July 22,2009

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 last year(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.
(Copyright 2008 byQuirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)