Insatiable European "thirst" for biofuels-The impact on food front and hunger

Global warming is an issue which is critical to the survival of this planet. It is a common knowledge that unless we control and cut down on emission of green house gases due to massive burning of fossil fuels and operations of mechanized agriculture activities in many countries, the weather is bound to be unpredictable with nonseasonal and inadequate rains and heavy flooding that can disrupt food production very significantly in future. Concerned about depleting fossil fuels many countries have started extensive programs to tap other sources of energy with renewable credentials like solar rays, wind power, geothermal energy, wave energy etc which are showing highly encouraging results. But one jarring note in this endeavor is the program that entails use of food sources for conversion to biofuels. The gasohol program in countries like Brazil uses ethyl alcohol derived from corn or sugarcane juice for blending with fossil fuels at varying proportions to save on the former. Similarly Europe had chosen Palm oil as an automobile fuel to cut down on fossil fuel consumption. However these programs come with a heavy price that should bother the conscience of these countries. The catch is that valuable food materials, especially the ones going into the dining plates of millions of hungry people in 3 poor continents, are diverted for a non-food cause depriving them of their sustenance! Here is a take on this unimaginable catastrophe Europe is causing through its reckless policy of diversion of human food to meet its insatiable thirst for auto fuels for its wealthy citizens!  

"The core of this debate is the use of biofuels. Amid the claims that biofuels provide a green fuel for the future, they have quickly become synonymous with high, volatile food prices that jeopardise the right to food, affecting land and water resources, while threatening biological diversity. For the members of the European Parliament's Environment Committee casting their ballot tomorrow (24 February), they can choose what role biofuels should play in Europe's energy consumption. What this means is that they are choosing either to continue backing a policy directly responsible for pushing more people across the globe into hunger or to adopt a firm stance against food price volatility and the removal of resources that impact impoverished communities' ability to cultivate crops. The European Union has supported biofuels for 12 years, ignoring the damaging impact this has had to food prices. Take the cost of vegetable oil: if the EU were to scrap its backing for biofuels made from food crops, the price of this daily commodity in Europe could be 50% lower by 2020, and 15% lower worldwide. But it's not just jumped up food prices. Europe's biofuels policy has a similarly detrimental effect on the ability of poor people to grow their own food. The amount of global land used for crops is estimated by scientists to expand by 5.2 million hectares by 2020 due to the European thirst for biofuels - with three-quarters of this land being outside Europe. As more land and water is syphoned towards growing biofuel crops, less is available for small-scale farmers to grow the food they rely on, or bring to market. Biofuels also encourage speculation on land values and give rise to huge land acquisitions across the planet – with almost one in four transnational, large-scale land purchases linked to biofuel production. The current most at-risk areas are Sub-Saharan Africa, which is heavily targeted for land deals, and South East Asia, providing the most common European imported source of fuel for biodiesel – palm oil. These side effects of European biofuels policy are compounded by the failure of biofuels to live up to expectations of providing a climate friendly source of fuel. And under certain conditions, we know that biofuels have more negative effects on carbon emissions and the environment than using normal fossil fuels, if indirect changes to land use are taken into account, as they should be. A stable climate and healthy environment are fundamental to produce nutritious food for all, which biofuels damage while misleadingly claiming environmental benefits. When judged against this mounting evidence, it is clear that European biofuels policy as it stands is undermining global attempts to ensure that the world's poorest families can feed themselves, as well as to fight climate change."

Whether Brazil's sugarcane cultivation or Indonesia's growing Palm oil plantations, the first casualty is natural forests in existence for thousands of years which are denuded to plant these food materials yielding crops. Denudation of forests is known to cause major diruptions in weather patterns causing further agony to the people across the Globe. In some countries small and marginal farmers are being steam rolled to sell their lands to giant MNC cartels to raise these crops. Though Europe has been following a biofuel facilitation program for the last 12 years, it appears there are hard questions being raised about the ethics and morality of diverting valuable food crops for energy production. Whether the European law makers will have the courage to defy world outrage at their unjustifiable biofuel policy remains to be seen..

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Paper from plastics! An environment friendly technology

A new technology called Cronology developed in Mexico seems to be headed for adoption by the paper industry which is being criticized by the environmentalist for massive deforestation in obtaining their input materials. An indirect beneficiary will be the plastic waste recycling industry which seeks to reduce the environment pollution through reprocessing the plastic waste into useful products. While recycling does help in getting a temporary reprieve in terms of pollution, ultimately plastics end up in landfills staying there for more than 800 years without getting degraded. The paper obtained by the new technology is claimed to be photodegradable decomposing within 6 months. Here is a take on this exciting technological development about which lot will be heard in the coming years.

"A group of young entrepreneurs from Mexico has developed a system that converts PET bottles into mineral paper and which they claim will save up to 20 trees and 56,000 liters of water per ton of paper produced. The photodegradable, waterproof paper can be used to print books, boxes and general stationery. "By not cutting trees, nor using water we reduce costs and help the planet," says Ever Adrian Nava, cofounder of the Cronology company, located in Ecatepec, a municipality in Mexico State, just north from Mexico City. The Cronology process is claimed to be 15 percent cheaper than traditional paper manufacture because it doesn't use chemicals, like chlorine, or water. Although countries like Spain and Taiwan already use similar processes to manufacture mineral paper (also known as peta paper or stone paper), its developers say the Cronology system is four times cheaper than conventional methods. The original idea for this type of paper is to reduce production costs and deforestation. Mexico currently produces 700,000 tons of paper each year, mostly for books and notebooks, but also for wrapping papers and toilet paper. Ever Nava says that producing one ton of traditional paper has an effect on the environment for 100 years, but that mineral paper eliminates that, with 235 kg (518 lb) of pellets, or PET beads, obtained using recycled plastic bottles, calcium carbonate and stone, capable of producing a ton of the mineral paper. "The mineral paper is stronger than the standard, you can not break it with your hands, it is waterproof, has the quality of being photodegradable and only absorbs the necessary amount of ink when printing," says Ever Nava. Recycled plastic bottles are first crushed with various pieces of calcium carbon to form pellets (plastic beads), which are then subjected to a casting process at over a 100° C (212° F), before being rolled to form large sheets of paper. The paper degrades in just six months, with the company saying the only downside is that ink gels can't be used on it because they contain alcohol, which the paper does not support."

What is more interesting is the water saved by this process in making high quality paper compared to traditional paper making from wood. Already forests are being denuded in South America massively for planting Palm plants for oil. Demand for palm oil, one of the cheapest oils in the world is literally exploding because of its dual utility as a food ingredient as well as a fossil fuel substitute. PET, also known as polyester, is chemically Polyethylene Terephthalate and world produces about 25 million tons annually out of which only 30% is used for bottle production remaining going into textile industry. Also known as Dacron or Terylene or Lavasa, fabrics made from PET are extraordinarily strong and crease resistant. The new technology to convert PET into paper can thus be a large industry capable of solving one of the most vexing issues facing mankind viz disposing of 25 million tons of PET into useful products with excellent environmental credentials. Another beauty is that the technology uses comparatively lower temperatures, about 100C while for recycling it has to be done at temperatures beyond 250C. Thus PET paper production technology can be a win-win situation for all the stake holders connected with PET industry.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

The "bitter" sugar-For consumers it is sweeter!

It is said rightly that only crying babies get attention from mothers and this applies to real life situations also when those seeking the attention always cry hoarse to get the same! Latest example is the sugar industry in India which is raising a huge hue and cry regarding the dire straits it is in because its inability to stand up to the challenges of price global melt down that is happening now. Though India is one of the largest sugar producing countries in the world, it is always Brazil that calls the shots in the sugar market because of its large cultivation area under sugarcane. This is understandable because this country has an agenda different from that of India as its mandated policy of alcohol blending with fossil fuels to the extent of 15% calls for huge production of ethanol from sugarcane which is being done directly from sugarcane juice itself rather than through the molasses route. This gives it a flexibility to switch the product mix depending on the market conditions. Due to its sustained efforts to expand sugarcane cultivation it extended the acreage by deforesting thousands of acres of forest land which in the end analysis might not turn out to be prudent because of its impact on climate changes. Any how at present it is enjoying an advantage in sugar production and it is true that a glut like situation has developed resulting significant price depression in the global sugar market. Here is a commentary on this development on which Indian sugar industry feels threatened.

"The apex body of Indian sugar industry red flagged "challenging situation" for the sector due to falling prices of the sweeteners, excess production and tightening of lending by banks that is forcing millers to sell at cheaper rates for generating cash-flow. The industry also expressed its fear of Brazil producing more sugar than ethanol because of falling crude price, which may make the situation worse for them. Raising the fear from Brazil, which could have serious implications on the international price of the sweetener, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) president A Vellayan said, "On the international front, due to the steep fall in oil prices, there is clear possibility that what might happen in Brazil is the shift from ethanol to sugar production. With the Brazilian currency falling, the price of Brazilian sugar will be so cheap that it will threaten to come into India and despite the import duty, it will be cheaper than Indian sugar."  He said government must take all possible steps to ensure that no quantity of sugar gets imported. "That's why we are demanding 40% increase in import duty and extending the subsidy for export of raw sugar so that we can export our raw sugar before the prices fall further," Vellyan said. Brazil is the biggest producer of sugar and ethanol as well."  

Added to the production glut, Brazilian currency is also depreciating making its sugar cheaper than that of India. Whether the government of India will listen to the Association and put restrictive controls on sugar imports or increase the import duty remains to be seen. Sugar scenario in India is very complex and no single step by the government can restore stability to the sugar trade.Farmers are encouraged to go in for sugarcane cultivation by providing irrigation facilities and imposing minimum support prices at which sugar mills must buy the cane from the farmers. Also there are still some controls on release of sugar by the mills in the open market , the so called "free sugar" because of government's need to buy sugar at low prices to feed the public distribution system in the country. Thus sugar may be bitter for the mills at present because of declining prices but consumers should have no complains at getting sugar at cheaper prices! However how this distorted conditions will work out for the farmers as well as the industry in the long run must concern the government which has tied itself into knots through short sighted policies during the last 5 decades.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com