African scientists call for biofuel moratorium as fuel riots break out in Mozambique

In Africa, fuel riots broke out in Mozambique, as scientists in Africa have called for a moratorium on new biofuels projects, saying that large-plantation tracts granted to biofuels companies smack of colonial-era policies. Africa is expected to suffer the most from climate change, and maize production could drop by 33 percent by 2028, according to Stanford University.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s World Food Program said that they are seeing an urgent problem with world hunger resulting from rising food prices.

The FAO’s global food price index rose 40 percent in 2007 compared with 9 percent in 2006, and food riots have occurred in Mexico, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Yemen and Senegal. The executive director of the World Food Program said that the diversion of 100 million tons of cereals for biofuels, are the cause of falling reserve stocks that are creating the price surge. The director said that the market will eventually adjust to produce more grain, and that in the long term, higher prices would result in investment in African farming for the first time in decades.

The FAO recently released a report saying that 40 nations face critical food shortages, for reasons including climate change, higher meat consumption in developing countries, crop failure, war, and diversion of food crops for biofuels.

Top FAO official Jeff Tschirley, recently said “FAO strongly feels that food security and environmental considerations must be fully addressed before making investments or policy decisions, and we are actively working to ensure this happens. However, a moratorium that ignores the potential of biofuels to support rural development and assist the economies of developing countries would not, in our view, be a constructive approach to this topic.” He said that the description of biofuels as a “crime against humanity” by Dr. Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on The Right to Food, was regrettable.

In a recent report addressing the food vs. fuel debate, Informa Economics released a 20-year study exonerating ethanol for having a serous impact on food price rises.

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