Food Sovereignty Perspectives on Biofuels
An Interactive Global South-North Panel Discussion

Grassroots International (lead organization presenting this proposal) with National Family Farm Coalition*, Rural Coalition*, Federation of Southern Cooperatives*, Food & Water Watch, Food First, World Hunger Year, Friends of the Earth-USA, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and Action Aid-USA are pleased to submit this proposal for a panel on Food Sovereignty Perspectives on Biofuels. This is one of a slate of 4 related proposals on food sovereignty.

* Includes member organizations.

The panel facilitated by Maria Aguiar (Grassroots International), will include Maria Luisa Mendonca (Rede Social de Justica e Direitos Humanos, Brazil), Alberto Gomez (UNORCA-Union Nacional de Organizaciones Regionales Campesinas Autonomas, Mexico and La Via Campesina), Eric Holt-Gimenez (Food First), and David Waskow (Friends of the Earth-USA).

Food Sovereignty is the right of peoples, communities, and countries to define their own agricultural, labor, fishing, food and land policies which are ecologically, socially, economically and culturally appropriate to their unique circumstances. It includes the true right to food and to produce food, which means that all people have the right to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and to food-producing resources and the ability to sustain themselves and their societies.

Biofuels, including corn and sugarcane based ethanol and soy based diesel are increasingly being projected as the clean green technology of the future. As the concern over climate change and global warming grows, governments worldwide are being forced to respond. Even countries like the United States, which has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol and sought to secure its access to oil through the invasion and occupation of Iraq, is at the forefront of this emerging debate. Already, with Brazil the United States is one of the two largest ethanol producers. And leading U.S. and other transnational agricultural and even oil corporations are looking to position themselves advantageously in this new emerging bioeconomy.

Are biofuels actually cleaner and greener? Does replacing Middle East oil with Latin American ethanol and biodiesel address real issues of environmental and production costs, or dependence on imported fuel? What does the enormous projected demand for land to grow crops for biofuel export mean for food production and hunger in the global South? What does the growing demand for land mean for natural habitats and biodiversity, already in high stress conditions? What does the projected growth of water-intensive crops like sugarcane for ethanol mean for rapidly growing water scarcity? What are the implications of this for labor conditions in many global South plantation economies, which already parallel conditions reminiscent of the plantation economies of the U.S. South? And how would cheap imported biofuel compete with domestic production costs in the U.S.?

The panel will seek to help the audience in understanding how biofuels, increasingly popular with government and corporate sectors, might help or hinder food sovereignty and environmental sustainability. And to understand the different challenges faced by people, especially farmers, farmworkers and other communities in the global South and North around the issue of biofuels. The panel seeks to motivate their participation in a discussion about biofuels that would enable a clearer understanding of this emerging technology and how it relates to food sovereignty.

The goal of the panel is to:

Educate people about the concept of food sovereignty as an alternative vision rooted in social justice and sustainability
Reflect on how biofuels might help or hinder food sovereignty for people all over the world
Envision collectively how we can act together to ensure sustainable policies and technologies and support food sovereignty

The panel directly addresses many of the cross-cutting themes of the USSF including neoliberalism and corporate globalization by focusing on U.S. agricultural and trade policies that are neoliberal and support corporate globalization. It provides an internationalist and solidarity perspective by focusing on the challenges faced by U.S. and global South producers including family farmers and farmworkers. It supports movement building by seeking to educate U.S. audiences and enlisting their support for the global movement for food sovereignty which is rooted in social justice and sustainability.

We seek to reach out to an audience that comprises various sectors including family farmers and farm workers, consumers’ organization members and food activists, hunger activists including members of faith-based and international development organizations, and members of environmental and sustainable agriculture organizations, students and others who are interested in learning more about these issues.

The panelists bring different strengths and perspectives to the issues. Corrina Steward has researched soy issues in Brazil’s Amazon. Maria Luisa Mendonca has written extensively on the impact and implications of sugarcane based ethanol production in Brazil. Victor Quintana has focused on the impact of the demand for corn for ethanol on tortilla prices in Mexico. David Waskow has written extensively on ethanol production in the United States and provides an environmental perspective on the issue.