Pakistan

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Biofuel production ‘a crime against humanity’

“Producing biofuels today is a crime against humanity,” according to UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler. He said that massive increase in biofuel production will have a drastic effect on food prices. The West used to kill people through wars and genocides but now it is creating massive food shortages to kill poor people of the world.

Agricultural commodities are used to produce ethanol. This is causing immense food shortages around the world.

Ziegler also accused European Union for dumping agricultural commodities in Africa. “The EU finances the exports of European agricultural surpluses to Africa ... where they are offered at one half or one third of their (production) price”. “That completely ruins African agriculture” Ziegler said.

Apart from dumping crops, the West is using food to produce ethanol. Total ethanol production was 3.9 billion gallons in 2005 or 2.9 percent of the total gasoline pool and ethanol use increased to 5.4 billion gallons in 2006. “Ethanol blended into gasoline is projected to account for 4.3 percent of the total gasoline pool by volume in 2007, 7.5 percent in 2012, and 7.6 percent in 2030” according to Energy Information Administration of USA.

Energy hungry USA is waging wars to acquire energy sources around the world. Increase in ethanol production cannot satisfy demand for fuels in USA. However, it will make lives of poor people in the world more miserable.