Biofuels in the firing line: ActionAid comment on the Gallagher report

With Professor Ed Gallagher due to release his report on the impact of biofuels on land and food production, ActionAid says that their use without consideration for either the environment or the living standards of some of the world’s poorest people must be challenged.

Dr Claire Melamed, ActionAid's head of trade policy said: "What Gallagher shows is that the current rush to develop biofuels has not been thought through and is already having disastrous consequences for some of the poorest communities in the developing world.

"The need for an immediate moratorium on biofuel developments on arable land has never been clearer. Europe and the US must remove the subsidies and targets that are driving the production of biofuels from food crops.

"The world needs to start again and plan properly. If biofuels are to play a part in a renewable energy strategy we must ensure that they benefit the environment and that poor farmers and consumers are not harmed by their use."

It is already predicted that Europe will need to review its targets for the introduction of biofuels following the publication of the Gallagher Report.

Second generation biofuels and GM

ActionAid also has concerns over the development of second generation biofuels - non-food plants such as jatropha - and the recent increased advocacy for the public rehabilitation of GM technology.


"ActionAid has already seen people in Ghana lose pasture to a multinational corporation which is planting jatropha. The same is happening in India. Agribusiness is busy hoovering up land to grow biofuel crops to feed the fuel habits of the west," said Dr Melamed.

ActionAid says that the way in which biofuel and GM crops are currently cultivated means that they can neither fuel nor feed the world, despite the billions being poured into the technologies.

Instead, the charity says, money and effort should go into sustainable, low-carbon and appropriate agricultural science and technology, which specifically targets small-scale and poor farmers.