|
21 November, 2008
The alimentary crisis is due to the speculation in financial markets, in raw materials, and of the oil industry; the ethanol and the biodiesel, combine growth with environmental development, but also with social responsibility. The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, exempted the biofuels today of any responsibility in the world alimentary crisis, that attributed to the speculation in the financial markets and the raw materials.  “The alimentary crisis is caused by the derived speculation of the rise of the petroleum and the rise in the prices of the raw materialsâ€, Lula affirmed when closing the “International Conference on biofuelsâ€, celebrated this week in Sao Paulo. Some governments, international and civil society organizations have attributed the world food shortage to the biofuels, because for their production raw materials as the corn and the sugarcane are use, among others. They have also accused to that industry of putting in risk the biodiversity and of exploiting the work under degrading conditions. “A good part of the increment of the food prices is because there are more poor people eating in the world and it is normal that there is an increase of the consumption, but there are many raw materials speculated in the market of futures at absurd pricesâ€, underlined Lula today. The president criticized in the same way the lack of reservations of basic foods as the wheat, rice and corn that from the year 2000 “lowered to the half.â€Â The boss of State also defended the production and expansion of the alternative fuels, as the ethanol and the biodiesel, because “they combine growth with environmental development, but also with social responsibility.â€Â “I recognize that there are legitimate concerns in this debateâ€, said Lula who accused “powerful interests†of distorting the truth on the biofuels. The representative for Latin America of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), José Grazziano, that participated in the Conference, supported the brazilian biofuel policy and highlighted the potential that other countries of the region have in that field. However, the participants in the international seminar “Agrifuels as obstacle to the construction of the alimentary and energetics sovereigntyâ€, parallel to the conference, condemned in their final document “the pattern and the promotion strategy†of these fuels. The Earth Pastoral of the Brazilian Catholic Church also reaffirmed in the outline of the seminar its accusations that there is slave and degrading work in the sugarcane industry. Lula also responded to the critics about the danger that the amazon forest runs due to the expansion of the areas dedicated to the sugarcane cultivation for the ethanol production. “In the AmazonÃa region we won’t have sugarcane, but we will expand our ethanol to very degraded areasâ€, said Lula, who pointed out that the biofuels can help to solve the international financial crisis. “The crises are threat carriers but they allow opportunities and new roadsâ€, he indicated.� In the conference that gathered academic, industrial and specialist, the relationship of the biofuels with the climatic change, the alimentary security, the new technologies and the world market was debated, among other aspects. The brazilian chancellor, Celso Amorim, on the other hand, asked for the elimination of the protective barriers in the international trade of biofuel so that the poor countries can benefit of that alternative energy source from the economic and social point of view. Also, Brazil and United States announced an agreement to enlarge the scientific cooperation with third countries in the biofuels production area, that will incorporate Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Guinea Bissau and Senegal to that initiative.  Source: El Universal/Mexico |
Last articles
|
