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Ethanol Is Like Cholesterol So Don’t Blame Brazilian Biofuels
By Mr Ethanol | June 6, 2008
Guardian.co.uk:
Brazil’s President Lula strongly defended his government’s biofuels programme at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation conference in Rome earlier this week. Since his remarks run directly counter to the Guardian’s call to “use this summit to press the case for stopping biofuel production” in certain circumstances and it is worth elaborating why liberals in the north are taxing the patience of progressives in the south on this issue.
Brazilian ethanol, unlike its incredibly inefficient North American competitor, has had no demonstrable impact on the recent increase in food prices, as the relative stability of world sugar prices shows. Nor is the industry a direct threat to the Amazon rainforest. As Lula pointed out, “Our sugar plantations are 2,000km away from our rainforest. That is the distance from the Vatican to the Kremlin.” Currently only about 1% of Brazil’s arable land is given over to the production of biofuels and, while there are legitimate concerns that a rapid expansion of the industry could displace other crops, the Brazilian government is actually trying to regulate both the industry and working conditions within it.
“Ethanol is like cholesterol,” Lula told the conference. “Good ethanol helps to tackle the pollution of the planet and is competitive. Bad ethanol depends on the fat of subsidies.” He directly attacked the production of biofuels from maize and other forms of crop substitution by western farmers. He also said that he was “astonished, indignant and devastated” by the lobbying efforts of agro-business and the petroleum industry to keep their tariffs and subsidies, which are costing countries like Brazil dear in lost exports. “The fingers pointing at us with indignation are soiled with oil and charcoal.” He argued that the only way of tackling the food crisis is to increase food supply and that some of the biggest obstacles to this are the protectionist policies of the rich world. The world would not be facing a food crisis, according to Lula, “if developing countries had been stimulated in a free-market context.” Read full article.
Topics: Biofuel, Brazil, Ethanol, News |
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