Etanol.nu

Köp diesel, döda ett barn...

I en två år gammal rapport angavs sockerrörsareal i Brasilien till 5,6 miljoner hetkar, vad kan det vara idag?

CARE turns down $45M in federal food aid

The global charity CARE says selling donated U.S. food in Africa takes business away from struggling local farmers, The New York Times reported Thursday.

As such, the organization has turned down $45 million in federal financing and has vowed to phase out by 2009 the practice of selling tons of -- often heavily subsidized -- U.S. farm products in African countries.

If someone wants to help you, they shouldn't do it by destroying the very thing that they're trying to promote, CARE official George Odo told the Times.

Under the current program, the U.S. government buys goods from homegrown agribusinesses, ships them overseas and donates them to aid groups as an indirect form of financing.

The groups sell the products in poor countries and use the money to fund antipoverty programs in an initiative that earns about $180 million a year.

The Christian charity World Vision and 14 other groups, which are part of the Alliance for Food Aid, contend the system works because it pays for anti-poverty programs, keeps cash in impoverished nations and helps prevent unfair increases in food prices.

The groups also insist the program doesn't hurt local farmers.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

Biofuels Not to Blame for World Food Crisis

OMAHA, Neb., April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by Toni Nuernberg, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC):
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061117/CGF027LOGO)

The United States is the world's largest donor of food aid. Hunger is indeed a world-wide calamity, and it is distressing to think that rising food prices have impacted the budgets of humanitarian organizations around the globe. While Americans are feeling the pinch in the checkout lane, developing nations are seeing years of progress in the battle against poverty and hunger fall by the wayside.

This is not an issue to be taken lightly, as evident by the Bush administration's release of an additional $200 million in food aid. Americans have never turned a blind eye to humanitarian crises around the world, whether it involves friend or foe. And we will continue to respond, for the factors behind rising food prices and shortages can never be completely eradicated.

We live in a global economy where an extensive assortment of interrelated factors drives supply and demand and ultimately the price of food. Drought, population growth, growing protein demand in developing countries, war, transportation costs, crop acreage shifts and many other factors affect food prices and supplies. These same issues also contribute to the need for more arable acres. Tropical forests have been cleared for hundreds of years due to population growth in developing countries that need to feed themselves.

Despite these well documented factors behind the increase in food prices, it is irresponsible for many in the media to blame the biofuels industry for such a complex issue. I can unequivocally state that ethanol does not take food from the mouths of starving people. Ethanol production uses field corn -- most of which is fed to livestock with only a small percentage going into cereals and snacks. In fact, only the starch portion of the corn kernel is used to produce ethanol. The vitamins, minerals, proteins and fiber are converted to other products including sweeteners, corn oil and high-value livestock feed -- feed which helps livestock producers add to the overall food supply.

Grain-based ethanol is fueling research into advancing technologies that will improve production of celluosic ethanol from feedstocks such as switchgrass, crop waste and other renewable biomass.

In the U.S., rising energy costs are directly related to our food bills, as growers fuel tractors and machinery and truckers transport foodstuffs to market. And the impact of fuel prices on food costs underscores the need for energy independence in the United States. The United States spends roughly one billion dollars a day on imported oil. A fraction of these funds would more than make up for the shortfall in the World Food Program. Ethanol is just one element in our drive to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It should not be a convenient scapegoat for global issues beyond our control.


Source: Ethanol Promotion and Information Council

Priserna går ner - varning för spekulation i råvaror

Råvaruhaussen har lett till ett ökat intresse för att kunna investera i enskilda grödor. Men marknaden är instabil och om nästa års skördar faller väl ut kan priserna falla snabbt.

Hittills har möjligheten att spekulera i råvaror varit ganska begränsad för privatpersoner. ABN Amro är en av de första bankerna som sedan i höstas erbjuder certifikat för de mest handlade jordbruks­varorna. De andra storbankerna väntas hänga på eftersom intresset för råvaruinvesteringar växer.
Den 11 mars var det premiär för handel med vete, majs, socker och kaffe på Stockholmsbörsen, då OMX öppnade en egen lista för handel med certifikat.
Certifikat är ett värdepapper som är knutet till exempelvis ett aktieindex, eller som i det här fallet, en råvara. De kan också vara knutna till ett speciellt råvaruindex som ger en bredare bas än enskilda råvaror.

http://miljorapporten.se/article.jsp?article=23103

/Aryan