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15 April, 2008
In an interview with the Radio Television of Bavaria, Ziegler affirmed that the burning of hundred of millions of tons of corn, cereals, rice and other products to produce biofuels was a main reason in the strong rises of the food prices, although he admitted that it was not the only one. Other factors mentioned by Ziegler are the politics of the International Monetary Fund – that forces many countries of the Third World to have an agriculture guided to the export at the expense of the economy of subsistence – and the speculation in the markets that helps to rise the food prices. Ziegler said that at the moment we are at the threshold of a dangerous situation in which the revolts for hunger can multiply, made by people that fight for survival and fear for their lives. Regarding the biofuels he pointed out that the original arguments in favor of them, so much from the point of view of the climate protection to the strategic point of view, weren´t absurd, but before the threat of a humanitarian catastrophe they have lost validity. “The arguments don’t have validity before the disaster that threatens us. Today, the use and development of biofuels is a crime against the humanityâ€, he aimed. The declarations of Ziegler woke up answers in Brazil, that came out to clarify yesterday that the plantations of sugar cane used to generate biofuels don’t affect the food production. The Secretary of Communication of the Presidency pointed out that the surface dedicated to the foods in Brazil didn’t decrease although the biofuels volume is sustainably growing. A spokesman of the Brazilian Foreign Secretary said to the press that the Special Rapporteur Ziegler didn’t probably want to make reference to Brazil, where the ethanol is extracted from sugar cane. According to the diplomatic source, Ziegler referred to the ethanol produced in the United States, made out of corn, that is responsible for the increase of that cereal. The Brazilian minister of Agriculture, Reinhold Stephanes, affirmed that “all advance of the biodiesel in Brazil is given in areas of cattle and it doesn’t harm the food exploitation […] Brazil is out of that catastrophic scenario.†The polemic for the influence of the biofuels in the increase of the foods became a central topic of the regional conference of the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) that began yesterday in Brasilia. The technicians of the FAO requested more support to the family agriculture in Latin America, as a way to guarantee the alimentary security in times of crisis. The entity also said that the increase of the world production of biofuels threatens to limit the access of the poorest population’s of Latin America to the foods. Agencies EFE, AFP, ANSA and Reuters Source: La Nación Deje un comentario |
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