With concerns over energy security and global warming mounting, governments and industries have begun a headlong plunge towards the development of alternative energy sources including the use of plant biomass to make ethanol (from sugar and starch) and agrodiesel (from oils). According to the authors, these agrofuels are not the panacea that we might have hoped for but a recipe for global disaster.
Already, many countries have set goals for agrofuel production. Brazil is already producing 40% of transportation fuels from sugar cane ethanol and soya biodiesel. The European Union has mandated that 10% of transportation fuels be derived from plant biomass by 2020. In the United States, George Bush stated a goal of replacing 20% of U.S. transportation fuel with ethanol by 2017. China, Japan, India and other countries are also working towards fueling their burgeoning economies with agrofuels. The result of these mandated targets and goals is a very rapid growth of markets for agrofuel feedstocks and technologies, massive investments and discussions about international trade agreements.
Because the most energy rich plant feedstocks grow in (sub-)tropical climates, the expansion of agrofuel production for export is impacting (sub-)tropical agriculture and the people in (sub-)tropical countries most heavily. Land formerly used to produce food is increasingly being used to produce energy crops (sugar cane, maize, soy, palm oil, jatropha and others) for export to wealthy northern countries, more native forests are being cleared, and Indigenous Peoples and small farmers are being displaced from their traditional lands.
Authors argue that the rapid expansion of agrofuel production over the past few years is alarming and is driven by the financial interests of large corporations and the geopolitical interests of large countries like the US rather than a well thought out strategy for mitigating climate change and providing for the needs of people both north and south of the equator.

By: Global Forest Coalition - Global Justice Ecology Project

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