Producing Food and Fuel to Fight Poverty
Posted: September 25, 2008
This week’s summit on the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations seemed to focus precious little time on how agriculture can help end global poverty and hunger. In fact, it was sad to see that the whole summit seemed to focus more on problems than solutions.
However, a pre-summit private industry forum did offer some constructive suggestions, and one of them is biofuels production. The CEO of South Dakota-based POET, the world’s largest ethanol producer, was one of two presenters at a roundtable on energy and biofuels at the UN on Wednesday. Jeff Broin made a compelling argument for ethanol being “one of the greatest opportunities our world has seen in decades” mainly because of the great productivity possible in agriculture. Here’s just a portion of his comments - you can read the rest on the POET blog, on Rhapsody in Green.
With a billion acres of idled cropland across the globe — and the price of agricultural commodities above the cost of production for the first time in decades –there is an unbelievable opportunity for underdeveloped countries to simultaneously lift people out of poverty and solve their crippling addiction to energy imports.
How? Given all the advancement in agriculture, including new seeds, more durable crops, and smarter farming techniques, people today in places as far apart as Sioux Falls and South Africa can grow more sustainable crops than ever before. For example, in the 1940s, the average American farmer produced about 40 bushels of corn per acre; today it’s 140. The result is an agriculture industry that can meet the growing demand for food and biofuels — and help nations once left out of the agriculture industry take care of their food needs, raise people out of poverty, and develop a profitable, self-sustaining farming industry.
And the good news is that this development doesn’t have to come at the expense of the environment. The billion acres of idled crop land guarantees that new farm land need not come from rainforests or other sensitive areas. And thanks to the work of scientists, farming today relies much less on pesticides and much more on new seeds and smarter agricultural techniques.
Is anybody listening?
m v krishna rao Said,
September 26, 2008 @ 1:13 am
U S A, BRAZIL SHOULD PRODUCE MORE OF WHEAT AND .RICE AND LESS OF COTTON AND SUGARCANE IN THE AVAILABLE LAND AREA TO MAKE BUFFER STOCKS OF FOOD IN THE WORLD.
U S A CAN PRODUCE MORE ETHANOL FROM CORN AND BRAZIL FROM SUGARCANE TO MEET ENERGY DEMAND.
THANKS TO SCIENTISTS, FARMERS AND GOVERNMENTS TO PRODUCE REQVIRED FOOD,FEED AND FUEL .
m v krishna rao Said,
September 29, 2008 @ 1:45 am
FIRST, PRODUCE ENOUGH FOOD OF RICE AND WHEAT IN THE AVAILABLE LAND AREA TO MEET WORLD FOOD DEMAND.SIMILARLY PRODUCE MORE ETHANOL FROM CORN,SUGARCANE,LUSTER WHEAT ETC….DO NOT USE EDIBLE OIL TO PRODUCE ETHANOL. ALL SECTIONS SHOULD GET REQVIRED FOOD,FEED AND FUEL WITH THE BALANCED USAGE AND DEVELOPMENT OF AGRI SECTOR FOR RURAL INDUSTRIALISATION AND PROSPERITY AND TO REDUCE POVERTY IN THE WORLD.