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BRASILIA: Strategies to develop biofuel production without
sacrificing food supplies will be one of the headline issues to be
tackled at a Latin America conference by the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) next week in Brasilia.
FAO studies show demand, and therefore prices,
for food is skyrocketing in developing countries, while interest is
also growing in transforming arable land into profitable biofuel
terrain.
Brazil has a leading role in the debate, being
both a major agricultural and biofuel exporter.
The FAO’s representative for Latin America and
the Caribbean, Jose Graziano, himself a Brazilian, says that even
though “there are no absolute truths in terms of biofuel, there is
a positive or negative effect on food security and the environment,
depending on how it is developed.”
Right now, he says, the food sector “is under
speculative attack,” made vulnerable by low stocks and demand that
has made it more precious.
Some countries, including Brazil, are benefiting
from the extra money flowing into their coffers from exports.
But the FAO sees that scenario as being
volatile, according to a report on biofuel production and food
security to be presented at the conference.
The report details the pros and cons of using
crops to make fuel, along with the scale of exchanges, the systems
used and the structure of markets dealing with the output.
It is not all negative. The report also notes
that, if properly applied, biofuel programs can bring benefits to
family-run farms across Latin America.
Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva,
on a trip to the Netherlands, denied there was a link between rising
food prices and biofuels, and called on “the responsibility of the
developed countries to reduce the distortions that affect the
developing countries” because of farm subsidies.
The FAO conference is to be attended by
ministers and senior government officials from 33 countries.
The head of the UN food agency, Jacques Diouf,
on Friday told a news conference in Rome that soaring cereal prices
are a growing threat to world peace and security and to the human
rights of developing countries facing food crises.
At least five people have died in violent
protests against high food and fuel prices in Haiti’s capital,
while similar disturbances have rocked Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast,
Mauritania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Philippines, Indonesia and
other countries in the past month.
In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been
deployed to avoid the seizure of food from fields and warehouses.
-- AFP
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