Sunday, April 06, 2008

Will there be 'Biofuel' food riots?

Even though Mugabe and his gang look to have decided on ignoring the voter's judgement in Zimbabwe, the bio fuel 'food riots' have started, and my home telephone and Internet have been down since yesterday, I'm in a good mood. As is every Welsh person, except perhaps Leighton James and a few like minded souls in the Swansea area. (In passing, is a Swansea man wanting Cardiff to lose to gallant Barnsley any worse than a Welshman wanting England to lose to the All Blacks?) Anyway, Cardiff are in the Cup Final. And Mrs Canada Goose has settled on her clutch of eggs in our garden. I'd put up the photograph except I can't do it from the Conservative Office in Welshpool, where I've had to come tonight to access the Internet, my emails and to moderate comments.

Back to the food riots, which I've been predicting for quite a long time on this blog - well more warning could be a possibility. There's an interesting article on the subject in the 'Business' section of today's Telegraph. What alarmed me over a year ago was realising the scale of the transfer of crops in the US from food to bio fuels. It seemed to me that when added to the exponential demand for food from China, India, and other 'growth' countries, this transfer was inevitably going to create increased demand, followed by increased prices, followed by increased hunger in the poorest parts of Africa in particular, followed by social unrest. Well, according to the excellent Liam Halligan, riots began last week in Niger, Cameroon, Senegal and Burkino Faso - though this was to do with shortage of rice rather than maize or wheat. But the market in these basic foodstuffs are interdependent. The UN is warning that the food riots witnessed last week "may become common in other places in Africa".

The context in which I've raised this has been the need to properly research the implications before rushing headlong down a gleaming new 'green' road because it seems an attractive option at first sight. It may be that a switch to bio fuels is sensible on a limited scale and if introduced in a controlled and sustainable way. But not the wholescale transfer from food to fuel that's happening at present. Like the UN, I hope that the world doesn't witness a human tragedy born of this well meant but uncontrolled rush to bio fuels.

7 comments:

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

Using land that grew food for human consumption to feedstock for biofuel production when there is a finite amount of food available for the masses was a stupid idea from the get go. We should be patient and wait on the new cellulose-biofuel technology, where we can convert cellulose (of the kind that is not used for human or farm animal consumption) and produce biofuels from that source (if indeed it will save on carbon dioxide emissions taking into account truck transport, etc).

We really should be thinking about consuming locally produced goods (both food and non-food items) instead of using up hydrocarbon fuel shipping goods from China across oceans. China in turn has to import mega-amounts of raw materials to meet the demand, and in turn has to build enormous numbers of coal-fired power stations in the short run as it builds up its nuke reactor based power stations, all because we demand cheap goods from China while our own people used to work in factories producing essentially the same stuff.

We now have a serious problem with so called NEETs ("Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training"), that portion of school leavers who took up factory/mining work etc. but who are now without a means to earn a living and are becoming a serious issue in the UK - just look at how the valleys have fared with factory and pit closures. About half of my valley are from the valleys, so I am very aware of this issue.

Glyn Davies said...

christopher - In general, the lack of foresight in transferring land used for food production to biocrops and its impact on the poor who cannot afford the higher prices is the point I was making - and its even worse when tropical forest is being cleared to grow biocrops.

Anonymous said...

I think that the souls in Swansea will be even more miserable following the Osprey's result ...

Glyn Davies said...

anon - It makes me miserable as well, and I live 100 miles away!

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

You're right Glyn, this is an issue that you feel strongly about and have done so for a long time, and is already impacting on your prospective constituents in Mont. what with food price hikes and the cost of base food commodities going through the roof and feeding into break and cereal prices in the shops. Pork prices are going to go up because pig farmers feed costs are going through the roof. You are very right to bring attention to this issue - you should be the 'Al-Gore' on this issue!

Glyn Davies said...

christopher - what's happening is that pig producers are going out of business.

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

With your prediction of food riots downstream of repugnant biofuel scandal, and in light of the recent passing of a giant in the film world and civil rights (Charlton Heston), one might be reminded of that thought provoking movie Soylent Green. A world where fruits, vegetables, and meat are extinct.