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Food & Energy Sovereignty Now: Brazilian Grassroots Position on Agroenergy (pdf)

This report describes the opposition that biofuels face from the Brazilian social movements and civil society, as formulated at the First National Agroenergy Conference, held in Curitiba, Brazil in October, 2007. (Oakland Institute, February 2008)

http://oaklandinstitute.org/pdfs/biofuels_report.pdf

(Added: Mon Mar 10 2008   Hits: 41)

20% renewables by 2020: is it possible?

Now that the political commitments by EU leaders to achieve a 20% share of renewable energy use by 2020 have been translated into binding targets for individual member states, a debate is heating up in Brussels about how, and if, the targets can actually be met. (INSnet, 28/2/08)

http://www.insnet.org/ins_headlines.rxml?id=6284&photo=

(Added: Tue Feb 26 2008   Hits: 27)

Agriculture and food: who benefits from GM crops?

This new report from the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth argues that GM crops are not alleviating hunger and poverty, and are instead used for animal feed, biofuels and highly processed food products for consumption in rich countries.

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/who_benefits_summary.pdf

(Added: Tue Feb 26 2008   Hits: 57)

Agrofuels Indepth Report

Fostered by the climate crisis, agrofuel development has arrived on the global stage amid warnings that the cure might be worse than the disease (Chioke, 2008).

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/6453.html

(Added: Fri Apr 04 2008   Hits: 27)

Biofuel Crops Increase Carbon Emissions

The conversion of forests and grasslands into fields for the plants offsets the benefit of using the fuel, researchers find. Greenhouse-gas output overall would rise instead of fall. (by Alan Zarembo, 8 February 2008)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/08/6937/

(Added: Mon Feb 11 2008   Hits: 24)

Biofuelling Poverty

EU plans could be disastrous for poor EU plans to increase the use of biofuels could spell disaster for some of the world's poorest people warns international agency, Oxfam. (Nov, 2007)

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/2007/11/biofuelling_poverty_eu_plans_c.html

(Added: Tue Jan 29 2008   Hits: 26)

Harvesting Harm: Agrofuels as a False Solution to Climate Change and Poverty [pdf]

Policy Brief on the Inter-American Development Bank Agrofuels Strategy (Friends of the Earth U.S,Friends of the Earth Brazil, Friends of the Earth Haiti, April 2008)

http://www.foei.org/en/publications/pdfs/HarvestingHarm.pdf/

(Added: Fri Apr 18 2008   Hits: 27)

Human Cost of Brazil's Biofuels Boom

Bocaina, Brazil is ground zero for ethanol production in Brazil - "the Saudi Arabia of biofuels," as some have already labeled this vast South American country. But even as Brazil's booming economy is powered by fuel processed from the cane, labor officials are confronting what some call the country's dirty little ethanol secret: the mostly primitive conditions endured by the multitudes of workers who cut the cane (Patrick J. McDonnell, The Los Angeles Times, 16 June 2008).

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/16/9664/

(Added: Wed Jun 18 2008   Hits: 7)

Losing Ground: The human rights impacts of palm oil plantation expansion in Indonesia

This report by Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch and LifeMosaic reveals how Indonesian government policies and palm oil industry practices are harming the rights of local communities and indigenous people (Friends of the Earth, February 2008).

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/losingground-summary.pdf

(Added: Tue Feb 12 2008   Hits: 85)

Native People Warn U.N. of Biofuels Disaster

Growing demand for biofuels by the world's rich nations is propelling attacks on indigenous people and destroying their lands and forests. (IPS, 30 April 2008)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42196

(Added: Mon May 05 2008   Hits: 18)

New Trend in Biofuels Has New Risks

In the past year, as the diversion of food crops like corn and palm to make biofuels has helped to drive up food prices, investors and politicians have begun promoting newer, so-called second-generation biofuels as the next wave of green energy. But now, biologists and botanists are warning that they, too, may bring serious unintended consequences.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/21/9097/

(Added: Thu May 22 2008   Hits: 11)

Take biofuel crops off the land and grow them at sea

This opinion piece by Ricardo Radulovich argues that seaweed could offer a valuable source of biofuel if grown in harvested in a sustainable fashion.

http://www.scidev.net/en/opinions/take-biofuel-crops-off-the-land-and-grow-them-at-s.html

(Added: Mon Jun 16 2008   Hits: 35)