ethanol and food crops issue strengthens oil from CTT
Jacky Foo
Granma Daily - 23 June, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art108.html
UN Praises Chinas Move to Ban Ethanol Made from Corn
BEIJING, June 22 ." The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization, FAO , praised the recent decision by the People's
Republic of China to ban the use of food crops to produce ethanol,
reported Prensa Latina news agency.
The FAO said that the step taken by such an important nation as China
may accelerate the development of new technologies for making
ethanol,
which would be aimed at using biomass instead of basic foods crops.
The Chinese authorities recently instructed businesses involved in
the
production of fuel to concentrate their efforts on the use of
cellulose
and other non-basic agricultural products.
The use of corn for the production of ethanol to substitute gasoline
as
a fuel for vehicles was one of the reasons why its price increased by
30 percent during the past nine months. In turn, the cost of animal
feed and consequently meat, especially pork, also rose considerably.
Information provided by the US Department of Agriculture stated that
some 86 million tons of that nation's corn crop for 2007 and 2008,
are
going to be used to make fuel. This will lead to a situation in which
the internal use of corn for producing ethanol in the US is going to
be
greater than its corn exports.
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