Food for fuel policy may result in deforestation

No effort made to expand land allotted for rice production


Meanwhile, several countries, including the Philippines are rapidly adopting legislation in compliance with a new global energy policy and in the light of international negotiations to address climate change in what will be a post-Kyoto protocol regime starting in 2012.

"However, neither the United States, the European Union, nor Japan, have the capacity to achieve their energy targets from their available agricultural land and crop production. If the US was to replace all its fuel with ethanol produced domestically, no land would be left for food production. This means that increasing the use of biofuels in Northern developed countries will depend on production in Southern, mostly tropical, agricultural areas like the Philippines," said Moreno.

Pelegrina said following the passage of the Biofuels Act, the Philippine government embarked on several investment projects, committing 1.2 million hectares to growing jatropha only and another one million hectares to grow sorghum, corn, and rice meant for biofuel production in the deals clinched with Spain and China.

"The government has made no effort to expand the area for rice production covering only four million hectares while it continues to allocate more resources for agrofuel production, particularly from its environment, agriculture and energy budget. The Biofuels Board of the Department of Agriculture alone has allotment of as much as P90 million in the 2008 budget.

Moreno said corporate interests have dictated the official discourse on climate change and biofuels while pinning the blame on transportation as the culprit for massive greenhouse gas emmissions.

"If global warming is a result of the industrial urban way of life and its ever-increasing demand for energy, promoting monoculture in agriculture and deepening the use of oil-intensive agroindustrial model to produce biofuels can never be a solution," said Moreno. - GMANews.TV