UN's FAO rejects Ziegler's rhetoric against biofuels - stresses chances for poverty alleviation

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the largest body of experts on global food security and agriculture, has rejected the stance against biofuels taken by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler.

The FAO, which works towards achieving sustainable agriculture and food security in poor countries, instead stresses that bioenergy and biofuels offer one of the best chances for rural development and poverty alleviation in the developing world. It is joined by many think tanks, like the WorldWatch Institute, the International Energy Agency, the UNCTAD, UNIDO and others who have analysed the issue in depth.

Ziegler earlier called for a moratorium on the use of food crops for biofuels (earlier post), a call that can be legitimized on some grounds. But the FAO, which spoke out in favor of biofuels in a nuanced way before, now says:

We regret the report of the Special Rapporteur has taken a very complex issue, with many positive dimensions as well as negative ones, and characterised it as a 'crime against humanity'.

FAO strongly feels that food security and environmental considerations must be fully addressed before making investments or policy decisions, and we are actively working to ensure this happens.

However, a moratorium that ignores the potential of biofuels to support rural development and assist the economies of developing countries would not, in our view, be a constructive approach to this topic.

The problem with Mr Ziegler's relatively shallow analysis is that he does not look at the key issues which drive food insecurity in the first place. These are (amongst others): lack of rural development (70% of the 854 million hungry people are farmers), lack of infrastructures, lack of cheap and abundant energy, lack of a fair trade regime for agricultural products and bad governance. Biofuels offer a way to tackle some of these problems and could contribute in a major way to rural development, provided the right policies are implemented.

In an earlier analysis, the FAO's director, added:

Much of the current debate on bioenergy, focusing on negative aspects such as sharply increased food prices and erosion of biodiversity, obscures the sector's huge potential to reduce hunger and poverty.

If we get it right, bioenergy provides us with a historic chance to fast-forward growth in many of the world's poorest countries, to bring about an agricultural renaissance and to supply modern energy to a third of the world's population.

The WorldWatch Institute, which wrote one of the most comprehensive analyses of biofuels and their effects on the economies of poor countries, even went so far as to say that, with good policies, biofuels can 'end global hunger' (more here).

The non-governmental organisations who continuously speak out in an unnuanced way against biofuels must begin to wonder whether they are making themselves irrelevant in the debate. These organisations offer important perspectives and make valid criticisms on particular aspects of biofuel development, but very often their analyses are extremely simplistic, do not look at the fundamental drivers of underdevelopment and do not look forward into the future.

This lack of perspective has led to an infantilisation of the biofuels debate, which is highly regrettable:
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: poverty alleviation :: rural development :: developing countries :: FAO ::

Biopact urges development organisations to keep up their critical view on energy and on modes of production, but they should understand that they could be ruining one of the very few chances with which poor countries can achieve what these organisations want: a greener, more just form of sustainable development, in which rural populations participate.

Without cheap and abundant liquid fuels, there can be no development, let alone 'sustainable' forms of development. High oil prices are already catastrophic for developing countries, and have particularly damaging effects on the poor. Biofuels offer these countries' only chance to mitigate these effects. (We will not be seeing the advanced hybrids, let alone fuel cell vehicles or electric cars in the South anywhere soon).

On the other hand, nobody can deny that the rush towards biofuels, especially in Europe and the United States, has led to a mild pressure on food prices (many other factors, including high oil prices, have had a far more important impact). And when it comes to food, we are threading on very sensitive ground: it is a basic form of energy needed by humans. Forms of external energy (like biofuels and electricity) are however equally important. Without external forms of energy, humans can not crawl out of absolute autarky (growing food for onesself) and are condemned to eternal poverty.

The 'good' thing in all of this is that all the problems related to agriculture, food and bioenergy, are man-made. As Mr Ziegler said himself, citing FAO figures, the world already produces enough food to feed 12 billion people - double the current world population. So the threat is not a lack of food, but a lack of fair distribution of food. The poor and the hungry - the bulk of who are rural citizens - lack the incomes with which to buy food. And biofuels could precisely offer the new market needed to bring them these extra incomes.

We urge all stakeholders in the biofuels and bioenergy debate to take a much broader perspective on the matter. Single-issue analyses can never capture the complexities of the topic, which must be understood first before we can make strong statements in favor or against biofuels.

References:
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: UN Food Agency Regrets 'Crime Against Humanity' Label On Biofuels - November 1, 2007.

Biopact: Worldwatch Institute chief: biofuels could end global malnourishment - August 23, 2007

Biopact: UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food to call for a 5-year moratorium on first generation liquid biofuels - October 25, 2007

Biopact: FAO chief calls for a 'Biopact' between the North and the South - August 15, 2007