Agrofuels

This page (www.grain.org/agrofuels/) will provide a resource for documents, links and updates on the issues around agrofuels*.

* We believe that the prefix bio, which comes from the Greek word for “life”, is entirely inappropriate for such anti-life devastation. So, following the lead of non-governmental organisations and social movements in Latin America, we shall not be talking about biofuels and green energy. Agrofuels is a much better term, we believe, to express what is really happening: agribusiness producing fuel from plants to sustain a wasteful, destructive and unjust global economy.

GRAIN documents

April 2008 - Agrofuels in India, private unlimited

Responding enthusiastically to the world agrofuel frenzy, the Indian government has promised a flurry of initiatives to encourage the large-scale planting of agrofuel crops, particularly jatropha. Without waiting for the government support to be spelt out, corporations are already moving in, taking over resources that have traditionally been used by rural communities. As a result, local people will find it harder to satisfy their food and fuel needs. Once again, it is the rural poor who will bear the cost of the agrofuel boom, while reaping few of the benefits.

July 2007 - Seedling

Seedling special issue focussed on agrofuels. Over 30,000 words on the issues of agrofuels / biofuels. Available in several languages: Français | Español | Português | Deutsch | Suomi (Finnish)

Read the feedback for this issue

Other resources

Ghana and biofuels - In a village in northern Ghana, poor farmers are discovering the true cost of biofuel production. Watch the video here. (July 2008)

Aggro-Fuels: The Mean, (Un)Green, Monoculture Machine - audio links on the issues around agrofuels (June 2008)

Video: Biofuels Disaster for Food, People and Planet - Pat Mooney of Canada describes the disaster of rising food prices and how it is connected to the environmental destruction and social choas brought by the biofuels "gold-rush." (April 2008)

Biofuel song - "The song was made to raise world awareness to the danger of bio fuel being used as an alternate source of fuel." (April 2008)

Petition against new EU agrofuel targets and incentives (and other useful links) (March 2008)

"Biofuels in India: will they deliver or destroy?" - A statement from India (December 2007)

An African Call for a Moratorium on Agrofuel Developments (November 2007)

Scientists contest IPCC biofuel advice (October 2007)