[SustainableTompkins] More on biofuels

[Tony Del Plato]

Warning voices over the expansion of biofuels
Is the expansion of biofuels a beneficial regional and national model? There
are those
who believe otherwise. In Argentina, the Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR) have
warned
of the effects of the present madness for biofuels.
GRR members Jorge E. Rulli and Stella Semino have systematically set out
their position
on this issue through a number of articles. According to them, this
situation equates to
another turn of the screw by the colonial model whose sole aim is to create
an economic
supremacy based on the export of agricultural commodities and the plunder of
our
resources.
Rulli and Semino point out that the intensification of a rural model which
is bound to the
interests of the global agri-business, is a model which has already turned
Argentina into
a 'soya republic' to the benefit of the multinational corporations dedicated
to the
production and sale of genetically modified seeds.
'At the present time', they remind us, 'Argentina has pledged its fertile
lands to a
monoculture whose sole purpose is to provide forage for intensively reared
cattle and
poultry in wealthy countries. But now, we have to make room for the massive
production
of biodiesel and ethanol needed by Europe and the United States to mix with
their
gasoline.
The principal objective of the biofuels industry is to provide exports to
rich countries, and
this exacerbates the struggle for land (bioenergy versus production of
agricultural goods).
GRR predict that this will bring about a rise in food prices in Argentina
and the rest of the
world.
The authors believe that 'the current changes in the use of agricultural
lands, used
previously for the production of forage or food, and now being increasingly
used for the
production of compounds for agro-energy. Will undoubtedly place at risk the
sovereign
rights of our citizens to healthy nutrition'.
This will occur in a country which has not yet been able to heal the scars
left by hunger.
Statistics indicate that in Argentina there are 260,000 malnourished
children under 5
years of age. According to the National Survey of Nutrition and Health which
was
carried out in December there is a malnourished child for every 153
Argentinians.
'Soya is not just a crop. It is a system. Soya is the general system which
places
conditions on any policy', the GRR members reiterate as they explain the
characteristics
of the current agrarian model.
They add: 'People's security and food sovereignty disappear in the
catastrophic
framework that accompanies the soya: through the creation of a
consumption-dependence
cycle, the uprooting and displacement of rural communities, hunger, poverty
and
environmental collapse'
'This model is not only unsustainable, but also poses a serious threat to
agricultural
systems and biodiversity. It is responsible for the eviction of rural
communities and their
displacement to towns. It destroys regional economies and rejects any
application of
agricultural sciences, favouring instead the sole use of agro-toxic
chemicals and
biotechnology,' allege Rulli and Semino.
On the other hand, biofuels have achieved notoriety, even among
environmentalists, as a
'carbon neutral' renewable source of energy, which therefore would produce
no
greenhouse gasses. Nevertheless, Dr Mae-Wan Ho, Professor of Biology, Open
University and advisor on the biotechnology of genetic engineering and
biological
security, assures us that this is a myth.
'There exist realistic estimates', she states, 'that show that the
generation of energy via
crops requires more fossil fuel energy than the energy they yield, and that
these do not
substantially reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses when all factors are
included in
the calculations. Additionally, they cause damage to the soils and to the
environment'.
Semino also disputes the supposedly benign effects brought about by the use
of biodiesel,
for example, in terms of a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
According to her analysis, the positive environmental balance sheet
proclaimed in
Argentina does not take account of the gases produced by changes in land
use, the
burning of scrub and forest to expand the land given over to growing soya,
the
nitrogenous fertilization which has taken place in recent years to increase
soya yields; the
15 million hectares of residue vegetation left after the crop has been
harvested.
'In the past few years, we have been against the land being used for the
provision of
forage and other commodities destined for international markets. We cannot
allow vast
expanses of land to be dedicated to agro-energy in the same way'.
With the above objections in mind, there is one final question to ask of
those who, in
order to continue feeding today's global markets, promote agro-energy as a
substitute for
fossil fuels: Have they considered the risks of using agriculture, not only
for food
production, but for the production of energy as well?
Marcelo Lorenzo, El Dia de Gualeguaychu.
Sources: BiodiversidadLa, Grupo de Reflexión Rural
(c) 2000-2007 www.pagina12.com.ar/República Argentina/All Rights Reserved


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-- 
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at
play. - Heraclitus