US and EU must change biofuel targets to avert food crisis, says Nestlé chief

"What is environmentally unsustainable today will become socially unsustainable in a not so distant future" -

Nestlé has added its weight to calls by the UN and development groups for the US and EU to change their biofuel targets because of looming food shortages and price rises. “We say no food for fuel,” said Paul Bulcke, chief executive of Nestlé, at the end of the World Water Week conference in Sweden. “Agricultural food-based biofuel is an aberration. We say that the EU and US should put money behind the right biofuels.”

Under laws intended to reduce foreign oil imports, 40% of US maize (corn) harvest must be used to make biofuels, even though one of the deepest droughts in the past 100 years is expected to reduce crop yields significantly. In addition, EU countries are expected to move towards drawing 10-20% of their energy supply for transport from biofuels to reduce carbon emissions.

… Full Text: www.euractiv.com/energy/us-eu-change-biofuel-targets-ave-news-514600

Tags: food supplies, water, food crisis, global cereal production, farming

Source

EurArciv, 2012-09-04.

Supplier

Nestle

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