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UN launches biofuels report

news release

Responding to a report launched today (Wednesday 26 June) by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation on the impacts of biofuels on food security, Friends of the Earth’s Biofuels Campaigner Kenneth Richter said: “This is a stark reminder that Europe’s biofuel targets are driving up food prices and increasing hunger among the world’s poorest people.

“The biofuels industry is lobbying hard against new proposals before the European Parliament to limit the use of food crops for biofuels.

“MEPs must not bow to industry pressure – they must end the use of food for fuel.”

ENDS

For press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Notes to editors

1. Please see the UN’s report ‘Biofuels and food security’.

2. The report, written by the UN’s High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security, confirms that the production of biofuel from crops has a significant and direct impact on food prices and food availability:

  • “When crops are used for biofuels, the first direct impact is to reduce food and feed availability. This induces an increase in prices and a reduction of food demand by the poor.”
  • “Everything else being equal, the introduction of a rigid biofuel demand does affect food commodity prices. This observation holds in each context, even in the context of prices going down for other reasons than biofuels.”
  • “In the last few years (since 2004) of short-term commodity food price increase, biofuels did play an important role.”
  • “All crops compete for the same land or water, labour, capital, inputs and investment and there are no current magic non-food crops that can ensure more harmonious biofuel production on marginal lands. Therefore, non-food/feedcrops should be assessed with the same rigour as food/feedcrops for their direct and indirect food security impacts.”

 

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