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H15739

Headlines : Government

Summary:

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s latest report, 100,000 people are dying from hunger or its immediate consequences every day.

Jean Ziegler, a UN food expert, has characterized the burgeoning biofuel industry which turns maize into gasoline, as a crime against humanity.

So how long before we see Bush and Lula in the dock?

[Posted By Watson]

By Edith M. Lederer
Republished from The Independent

Millions starve to keep the gas price down

A UN expert yesterday called the growing practice of turning crops into biofuel “a crime against humanity” because it has created food shortages and sent food prices soaring, leaving millions of poor people hungry.

Jean Ziegler, who has been the UN’s independent expert on the right to food since the position was established in 2000, called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production to halt the growing “catastrophe” for poor people.

Scientific research is progressing very quickly, he said, “and in five years it will be possible to make biofuel and biodiesel from agricultural waste” — not from wheat, maize, sugar cane and other food crops.

Using biofuels instead of gasoline in cars is generally considered to cut carbon dioxide emissions, which cause global warming, although some scientists say greenhouse gases released during the production of biofuel crops can offset those gains.

[end excerpt]

Click here to read the rest of the article

Posted by Watson

RECENT COMMENTS

isn’t Lula a socialist?

a_pretty_rainbow @ 10/28/07 04:47:56

negative-sum game.

life is like that

remarcus @ 10/28/07 06:18:18

Liquid biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel are pure folly.

Biomass has the potential to become only a small part of the total energy equation.

Gasification of agricultural waste is today, a proven and viable technology and unlike ethanol, clean producer gas is non-corrosive and easily transportable by pipeline.

Biomass could be gasified locally where it is produced, safely and efficiently transported to regional processing centers via pipeline and converted to synthetic liquid base fuels that can fuel the existing transportation fleet without modification, utilizing the current liquid fuels distribution system.

Gasification is superior technology, especially when compared to corn based ethanol production.

Peace,

GWHunta @ 10/28/07 09:06:48

That picture of Lula really breaks my heart. He’s clearly been given The Lobotomy.

Please note what herr Ziegler is really planting here :

OPEN QUOTE

Researchers are looking at crop residues including maize cobs, sugar cane bagasse, rice husks and banana leaves, he said. “The cultivation of Jatropha Curcas, a shrub that produces large oil-bearing seeds, appears to offer a good solution as it can be grown in arid lands that are not normally suitable for food crops.”

Mercedes already has a pilot tree-planting project in northern India’s arid state of Rajasthan, and the oil-bearing seeds are being used for biodiesel for their new type of cars, Ziegler said.

Here’s what I think the Brit’s are really taking aim at :

Al has his money in Colombia, in case you were wondering what Plan Colombia was really about, and in Colombia, peasants and farmers are being pushed off their land so that palm oil plantations can expand to meet the demand for bio-fuels

So it’s important to note that the Biofuels that the Independent is hawking are a source for biofuel that “can be grown in arid lands that are not normally suitable for food crops.”

The pot is calling the kettle black.

microdot @ 10/28/07 09:24:34

Building more Moais.

mikecimerian @ 10/28/07 10:25:24

A better headline would have been “IMF-mandated export agriculture is a crime.”

Why? Let’s take a historical example: the Irish potato famine. At the time, ships packed with food were leaving Ireland every day for various destinations mandated by British trading houses and absentee landlords. The Irish had to sell these crops topay the rent or be kicked off their land by British mercenaries. They grew potatos on the side to feed themselves – it was essentially a plantation slave system run by British overlords. When a fungus killed off the potato crop, the Irish either starved or fled to the U.S.

Another better headline would have been “Industrial fossil-fueled agriculture is a crime.”

Why? It depletes the soils and loads up water tables and rivers with pesticides, herbicides, and excess fertilizers. It requires small farmers to spend most of their money on fuel, fertilizer, and petrochemical biocides all sold by global petroleum interests – this is the kind of agiculture pushed by the Good Samaritans in the Peace Corps, for example. It also tends to lead to export agriculture.

Now, consider biofuels – let’s say we have an organic farmer who produces more than she can sell – pototos, corn, sugarcane, rice, whatever. Rather than dumping it on the ground, she can ferment it into ethanol, distill it using renewable energy, and have a product that she can sell to help make ends meet.

It’s all in how you do it.

neurolingo @ 10/28/07 16:05:48

pototo potato!

Hubert @ 10/28/07 18:18:30

Now, consider biofuels – let’s say we have an organic farmer who produces more than she can sell – pototos, corn, sugarcane, rice, whatever.

The traditional use for surplus agricultural productivity, beyond sustenance has been to feed livestock in addition and to supplement both the sustenance and income derived from growing agricultural crops.

Peace,

GWHunta @ 10/29/07 10:07:26

Biofuel facts.

Corn to ethanol. One bushel of corn yields about 3 gallons of ethanol.

One bushel of corn also requires three to four thousand gallons of water required by the corn plants to transpire during the growing season.

The average American flex fuel vehicle burning E-85 will then require about 100 gallons of water per mile. (city)

GWHunta @ 10/29/07 19:42:44

Production of biofuels ‘is a crime’

It’s been a crime for 70 years.

Farming 6% of the continental U.S. acreage with biomass crops (see: Hemp) would provide all of America’s energy needs