Agrofuels

To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: DOWNLOAD

Agrofuels

The Looming Threat to Food, Farmers and Human Rights

by Sarah Mohan

People who support biofuels are convinced they are the answer to saving our environment, supporting farmers, boosting the economy and ending poverty. We’ve heard these kinds of claims before. But development research suggests that these claims are unfounded.

Since their environmental benefit is questionable at best, and since they serve to benefit agrobusiness more than farmers, biofuels are referred to as agrofuels by many concerned organizations, following the lead of the global farmer movement, Via Campesina.

Potential Benefits of Agrofuels
The basic idea is that plants can be processed into fuels, reducing our reliance on petroleum-based products. For example, corn can be transformed into ethanol, which can fuel cars. The proponents of agrofuels point to the renewable nature of agrofuels, and argue that they generate lower greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum products.

Moreover, the push for agrofuels helps push up crop prices, benefiting farmers. In developed countries, agrofuels could reduce grain surpluses where subsidies have generated an unprecedented quantity of agricultural output. And in less developed countries, increased demand for agrofuel crops will increase prices, ensuring higher revenues for poorer farmers.

All that Glitters…
While at first glance, agrofuels might look promising, research is showing the cons greatly outweigh the pros.

Agrofuel production uses a great deal of energy—to plant, fertilize and harvest the field, and to move and process the crops. In many cases, agrofuels use more energy than they create. It would be more energy efficient to use the land to grow the food so many need to eliminate hunger.

Agrofuel production has caused large-scale deforestation, particularly in countries with rainforests and abundant biodiversity. Cutting down trees releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change. Moreover, the monocropping that then occurs on the land causes soil degradation, causing soils to release more carbon into the atmosphere. There may well be a negative net impact on the environment.

Agrofuel production can reduce the already scarce land available in developing countries for local food consumption. In the global South, land is already being taken out of food production and being put into growing agrofuels for export to developed countries. It’s bad enough that the global North bears primary responsibility for causing climate change, but our solution should not take food from those already in need.

Agrofuel production can reduce biodiversity by relying on the monocropping of specific plants like sugar, corn and jatropha. Not only does monocropping reduce plant and wildlife biodiversity, but the industrial agriculture approach relies on chemical inputs that can seep into the water tables, causing health problems in local populations.

Increased global demand for agrofuels encourages farmers operating on fragile lands to plant crops that are ill-suited to local resource availability. Agrofuel crops are very water-intensive, taking water away from human consumption, sanitation or local vegetable production. The result is poor nutrition, health and dehydration—preventing the achievement of several of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Agrofuel production is a threat to farmer food sovereignty and control over their land. Farmers risk losing control of their land as multinational corporations consolidate control over the agricultural system, displacing small farmers and concentrating control among a handful of firms. This trend greatly compromises our ability to adapt to climate change.

Industry has predicted that, to keep pace with increasing demand for agrofuels, 20% of the planet’s arable land will have to be dedicated to agrofuels. We are simply not prepared for this. Before legislation is adopted requiring minimum agrofuel levels in gasoline, diesel and heating oil in Canada, we need to understand where these fuels would come from and what the social and environmental consequences would be.

The European Union, which had adopted ambitious agrofuel content requirements, has now backtracked after realizing not only that the fuels are unavailable, but also that they would have major environmental and food security impacts.

Contact info@usc-canada.org to find out more about agrofuels, our food supply, and the environment, and how your class or club can get involved.