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Brazilian Ethanol Doesn’t Hurt Food Output, Lula Says
By Mr Ethanol | June 4, 2008
Bloomberg:
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejected criticism that ethanol production in Latin America’s biggest nation has cut food output, blaming higher oil prices and farm subsidies for record food prices.
Analysts and environmentalists have blamed biofuels for part of the increase in costs and food shortages that have sparked riots in more than 30 countries. Diversion of land from food crops to biofuels has contributed 30 percent of the rise, the Washington-based International Food Policy Research has said.
“Biofuels are not the villain menacing food security in poor countries,” Lula said today at a meeting in Rome of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. “They can play an important role in the economic and social development of developing countries.”
Brazilian cultivation of sugar cane for ethanol accounts for 1 percent of Brazil’s 340 million hectares of arable land, Lula said. Plantations haven’t encroached on land used for food cultivation or on the Amazon rainforest, he said. Ethanol from sugar cane gives off 8.3 times more energy than is needed to produce it, while for corn the ratio is 1.5 times, Lula said.
The U.S. imposes a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on imports of biofuels, including sugar-based ethanol from Brazil.
Topics: Brazil, Ethanol, News |
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