Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-22-Speech-2-254"
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"en.20080422.49.2-254"2
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"Mr President, the EU has decided that we can now grow fuel and is telling countries in the developing world that, instead of growing food, they should grow fuel so that the EU can continue to run its limousines. Since I became an MEP, it is hard to remember any issue which has provoked such a deluge of letters as the subject of biofuels. I have received over a hundred requests to vote against the Commission’s renewable energy target.
I have not needed much persuading because as a UKIP MEP I vote against any imposition of EU targets on my country anyway. However, on this occasion, I am happy to vote against it because the dash to biofuels, an essential part of the Commission’s strategy, is a key factor in the surge in food prices around the world.
British Government adviser Professor John Beddington has said that there are real problems with the unsustainability of biofuels. He is right. We have become so obsessed with global warming that we have overlooked the real elephant in the room – the global food crisis. For farmers in places like Africa there is now less land available for growing food because many people are growing fuel instead. It is also leading to the destruction of rainforests with devastating effects. So less land for food equals less food but an increase in the supply of people, which inevitably means an increase in food prices. Across the world, and in Europe in particular, food prices have been rising far more quickly than inflation.
The EU prides itself on taking the lead in environmental matters. Will it therefore take the lead in recognising that biofuels are not the answer? Biofuels are pushing up prices in shopping baskets around the world. We in the West will groan, grin and bear it; in the developing world, it is a matter of life or death. The EU has never been a friend to the developing world. Giant factory ships have emptied the west African seas of fish. Dumping of subsidised agricultural surplus has devastated the profit margins of many of their farmers and now, while their populations are increasing, their land, rather than providing food for their own people, is being used to keep our cars on the road.
Already there have been violent food riots across the world as desperate hungry people attack grain silos and supermarkets. In some countries troops are on the streets to protect what is left of the food. The risk of armed conflict between and within states is greatly increased by the EU’s policies – so much for the EU keeping the peace. What is more useful to a villager in Africa? A full petrol tank or a full stomach? Please listen to common sense and reverse your policy on biofuels immediately."@en1
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