Chiz Escudero

I warn the government and the private sector against converting productive farmlands into biofuel crop plantations, as the practice if allowed could worsen food shortage in the country.

Development of alternative fuel is commendable, but it should not be pursued at the expense of food production. The scramble to plant jethropa and other crops intended for ethanol and biodiesel production could exert an upward pressure on the prices of food.

The country has been losing farmlands to subdivision and golf course developers in the past decades.

I suppose we need to construct housing projects, but removing the remaining acreage from rice and corn production is totally unacceptable. That would amount to snatching food from the mouth of people. 

Food at affordable prices should take precedence over other considerations.

I urge the government to study the wisdom of turning sugar cane into ethanol and coconut into biodiesel. If the crops are to be diverted for industrial purposes, the government should make sure the program does not affect the nation’s sugar and edible oil supply.

As regards corn, I don’t think it should be converted into fuel to run motor vehicles. The crop is staple food for a sizeable portion of the population, and its use for other purpose is unacceptable. 

Quoting a study made recently by the University of Minnesota, the mad rush to ethanol production threatens to get food out of the hands of people who need them most.

According to the study the US is devoting more than 90 million acres this year to corn, the largest for the crop in 63 years. The tack is expected to result in the reduction of acreage devoted to wheat, rice and soybean.

The US can afford to do that because it has so much land to juggle around. Not the Philippines. To produce enough food for our people, we need to expand, not reduce acreage devoted to rice.

In spite of the expanded corn production in the US, the prices of the commodity in the world market are expected to go up by 20 percent in 2010 and 41 percent by 2020. As a result, the study further notes, the number of chronically hungry people worldwide could rise to 1.2 billion.

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