSOs)  are demanding an end to the
agrofuel boom. In the US and Europe, CSOs  
are calling for a moratorium on incentives for
agrofuels, including  the suspension of all targets,
subsidies and financing through carbon  
trading mechanisms. The moratorium should be adopted
by all  governments. Entrenched structures that
encourage unsustainable  transport of commodities,
people and products must be challenged.  
Governments failed to anticipate the negative social,
economic and  environmental impacts of
first-generation agrofuels. Governments  meeting in
Rome at FAO’s High-Level Conference on World Food
Security
  
and the Challenges of Bioenergy and Climate Change,
3-5 June 2008,  should reject first-generation
agrofuels and prevent the negative  impacts of
next-generation alternatives.


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