Call for an Immediate Moratorium on U.S. Incentives for Agrofuels, U.S. Agroenergy Monocultures and Global Trade in Agrofuels
The undersigned call for an immediate moratorium on U.S. incentives for agrofuels and agroenergy from large-scale monocultures and a moratorium on global trade of such agrofuels. This includes the immediate suspension of all congressionally mandated targets and incentives such as tax breaks, tariffs and subsidies that benefit and promote agrofuels from large-scale industrial monocultures, including financing through carbon trading mechanisms, international development aid or loans from international finance organizations.
This call responds to the rapid concentration of the agrofuel industry in the U.S., driven largely by U.S. and E.U. renewable fuels targets, and to the growing number of calls from the global south against the expansion of agrofuel monocultures. Agrofuels refer to large-scale industrial monoculture production of crops such as soy, oil palm, sugar cane, jatropha, canola etc. for fuels and do not include small scale, sustainably grown fuel crops that benefit local communities, do not employ genetically engineered (GE) varieties, and can be accurately referred to as "biofuels."
Agrofuels cause deforestation and environmental damage
Industrial monoculture production has numerous negative impacts on the environment, climate and on people. These include soil depletion and erosion, contamination and depletion of waterways, increased use of nitrogen fertilizers and toxic agrichemicals and an increasing reliance on a small number of GE varieties at the expense of diverse and sustainable agriculture systems. Monocultures of soy and sugar cane in Latin America and palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia have led to massive deforestation and the loss of invaluable biodiversity.
Agrofuels will worsen global warming
Agrofuels are promoted as a solution to global warming, but more accurate life-cycle assessments suggests that they increase carbon emissions by increasing deforestation and degradation of peatlands and soils, while also creating more nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer use. Crop irrigation and refineries deplete already dwindling fresh water resources.
Agrofuels seriously threaten food and land rights of indigenous people and the rural poor.
Promoted as a benefit to the rural poor, agrofuels are instead causing the displacement, often violent, of indigenous people and the diversion of lands formerly used to produce food for local consumption into production of agrofuels for export to wealthy northern countries. Workers are subjected to poor conditions, chemical exposures, and other abuses.
Certification will not provide adequate protections
Certification systems cannot control macro-level impacts such as the displacement of other land uses, cannot be adequately monitored and implemented in many countries, have thus far failed to ensure full participation of affected communities, could conflict with WTO agreements, and cannot be designed and implemented fast enough to keep pace with current development.
The International Energy Agency estimates that over the next 23 years, the world could produce as much as 147 million tons of agro-fuel. This fuel will barely offset the yearly increase in global oil demand, now standing at 136 million tons a year, without offsetting any of the existing demand. Is this worth it?
Urgent and effective measures other than agrofuels are available
The undersigned support urgent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, based on climate science assessments, which involve a drastic overall reduction in energy use in industrialized countries, strict energy efficiency standards, and support for truly renewable forms of energy, such as sustainable wind and solar energy and promotion of land use patterns that preserve 'carbon sinks'.
Members of the working group:
Rainforest Action Network,
Global Justice Ecology Project,
Food First,
Grassroots International,
Family Farm Defenders,
Student Trade Justice Campaign
Signers:
Altropico Foundation, Ecuador;
Amazon Watch;
American Jewish World Service;
A SEED Europe, Netherlands;
ATTAC, Germany;
BASE-Investigaciones Sociales, Paraguay;
Biofuelwatch, UK;
Biowatch South Africa;
Border Agricultural Workers Project;
Brazilian Association for Agroecology;
Carbon Trade Watch, Europe;
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture;
Climate Action Coalition, Bulgaria;
Concerned Citizens of Newport;
Cornucopia Institute;
Corporate Watch, Europe;
Dogwood Alliance;
Easy Sweet Farm;
Ecological Society of the Phillipines;
Ecologistas en Accion, Spain;
Energy Justice Network;
EPIC (Environmental Protection Information Center);
ETC Group;
FIAN (Food First Information and Action Network), Netherlands;
Food and Water Watch;
Food for Maine's Future;
Foreign Policy in Focus;
Friends of the Earth International;
Friends of the Earth, Brazil;
Friends of the Earth, Sierra Leone;
Friends of the Earth, Sweden;
Global Exchange;
Global Forest Coalition;
Grupo de Reflexion Rural, Argentina;
IFG (International Forum on Globalization);
Institute for Production and Investigation of Tropical Agriculture (IPIAT);
International Society for Ecology and Culture;
Institute for Social Ecology Biotechnology Project;
Land Action Research Network;
Life of the Land;
Mesa Global de Guatemala;
Mother Earth Foundation, Philippines;
Movimento das Mulheres Camponesas, Brazil;
NOAH/Friends of the Earth, Denmark;
Northwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering;
Organic Consumers Association;
Regenwald-Institut, Germany;
Rising Tide North America;
Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville;
Small Planet Institute;
Small Producers Movement (MPA);
Third World Network;
UNAC - Mozambique Farmers' Union;
WALHI/Friends of the Earth, Indonesia;
World Hunger Year;
World Rainforest Movement
