As the idea of “peak oil” becomes a stark reality, humankind is frantically searching for alternative sources of energy to fuel the consumer-addicted lifestyles of the elite. With the dwindling supply of fossil fuels in the world, it is envisioned that energy can be sapped from plant sources, in the form of ‘biofuels’. ‘Biofuels’ is a misnomer, since biofuels refer to methods of harvesting energy from recently dead organic matter, and covers a wide range of energy sources. A more accurate label is “agrofuels”, energy harvested from crops that are grown for that purpose, mainly in large, industrial scale monoculture plantations.
In December 2007, the South African Department of Minerals and Energy published its final Biofuels Industrial Strategy. The Strategy proposes the production of 400 million litres of agrofuel liquids over the next five years, 35 to be derived from sugar cane, sugar beet, sunflower, rapeseed and soya. Significantly, Jatropha and maize have specifically been disallowed in the Strategy due to Jatropha being an alien plant, and the latter, a staple food crop. Nevertheless, the maize industry continues to lobby vociferously for maize to be included in future agrofuels production.
The Biofuels Strategy has a direct bearing on the GM issue – biotechnology companies are investigating in transgenic techniques to boost the production of agrofuels, for example by increasing starch levels and reducing lignin content in certain crops.
South Africa’s current acreage of GM crops is reported to constitute of 29% GM maize and 59% GM soya. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Application (ISAAA), South Africa’s GM plantings for the 2006/7 period increased by 180% - from around 500 000 ha to 1.4 million ha. According to ACB “The Biofuels Strategy will provide impetus for more varieties of GM maize and soya to be pushed through South Africa’s lax regulatory regime and in so doing, present unacceptable risks to human health and the environment.”

By: H. Swanby (The African Centre for Biosafety)

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