Policy recommendations

  • The European Union must ensure that its Energy Policy will not harm the food security of the urban and rural poor in developing countries, whose daily survival is threatened by substantially higher food prices. It should draw up a strategy to ensure the urban and rural poor are compensated for higher food prices before installing mandatory levels of biofuels;
  • The European Union should abolish its domestic subsidies and import tariffs for biofuels, in order to allow developing countries to profit from the trade opportunities biofuels offer;
  • The European Union should draw up comprehensive sustainability criteria for biofuels, including more ambitious standards for greenhouse-gas reduction a slight decrease of emissions as compared to fossil fuels is simply not enough and the protection of biodiversity and carbon-rich ecosystems;
  • The European Commission should include social criteria in its review of the Biofuels Directive to guarantee that the rural populations who live off marginal lands and forests are not hurt by expanding agricultural production;
  • The European Union should stimulate local processing and the use of sustainable biofuels in developing countries. Small-scale farmer cooperatives should be stimulated to prevent the benefits from biofuel production from only falling into the hands of large-plantation owners.

Case: Biofuels

31-05-2010 Bio-fuels vs. Food: Concerns by MEP Tremopoulos

Member of European Parliament (MEP) Michail Tremopoulos is concerned about the predicted steep increase in food prices. This increase, predicted in the UN FAO report, will be due to the increase in oil prices pushing up the costs of imports and due to the growing demand for bio-fuels. Bio-fuels have been proven to be a more sustainable source of energy, but does use a lot of land and water. Bio-fuel production replaces food production in developing countries and is not more environmentally sustainable.

Furthermore Tremopoulos also points out that the growing demand for bio-fuels will lead to an increase in prices for food in general, making it less accessible in developing countries. Therefore he asks the commission whether it will re-examine its binding objectives regarding bio-fuels in order to avoid an increase in food prices. The EU promises to strive for poverty eradication in its development policy but is at the same time undermining food security in its environmental policies. Tremopoulos is a fair politician for recognizing this incoherence and asking about it.

Monitor fair: Greens/EFA

Parliamentary questions
22 April 2010
E-2692/10
WRITTEN QUESTION by Michail Tremopoulos (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

Subject: Report of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) concerning the state of food and agriculture in 2009

In its recent report (1) the FAO draws attention to the existence of a number of latent factors which could once again push up food prices even more steeply, one example being a recovery in demand for agricultural products for foodstuffs and energy generation or an increase in oil prices pushing up the costs of imports. Growing demand for bio-fuels, resulting from a combination of binding objectives and incentives failing to take account of market conditions would push up the price of maize and vegetable oils for the production of bio-diesel and bio-ethanol and hence of foodstuffs.

Over the next 10 years the FAO anticipates an increase in agricultural production in the industrialised countries of 12 % and of 75 %, 53 % and 58 % in Latin America, Asia and the countries of the former Soviet Union respectively, compared with 2000. It concludes that increased investment is necessary to stimulate agricultural production and guarantee food security. As a result of the global economic crisis, over 1 billion people are now starving and investment of over 83 billion dollars will be necessary over the next 40 years in order to provide food for a world population exceeding 9 billion in 2050.

In view of this:
1. Is the Commission aware of the above report? Will it take account of its findings with regard to its agricultural and development policy in future years?
2. Will it re-examine its binding objectives regarding bio-fuels in order to avoid an increase in food prices as a result of competition with food crops?
3. What percentage of the amounts proposed does it intend to invest in the development of agricultural production in future years? Which regions and products will be targeted first and foremost by these investments?

http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i0680e/i0680e00.htm