Full tanks and empty bellies?
Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy proposes a collaborative research, education and advocacy project on the political-economic consequences of the current biofuels boom. The project will examine the implications of industrial biofuels production on the food security and food sovereignty of communities across the Americas. It will investigate the industry’s rapidly-evolving forms of finance, production and processing methods, as well as the policy, regulatory, and market environments rapidly re-shaping food systems and rural landscapes in North and South America. We will focus on the growing political, socio-economic and environmental threats resulting from the biofuels boom’s corporate convergence of the petroleum, grain and genetic engineering giants. We will analyze the industrial impact on the development agendas of international finance institutions (IFIs), university research agendas, farmer-owned operations and on rural agrobiodiversity and water supplies in the industrial North, We will also explore the social and environmental implications of the biofuels boom on forests, agrobiodiversity, smallholder livelihoods and food security in the Global South and the North-South industrial, financial and institutional links accompanying the biofuels drive. The objective of this project is to provide a political-economic understanding of biofuels for a wide national and international public. By engaging and informing a broad range of political actors and rural-urban social movements in the Americas, this project will contribute to informed citizen engagement among and between different sectors, and across borders. This will assist in building the transnational advocacy and political will needed to advance people-centered alternatives for equitable, sustainable, food and fuel production.
Category: RegionsWashington, DC-MD-VA-WV
By: Food First (Oakland, CA) July 17, 2008