Recently there's more and more talk about the biofuels as the replacement for the traditional fossil fuels and majority of politicians are saying how biofuels are the perfect renewable energy source which can be manufactured by literally anyone and therefore decrease the energy import dependence. Despite the fact that there are benefits in importing dependence, things must be observed on the more detailed way. When we look at origin, properties and methods of using biofuels more closely, it all results with the conclusion that biofuels are extremely dangerous for the further development of the humanity. Basically, biofuels production is in fact direct transformation of food to an oil, so additional demands for some types of food will increase the price of that food causing direct increase of hunger spreading in the world because bigger price means also smaller availability of that food to poor countries.
Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur from program "Right to food" said it on Friday 26th October 2007 that the production of biofuels will increase the hunger in the world and he's basing his statement on the fact that production of biofuels had a significant role in increasing the price of some types of the food to a record level. He also suggested a five year moratorium on biofuels production because he thinks in five years it will be possible to make biofuel and biodiesel from agricultural waste, and not from the food itself. He also said that "the effect of transforming hundreds and hundreds of thousands of tones of maize, of wheat, of beans, of palm oil, into agricultural fuel is absolutely catastrophic for the hungry people." Also he added that "wheat doubled in one year and the price of corn quadrupled, leaving poor countries, especially in Africa, unable to pay for the imported food needed to feed their people". At the end he concluded that the production of biofuels is actually the crime against humanity.
The influence of biofuel production on food prices is probably the most noticeable in the USA where farmers are paying more and more attention to corn production which is later transformed to ethanol, and increased production of corn means decreased production of other food and therefore increasing the price of that food. With increased production of other food there's also the competition between the ethanol manufacturers and meat manufacturers of who'll get more corn, so price of the corn, as well as its production is also increasing because of the high profit, and with this development meat price will rise in years to come as well.
Biofuels are at this moment mostly produced out of the sugar cane, corn, soybean and canola, and in the same time there are about 850 million people that don't have enough food. And when we look at the current trend of transforming the food in to a fuel that is momentarily happening in rich states, it's much easier to understand the words of Jean Ziegler from his speech in 2006 when he said: "Every child who dies of hunger in today's world has been murdered". |
