Biofuels, food security, and Africa

Abstract

Global biofuel production tripled between 2000 and 2007 and is projected to double again by 2011.1 This growth reflects a growing interest worldwide in renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuels, especially as a perceived solution to the transport sector?s dependency on oil. It also reflects the enforcement in 2005 of the Kyoto Protocol, and the increasing implementation of national biofuels targets. As a result of these and other influences, policy makers and researchers in African countries are giving more attention to biofuels. Yet the rising demand for biofuels has sparked a debate over the threat that energy security poses to food security, and within a few short years biofuels have shifted from being seen as a multi-purpose solution to a range of problems ? climate change, energy insecurity and underdevelopment ? to what the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has described as a ?crime against humanity?.2 The threat is particularly profound for the many African...