Minister: Ban Biofuel, It Boosts Famine

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August 21, 2012

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(The Local: German’s News in English) Biofuel containing corn should be banned from German petrol pumps, a minister has demanded, as droughts and a dramatic rise in food prices mean more of the world population is going hungry.
“Rising food prices mean that biofuel can contribute to increased world hunger. That’s why we need to suspend E10,” Development Minister Dirk Niebel told the ntv television station on Wednesday.
Niebel’s demand for an immediate stop to the sale of E10 biofuel at German petrol stations has been welcomed by German aid organisations.
E10 – which was introduced last year and has in any case proved unpopular among German drivers – contains 10 percent bioethanol produced from corncrops which could otherwise be used to make foodstuffs.
It was promoted as contributing to reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, as well as the 10 percent being renewable rather than fossil fuel.
…”Only 4 percent of the German corn harvest went on bioethanol production last year,” managing director of the German Biofuel Industry Association (VDB) Elmar Baumann told the paper. A ban on E10 would do nothing to help the hungry in developing countries, he added. READ MORE and MORE (Al Jazeera) and MORE (DW)

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