Biofuel production and the threat to South Africa's food security

Apr 2007

Biofuels production is increasing inexorably all over the world, driven by the rise in oil prices and the threat of climate change. This in turn is pushing up the price of food, especially of those food crops used to produce biofuels. This paper examines the likely effect of increased prices of maize, sugar, etc on South African consumers, especially on the very poor for whom such staples form a substantial proportion of their food basket.
It then looks at the SA Government’s industrial biofuels strategy, and finds it seriously flawed in its assumptions, and particularly in its analysis of the likely impact on the poorest: it suggests the strategy will result in a highly unequal contest between the poor having to compete for the basics on which they live, and the rich who want to burn it to run their cars.
Finally the paper makes four specific recommendations on how the strategy could be modified to ensure that the potential benefits of bioenergy are captured by the poor in rural areas, rather than monopolised by rich, urban consumers.

By: wahenga.brief

 
download this document:   120 kb
home