KAIROS Briefing Paper #9: Are Agrofuels Alternatives to Oil?
President George W. Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address calls for reducing US gasoline consumption by 20% over ten years, replacing it with 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels. Bush’s announcement has sparked a vigorous debate on issues such as the advisability of dedicating land to crops for fuel instead of food and the efficiency of producing ethanol from corn. This briefing paper addresses these and other issues less often discussed in the mainstream media: Are Canadian policies on agrofuels any different? What are the likely consequences of the production of agrofuels for peoples in the Global South? Are there not better alternatives?
