December 17th, 2010

FACT Advisor Flemming Nielsen wrote the article Can family farmers benefit from biofuels for the December 2010 issue of Farming Matters. Important conclusion: "Small-scale farmers should have the option to choose bio-fuels to develop their farming. Let them decide for themselves what makes sense to them". For the full article click here.

Here is what Peter Moers, a biofuel expert and economist currently working for Stromme Foundation in Norway commented on the article:

"Excellent Flemming. You hit the nail on the head. The problem is not biofuels making food more expensive; the problem is that apparently we think that current food prices are "just", in spite of excluding a whole range of external costs and in spite of the inescapable fact that the age of cheap oil is over and gone. Limiting the food price analysis to biofuels is like diagnosing a patient by examining his thumb: it's just one of the many factors. In principle ANY activity that is more profitable than food agriculture is to blame for increasing food prices (see also my blog of 2 years ago).

In stead of focussing the discussion on how we can adapt to higher agricultural prices (incl. biofuels) and actually considering this adaptation as an opportunity to alleviate poverty, we still live in the illusion that we can avoid it (a similar phenomenon occurs in the climate change debate)."