February 9, 2010
Take Action / Resources / Topics / Agrofuels
Agrofuels
Canada's Biofuels Mandate
Bill C-33, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, was passed in June 2008 in the midst of the new food crisis. The Bill allows the federal government to develop and implement regulations requiring 5% average renewable content in gasoline by 2010 as well as require 2% average renewable content in diesel and heating oil by 2012. Click here for more information and analysis.
Agrofuels and GE Trees
Biotechnology corporations are seriously promoting genetically engineered trees and new GE crops for use as biofuels (agrofuels). The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy September 10-12, 2008 Vancouver, British Columbia was all about genetic engineering and new technologies for biofuels - including, and explicitly, GE trees. The conference included the session “Cellulosic Ethanol from Softwoods Around the World” and the presentation “Biotechnology in Purpose-Grown Trees to Make Bioenergy Production" by ArborGen, the leading company researching GE trees.
This link with agrofuels was a major reason why the bid by African governments to establish an international moratorium on GE tree plantings was defeated at the United Natioin 2008.
“Fast growing, purpose-grown trees are an ideal feedstock platform for second generation bioenergy production…Producing renewable energy from purpose-grown trees is the latest step in the evolution of trees’ long and fruitful history and critical to meeting global bioenergy development needs.”
– from summary to BIO Conference presentation "Biotechnology in Purpose-Grown Trees to Make Bioenergy Production" in the session "New Feedstocks for Biofuels", a presentation from Barbara Wells of ArborGen.
Click here for more information on GE trees.
Other Information
The corporate "agrofuels" gold-rush has ignited a major global conflict / La ruée vers l’or des « agrocarburants » génère une crise globale. Find out why...
Click here to hear Pat Mooney on biofuels
Notice: CPAC recorded the April 30 panel in Ottawa and this will be broadcast on Saturday May 3 at 11:00AM. Video will then be available via www.cpac.ca
Stay tuned here for audio and video from the 6 events (Charlottetown, Halifax, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Montreal) April 28-May 2 2008. Click here to read about the speakers.
At the World Forum on Food Sovereignty, held in Mali in Africa, we and other delegates discussed how capital has manipulated terminology by adding the prefix “bio”, which signifies life, to renewable plant-based fuels. This is ridiculous, because all living things are “bio”. We could call ourselves bio-people, bio-John Smith, bio-soya, etc. Companies use the prefix “bio” to encourage the public to see their products as a good thing, as politically correct. So, at the international level, Vía Campesina has agreed to use more accurate terminology. These fuels and energy are produced from agricultural crops and so the correct terms are agrofuels and agro-energy.
- João Pedro Stedile is one of the leaders of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), Brazil’s Landless Movement
Reports and Articles
Click here to read The Food Crisis - and How to Beat It short opinion piece from the Food Security Policy Group and Food Secure Canada, May 25, 2008
The Dark Side of Brazil's Agribusiness Boom: Violence, Mutiny and Environmental Pillage in the Amazon, Center for the Study of the Americas, October 2008
Feeding the World with GM Crops: Myth or Reality? (8 page pdf) by GM Freeze, UK, June 2008 - The global food crisis is being used by some to call for more wide introduction of GM crops.
Via Campesina Position Paper - Small Farmers Feed the World: Industrial agrofuels fuel hunger and poverty, June 24, 2008
Food Sovereignty is the answer to the world food and energy crisis, Via Campesina, speech, May 29, 2008
Biofuels By Decree: Report from Burma, May - Burma’s military is implementing a nation-wide plan to plant eight million acres, an area the size of Belgium, with Jatropha curcas for biodiesel production. Two years into the campaign, the people of Burma have suffered forced labor, confiscation of farmlands, and threats to food security. At the same time, testimonies of crop failure and mismanagement expose how the campaign is a fiasco.
"Genetically Engineered Trees, Cellulosic Biofuels & Destruction of Forest Biological Diversity" Global Forest Coalition, Global Justice Ecology Project, February 2008
"The real costs of agrofuels: Food, forest and the climate" (72 page pdf) Global Forest Coalition, December 2007
Small scale sustainable farms are cooling down the Earth, Via Campesina, November 2007
GRAIN, For monitoring and reports including Seedling special issue July 2007 www.grain.org/agrofuels/
Agrofuels – towards a reality check in nine key areas, April 2007:
Executive Summary
Full Report (pdf 34 pages)
Miguel Altieri and Elisabeth Bravo, “The ecological and social tragedy of crop-based biofuel production in the Americas” April 2007
Agrofuels in Africa: the impacts on land, food and forests, African Biodiversity Network, July 2007.
P.E.I Biofuels Plant Under Fire at Agriculture Committee Hearing: Plant would create new market for Monsanto's genetically engineered sugar beet
Websites:
Biofuelwatch, Europe
GRAIN Agrofuels resource page
