Because Of Biofuel Production Filipinos Will Go Hungry?

Feb.1,2010
Because Of Biofuel Production Filipinos Will Go Hungry?
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.

Because of biofuel production Filipinos will go hungry? This question is just the reverse of the title of an article I ’ ve read in a Metro Manila tabloid issue during the fourth quarter of 2008. The title itself has projected a worrisome connotation which tends to infer that the mass production of biofuel crops in the country will make a great percentage of Filipino families go hungry. This is just a rush and illogical conclusion of Mr. Clemente Bautista, Jr. of Kalikasan People’s Network for Environment. Of course, with no offense to Mr. Bautista, Sir.
He said: “It’s ironic that millions of Filipino families have literally nothing to eat while millions of hectares are being cordoned off by the government to grow crops. for fuel. ” How true then is the statement of Mr. Bautista when he said that? He also said that the government has an agreement with China for bioethanol production that needs thousands and thousands of hectares to grow crops for biofuel production. Even if it ’ s true that China needs thousands and thousands of hectares for the production of bioethanol crops, our government must also think of the welfare of its people and not just focus its attention to the giving in to the demands of China. This means that our government must control in the giving of hectarages ask by the Chinese investors. There should be a prevailing desire and compassion by our government of having our own farmers and agriculturists provided with ample lands for agricultural production that will feed millions of Filipino families.
The Philippine Government should not be one-sided in looking for the potential benefits that biofuel crops production will offer, like the reduction of pollution particularly in big metropolis and in the provinces. Let the goal of achieving a great percentage of bioethanol blend be realized with the application of standard policy in the mixture of gasoline and diesel fuel without making the millions of Filipino families go hungry. Concerned environmentalists should likewise assist government panelists in the negotiating table with the foreign investors who are interested to establish businesses here in the production of biofuel crops. Their support and presentation of their ideas and rationalities helpful to the ecology and the millions of Filipinos, would serve as a balancing springboard in the government’s final decisions.
To limit the Chinese land needs and other foreign investors for their biofuel crops production which should be much lesser than what is urgently needed by Filipino farmers in planting agricultural crops for the consumption of the entire 90M Filipinos. Since a huge percentage of our vast tract of land is practically agricultural, only an infinitesimal fraction of Filipinos will go hungry if ever, as feared by Mr, Bautista. However, if our jobless people particularly in the rural areas will be encouraged and persuaded to plant food crops like corn,. rice, fruits, vegetables and rootcrops on vacant lots, going hungry is an impossibility.
In fact in various rural areas in the country there are plenty of idle lands that are good for agricultural production. The only defect or difference is that many of our barangay folks prefer to work in the cities for quick bucks rather than plant saleable crops. Elected Barangay Captains should lead in educating the barrio folks the importance of planting food crops on vacant lots for family consumption and for sale in the markets. Nevertheless, we heard reports that there are people in different rural areas of the country where stealing of planted crops in their neighborhood have been occurring. These people who have this kind of bad habit could be helped if elected leader in various municipalities and barangays have the political will to advice/educate their respective constituents to be industrious and avoid stealing.
If the millions of jobless Filipinos would learn the value of work, labor, and refrain from stealing, but be industrious and resourceful in earning a decent and true Christian living, then not a single Filipino family will go hungry. This could be achieve if all our people would be properly educated on the aspect of how every man should live his life without stepping the toes or taking advantage on the weaknesses of their respective neighbors. Our elected leaders themselves above all must set as good models.
However, 1993 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry Dr. Hartmut Michel, during his recent visit in Manila, admonished the Philippine Government not to invest in biofuel crop production ‘because it is counterproductive” to the boosting of the economy. “When you invest into biofuel development” , he said, “ you add fertilizer and then harvest the plants. There’s no real energy in biofuel…biofuel plants can only store less than one percent of the sun ’ s energy ” . He also pointed out that “producing biofuel would sometimes entail cleaning of the forest, a process that destroys biodiversity and emits more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which you can ’t save in the next several hundred years ” .. “ Burning will also destroy many nature compounds in forests, which could be remedy for new kind of cancer” . Instead Dr. Michel exhorted the Philippine Government and that of other countries whose climate condition is similar to the Philippines to tap wind power and hydro power that are environment-friendly to generate electricity. (Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)