The article in the url link below reports a proposal by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to expand the production and international trade of bioenergy beyond its current narrow concentration of producing countries (Issues: Environmental Sustainability, p171):
“The US, Europe and Brazil last year accounted for almost 95 per cent of the world's biofuel production. Canada, China and India produced most of the rest.”
By encouraging production in a broader range of countries, the hope is that greater demand will be met, while allowing farmers in many developing countries to exploit the potential that exists for them to generate bioenergy:
“Biofuel production, mostly of corn-derived ethanol in the US and rapeseed-derived biodiesel in Europe, doubled between 2000 and 2005, according to the IEA. In 2005, however, that was still just 1 per cent of global road-transport fuel.”
The article argues that because the developed countries generating bioenergy are diverting resources that would otherwise be used for food production, the current production strategy is unsustainable in the long run:
“Corn prices this year reached an 11-year high of Dollars 4.30 a bushel while wheat prices last week rose to Dollars 6.96 a bushel, the highest since 1996. The US biofuel industry last year consumed about 20 per cent of the country's corn crop, far more than in the past.”
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
UN food chief urges rethink on biofuels.
By JAVIER BLAS
416 words
15 August 2007
Financial Times
London Ed1
Page 7
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d17df58-4ac7-11dc-95b5-0000779fd2ac.html
