[NYTr] Battle Between Food and Fuel

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) - Dec 13, 2007
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Battle Between Food and Fuel

By Astrid Bernet
AIN Special Service

The production of ethanol from corn is extending intensively in the 
world.  An example of this is that some 3.3 million hectares of land 
are used in the United States with a massive requirement of energy for 
fertilizers among others to produce 10.6 billion liters of ethanol 
which only provides 2 percent of gasoline a year for automobiles.

Recent data from the fifty states believe that the production of 
ethanol lacks net energy benefits and requires more fossil energy to 
produce it compared to the real product.  To summarize, due to the 
relatively low energy density of ethanol, approximately three gallons 
of this product are needed to re place two of gasoline.  However, the 
US production of ethanol will only benefit annually the giant 
agricultural businesses.  According to statistics, in 1980 taxes were 
introduced for this product, but made an exception of 54 cents for each 
gallon for those used in naphtha with 10 percent of ethanol, bringing 
along 10 billion dollars of subsidy for the Archer Daniels Midland 
Transnational.  In 2003, over 50 percent of the US ethanol refineries 
belonged to agricultural groups and in 2006, 80 percent of them were in 
the hands of corporations with some 556 million dollars in projected 
earnings, benefiting the largest producers.  By the end of this year, 
the number should reach 1.3 billion dollars.  We must not forget that 
the Bush administration proposes to reduce gas consumption to 20 
percent in ten years, requiring some 35 billion gallons a year of 
alternative fuel by 2017, in addition (of course!) to the contribution 
of foreign providers of biofuel, particularly the widely used ethanol.

Currently, the US agricultural area is some 625 000 square hectares, 
supplying the oil demand for biofuel of some 1.4 million square miles 
of corn for ethanol and some 8.8 million square kilometers of soy for 
bio diesel. Summing up, in the battle between food and fuel, the poor 
and those that suffer from hunger in the developing countries, the 
prices of food will remain at the mercy of the empire for the large 
population groups. Proof of this is the increase in the prices of corn 
which, proportionately rose in a recent increase (400 percent) of the 
price of tortilla in Mexico, member of NAFTA and as is evident, also 
subjected to the commercial dictates of Washington.  Deciding to inject 
food into the fuel tanks of 800 million US cars or make it more 
accessible to the stomachs of over 3 billion human beings in the world 
is an unavoidable problem that many governments must analyze seriously.