Biofuel production will contribute to the avoidable deaths of millions of people in the year 2008. It will push millions of the poorest families to the clutches of death, thanks to our leaders turning mountains of food into fuel. Unless the biofuel bandwagon is stopped, by the year 2020 the world will be diverting 400 million tons of grain each year into ethanol production, which is equal to the entire current global rice harvest. There have been food riots in 22 countries, and 33 nations face political instability as staple food prices have nearly doubled in the last 3 years. Biofuel production is equivalent to a new tax on food that starves the poor in order to feed money to rich agricultural corporations.
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul stated that production of biofuels is “30 to 70 percent responsible for the rapid rise in food prices.” Bill Clinton stated that, “What’s really hurting the food markets is America moving into ethanol.” Every year humans burn the equivalent of 400 years worth of total planetary vegetation in the condensed form of fossil fuels. How are we going to replace all that concentrated biomass energy by growing a relatively small volume of biofuel crops on our overpopulated, fresh water-starved planet?
As the production of biofuels speeds global warming by releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gases, why is our city Web site still bragging that Eugene city buses burning canola oil is environmentally beneficial?
Christopher Calder
Eugene