Biofuel, the renewable child of energy and agriculture, starts with the promise of creating new income streams for the empowerment of rural poor.
But alas, the policy makers conveniently forget to educate their constituencies on the opportunity costs for land use. You have this limited land and it could only go to either raising of crops for food or crops for fuel.
Thus sparks a chain reaction of rising food costs – fairly or unfairly blamed on the biofuel sector.
The Chinese response is a classic example of self-interests at play.
The price of pork – a popular source of meat protein – almost doubled over the last year. Certainly cause of concern in a country with a growingly affluent population demanding more meat in their diets.
So what are the Chinese doing? Stop corn or grain-based ethanol production. Sounds like a good idea. But wait, read the fine line:
The government also said it would encourage corn processors to set up corn production bases in other countries, to “take advantage of global land resources.”
Save the land in China for food production and source for lands elsewhere to produce the needed corn for biofuel. Beggar thee neighbour – Chinese need to eat but not everyone else in the world. Classic self-interests in search of refuge under a globalisation tagline.
