May 2, 2008

Canada's lawmakers gives nod to biofuel production 

Canada's lower house supported a bill Thursday (May 1, 2008) that would set mandatory minimum amounts of biofuel in gasoline and diesel fuel even as other countries were debating whether the diversion of cropland for biofuel production was responsible for the global rise in food prices.

The bill, which still has to pass a third reading in the lower house and be passed by the senate before becoming law, would require all fuel to contain 5 percent biofuel, such as ethanol and biodiesel, by 2010.

All three parties in the House of Commons supported the bill in a vote, virtually ensuring it will become law.

Although supporters tout biofuels as an environmentally friendly energy source and the natural answer to climate change, critics say biofuel production has been responsible for the sharp global rise in food prices

The bill "is nothing but a subsidy to big agribusiness at enormous cost to the environment," said Josh Brandon, a sustainable agriculture campaigner with Greenpeace, in a statement Thursday. "It takes food away from those who can least afford it in order to feed our addiction to gasoline."

The Canadian government announced this week it will give CAN$45 million (US$44 million) more to the UN World Food Programme this year, and an extra CAN$5 million (US$5 million) to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a coalition of church-based agencies, to help developing countries deal with rising food prices.

Greenpeace believes that the federal move to push biofuels is contradictory to the government's boost to global food aid.

"It's hypocritical of the Canadian government to offer C$50 million Canadian (US$49 million) in global food aid while at the same time promoting ethanol as a sustainable fuel source."