The ecological and social tragedy of crop-based biofuel production in the Americas

[Jcrowley]

The ecological and social tragedy of crop-based biofuel production in the Americas

Miguel A Altieri
Professor of Agroecology
University of California, Berkeley

Elizabeth Bravo
Red por una América Latina Libre de Transgenicos
Quito, Ecuador

The nations of the OECD—the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, who account for 56% of the planet’s energy consumption, are desperately in need of a liquid fuel replacement for oil. Worldwide petroleum extraction rates are expected to peak this year, and global supply will likely dwindle significantly in the next fifty years. There is also a great need to find substitutes for fossil fuels, which are one of the major contributors to global climate change through the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

Biofuels have been promoted as a promising alternative to petroleum. Industry, government and scientific proponents of biofuels claim that they will serve as an alternative to peaking oil, mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing farmer incomes, and promoting rural development. But rigorous research and analysis conducted by respected ecologists and social scientists suggests that the large-scale industrial boom in biofuels will be disastrous for farmers, the environment, biodiversity preservation and consumers, particularly, the poor.

In this paper we address the ecological, social and economic implications of biofuel production. We argue that contrary to the false claims of corporations that promote these “green fuels,” the massive cultivation of corn, sugar cane, soybean, oil palm and other crops presently pushed by the fuel crops industry—all to be genetically engineered—will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but will displace tens of thousands of farmers, decrease food security in many countries, and accelerate the deforestation and environmental destruction of the Global South.

http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1662

[Peace Patriot]

1. It's time we paid close attention to groups like this (FoodFirst). They know what's what.

The problem we need to solve--after we restore transparent vote counting in the US--is this phenomenon of bad actor corporations and global corporate predators, who are going around selling profitable non-solutions to this massive ecological crisis, and forcing those typically degrading, monoculture solutions on governments and peoples through undemocratic means--via power and money, and sometimes violence. They need to have their charters pulled. They have too much power. They are monopolies--just like the railroad barons and cotton barons and oil barons of old. They need to be dismantled, and their assets seized for the common good. THAT is what the people of the US can contribute to solving the problem--restoring democracy here, so that we regain our sovereign power over these often-US based corporations, and can use the strengths of the US in favor of the best solutions.

Solutions to all ecological problems--but most especially to global climate change--are often not simple because nature is not simple. Nature is a very complex web of life, involving the entire atmosphere and the biosphere and how they interact, in particular places and between places. Massive conversion to one crop has proven to have disastrous impacts on the environment. The solution, I think, will have to be as intricate and as complex as nature itself, and as creative and innovative as the human mind can devise, and then some--leaving a lot of room for that which we cannot imagine or test for. A million solutions, probably, by a variety of individuals, peoples, industries and governments.

Global corporations--with their massive industrialization, massive pollution of air and oceans, massive tanker operations around the globe, massive deforestation, and massive interference in democratic government--have caused this problem. They are the main culprits. And they are not going to solve it. They are merely going to profiteer from it--unless they are stringently controlled, de-monopolized, or eliminated as economic/political entities. As constituted, they will not mend their ways unless they are forced to mend their ways, by strong regulatory and legal action. The US and other national governments need to come together over this, and present a united front to stop the escalation of global warming by current corporate activities and by imposing phony solutions that will make things worse. And, once we have solved that problem--the economic organization of world markets by global corporate powers for the profit of the few--then we have to figure out how to put global warming into reverse.

Quite a plateful. I'd say that restoring transparent vote counting in the US is Priority no. 1, for those of us who live here. Our country is one of the biggest polluters, and currently is one of the least cooperative nations on earth, in trying to solve this problem. It is our job to correct this.

[mike_c]

2. if we could recommend a reply for the Greatest Page...

...I'd recommend this one ten thousand times.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Just read the whole thing. Stunning report. Corn/soy biofuels will be disastrous--

--they make an overwhelming case against it--for farmers, for the poor, and for all food supplies, and will be most disastrous for the environment, especially as to global warming impacts. Giant corporations--BP, Shell, Chevron, Monsanto, Dupont and others--are pushing it hard. Huge increase in pesticides and GMOs. Huge amounts of deforestation (forests are the earth's natural atmosphere cleaners). Huge amount of erosion. Massive loss of food crop land, and small food farmers. Huge loss of jobs, because this is mechanized corporate farming. And on and on and on. All to feed the vehicles and other fuel needs of the USA. And all to make these global corporate predators even more rich and powerful than they already are.

I knew Bush was up to no good in Brazil. I hadn't sufficiently considered what Bush might be up to, in the ethanol deal. Up to no good, of course. Shilling for Chevron, Monsanto and brethren.

It's no wonder they won't let a liberal government take power here. We might have some say in a liberal government. And Bush, pathetic criminal that he is, is hanging on by tooth and claw. He simply had to produce some "deliverables" for his corporate masters, on the South American tour. This was probably it--pushing Brazil and others into biofuels (at the cost of all of the above). He generally failed in all other respects. He got publicly lectured by Latin leaders, from Brazil to Mexico, on the sovereingty of Latin American countries, and specifically on interference in Venezuela (--and there is a huge on-going scandal about it in Colombia--rightwing paramilitary drug trafficking, murder and plots against Hugo Chavez at the highest levels of the rightwing Uribe government).

If you want to understand what's happening in the ignored half of the western hemisphere, you would do well to start with this report. www.venezuelanalysis.com is also a good source. Generally what's happening is good--great, even--a truly wondrous democracy movement. But this is not good.

[enough]

5. Stunning report is right. The whole thing is a must read. I hope this makes it into

Sunday on DU and gets the attention it needs.

[Boo Boo]

4. k&r /nt

[nosmokes]

6. Excellent post as usual. thanks jcrowley!

it's not simply the use of food crops for fuel, but the then compounding that by trading it w/ the US under terms negotiated for NAFTA and CAFTA and other trading agreements that don't come close to meeting the standards of fair trade.

[Bear down under]

7. There is something not-quite-right.....

... about the whole idea of turning food into fuel for motor vehicles when so many people in the worlkd are starving.

[Vincardog]

8. The most telling line is

The only way to stop global warming is to transition away from large-scale, industrial farming to small-scale and organic agriculture, and to decrease worldwide fuel consumption through conservation.

[reprobate]

9. There's one clean, positive alternative: Algea generated bio-diesel.

Read THIS

And it's not limited to crops. Every sewage and water treatment plant would be a generator of bio-diesel.

[roody]

10. And don't forget hemp!!

[reprobate]

11. Ummmm. Hemp good. Hemp flower better.