Posted on 11/21/2008 7:58:44 AM PST by thackney
The rapid expansion of biofuels production in Brazil, the world's largest ethanol exporter, does not contribute to global food price inflation, the country's energy minister said Friday, rebutting a common critique of Brazil's ethanol and biodiesel programs.
Minister Edison Lobao told the Biofuels 2008 conference Friday that Brazil has enough free arable land to remain the world's largest grain exporter even as it rapidly expands its output of sugarcane ethanol and biodiesel, some of which is made from soybeans.
"We cannot accept the accusation that somehow Brazil's biofuels are contributing to food price inflation," Lobao told energy and environmental officials from dozens of countries gathered in Brazil to discuss the future of the industry.
"The food versus fuel conflict simply doesn't happen in Brazil, which still has 90 million hectares of land freed up for new agriculture. The true culprit of higher food prices is the surging cost of petroleum-based fertilizers and the petroleum-based fuels used to transport foods."
Lobao said that the price of fertilizers, which are largely imported in Brazil, more than doubled in 2008 as a result of rising petroleum and gas prices. The country is among the world's top 10 consumers of nitrogen-based fertilizers for farming.
Brazil's biofuels program has recently been criticized by officials in big oil producers like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia as contributing to food inflation, since Brazil uses foodstuffs such as sugarcane to make ethanol, and has expanded farming for biofuels production at a faster pace than it has expanded production of food grains.
Likewise, a report released in July by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development blamed biofuel production worldwide for rising global food costs.
Some environmental groups accuse Brazil of having allowed biofuels production to push Brazil's farming area into the environmentally sensitive Amazon region, which Lobao denied.
"The era of abundant petroleum is coming to an end, so biofuels, especially from Brazil, should be a major part of the world energy matrix going forward," Lobao said.
"In 20 years time, China will catch up to the US in terms of energy consumption, and there simply won't be enough petroleum to go around.
Brazilian biofuels can help fill the energy gap."
True, after they burn the rain forest, they’ll have more land to plant sugar.
Brazil has done well with the sugarcane based ethanol. Of course, discovering a huge offshore petroleum reserve hasn’t hurt, either.
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