UN rapporteur calls for biofuel moratorium
More and more corn is being used for biofuel at the expense of food, according to Jean Ziegler.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food is demanding an international five-year ban on producing biofuels to combat soaring food prices.
Switzerland's Jean Ziegler said the conversion of arable land for plants used for green fuel had led to an explosion of agricultural prices which was punishing poor countries forced to import their food at a greater cost.
"232kg of corn is needed to make 50 litres of bioethanol," Ziegler said on Thursday. "A child could live on that amount of corn for a year."
Using land for biofuels would result in "massacres", he said, predicting a reduction in the amount of food aid sent to developing countries by richer ones.
That is kind of the point and reason our gov is promoting ethanol from corn so hard. We have a LOT of land and a lot of farmable area. We pay farmers to not grow crops. Corn to ethanol is terribly in efficient. If the US sold ethanol as 2% of the fuel used by cars we would consume the entire national corn product of mexico. Switching the average SU Joe to ethanol literally make food to expensive for nations that depend on corn export. Cuba's export is mainly corn Venezuela is also heavily depended on farming as is much of south america.
Ethanol is about crimping our enemies, not about reducing crude oil use.
