Once-hidden EU report reveals damage from biodiesel | World | Reuters

Once-hidden EU report reveals damage from biodiesel | World | Reuters: "BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Biofuels such as biodiesel from soy beans can create up to four times more climate-warming emissions than standard diesel or petrol, according to an EU document released under freedom of information laws.

The European Union has set itself a goal of obtaining 10 percent of its road fuels from renewable sources, mostly biofuels, by the end of this decade, but it is now worrying about the unintended environmental impacts.

Four major studies are under way."

The Next Generation of Biofuels: Scientific American

The Next Generation of Biofuels: Scientific American: "Once the next generation of biofuels becomes available, you could swing by the local energy station and fill up on a liquid that is virtually identical to gasoline. It would be made by U.S. companies, not shipped from the Middle East. And even though biofuels release carbon dioxide when they are burned, the organisms they are made from draw an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the air—making biofuels essentially carbon-neutral."

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis | Environment | The Guardian

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis | Environment | The Guardian: "Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil."

Rome Food Conference

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Rome Food Conference

As government leaders from around the world meet at the U.N. food
conference in Rome, nonprofit organizations have also been meeting
there. The following analysts are available for a limited number of
interviews and are in contact with others in Rome from around the world:

FLAVIO VALENTE, valente@fian.org
Secretary general of FIAN [Food First Information and Action
Network], an international food rights group, Valente said: "I see very
little good coming from the governmental meeting in Rome. The World Bank
and International Monetary Fund are being turned to as if they will help
solve the problem, but it was largely their policies of structural
adjustment that made poor countries lose their capacity to control their
food policies and helped bring on the current crisis. The U.S.
government -- and to some extent the European Union -- are blocking
desperately needed advances; for example any reference in the final
documents to people having a right to food."

RACHEL SMOLKER, rsmolker@globaljusticeecology.org,
also via Orin Langelle, orin.langelle@globalforestcoalition.org
Research biologist at the Global Justice Ecology Project, Smolker
said today: "Unfortunately this crisis is being used as an opportunity
to advance GMOs [genetically modified organisms]. The question of land
is emerging as a central issue and business interests are grabbing it up
for biofuels and other purposes. Millions of people were added to the
ranks of the hungry in the last quarter. Meanwhile, the big agribusiness
companies are making huge profits."
Smolker recently wrote the piece "Agrofuels in the belly of the
hungry beast"
She also wrote "Go Ahead, Blame Biofuels: A switch from fossil fuels
to ethanol and its kin diverts resources from food production, leading
to hunger and destabilization of farming" published in Business Week,

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Cohen: Bring on the right biofuels - International Herald Tribune

An attempt to put the biofuels issue into a wider perspective.

Cohen: Bring on the right biofuels - International Herald Tribune:

The supposed crimes of biofuels are manifold. They're behind soaring global commodity prices, the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, increased rather than diminished greenhouse gases, food riots in Haiti, Indonesian deforestation and, no doubt, your mother-in-law's toothache.

Most of this, to borrow a farm image, is hogwash and bilge.

I'll grant that the fashion for biofuels led to excess, and that some farm-to-fuel-plant conversion, particularly in subsidized U.S. and European markets, makes no sense. But biofuels remain very much part of the solution. It just depends which biofuels.

Any comments? Has he missed something?

African NGOs call for moratorium on biofuels

afrol News - African NGOs call for moratorium on biofuels: "Uproar is slowly spreading among African civil society organisations and scientists, fearing that the biofuel revolution will bring more food insecurity, higher food prices and hunger to the continent. A petition calling for a 'moratorium on new agrofuel developments in Africa' has so far been signed by over 30 NGOs all over the continent.

Biofuels have already revolutionised agriculture in the US, Brazil and parts of Asia, and if EU energy commitments are lived up to, soon will do so in Europe. Now, foreign investors are queuing at African government offices to realise giant biofuel projects on this fertile continent, promising a new 'green revolution', greater independence from the oil market and even fuel export possibilities."