(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

places new pressures on agricultural markets, which are
characterized by temporal restrictions (the time it takes to
increase production), limited resources (land, water, and
nutrients), and growing demand driven by demographic and
income increases. In addition to magnifying the tensions
between supply and demand, the rigidity of biofuel mandates
exacerbates price fluctuations and magnifies global price
volatility. Last but not least, biofuels gradually increase the link
between energy markets (which are highly volatile) and food
markets (also volatile), further increasing the volatility of the
latter. 276
6.1.1. Less food available
The impact of agrofuels on food prices tends to show that biofuel production reduces
the amount of food available. The fact that the EU biofuel policy makes food less
available can be explained with different arguments.
The impact of agrofuel production on the availability of food is the most obvious when
food crops – in particular crops for local consumptions – are replaced by biofuel crops,
or other food crops for export (see the case studies in part 4, especially the Markala
Sugar Project in the Office du Niger in Mali or the agrofuels projects in the Tana River
area in Kenya). In this case, the region where it takes place mechanically has less
food available, unless it imports more from abroad the region. The problem with
moving from short-circuits of self-reliance to dependence on distant market distribution
systems in the current context of food price volatility will be explained later. Agrofuels
can also directly impact the availability of food in a country that is not food selfsufficient
by encouraging the development of export or biofuel crops on free fertile
land, instead of food crops.
These effects are worsened by two factors. First, biofuel policies promote an industrial
farming model, whereas it has been proven and emphasised many times that the most
efficient and most sustainable way to address food insecurity in Africa is to promote
small-scale farming, which tends to be more productive, more redistributive, and more
sustainable. 277 It is for this reason for instance that the EU considers that “sustainable
small-scale food production should be the focus of EU assistance to increase
availability of food in developing countries.” 278
Yet, it is striking to note that agrofuels are produced and/or planned to be
produced in some of the most food insecure countries in Africa. For instance, in
Mozambique, where approximately 35% of households are chronically food insecure, a
mere 32,000 hectares out of the 433,000 approved for agriculture investment between
2007 and 2009 were for food crops, reflecting a lack of strategies to ensure that
energy and food investments by other countries do not override agricultural interests of
grassroots communities. 279 The case studies presented in this report suggest the
same. And the contracts signed by the investors generally do not provide any
protection of the right to food. Amongst the twelve large-scale land deals reviewed by
the IIED, most of them appear to not create any safeguard to ensure that local food
security needs are met, allowing unlimited and unrestricted exports when food is
produced. 280
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