http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19729.htm
More than three billion people
condemned to premature death
from hunger and thirst
By Fidel Castro
143/04/08 "Granma " -- -
THAT is not an exaggerated figure,
but rather a cautious one.
I have meditated a lot on that in
the wake of President Bush's meeting
with U.S. automobile manufacturers.
The sinister idea of converting food
into fuel was definitively established
as an economic line in U.S. foreign policy
last Monday, March 26.
A cable from the AP, the U.S. news
agency that reaches all corners of
the world, states verbatim:
"WA****NGTON, March 26 (AP).
President Bush touted the benefits
of 'flexible fuel' vehicles running on
ethanol and biodiesel on Monday,
meeting with automakers to boost
sup****t for his energy plans.
"Bush said a commitment by the
leaders of the domestic auto
industry to double their production
of flex-fuel vehicles could help motorists
****ft away from gasoline and reduce the
nation's reliance on im****ted oil.
'"That's a major technological
breakthrough for the country,'
Bush said after inspecting
three alternative vehicles.
If the nation wants to reduce gasoline use,
he said "the consumer has got to be in a
position to make a rational choice."
"The president urged Congress to
'move expeditiously' on legislation
the administration recently proposed
to require the use of 35 billion gallons
of alternative fuels by 2017 and seek higher
fuel economy standards for automobiles.
"Bush met with General Motors Corp.
chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner,
Ford Motor Co. chief executive Alan Mulally
and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group chief
executive Tom LaSorda.
"They discussed sup****t for flex-fuel vehicles,
attempts to develop ethanol from alternative
sources like switchgrass and wood chips and
the administration's proposal to reduce gas
consumption by 20 percent in 10 years.
"The discussions came amid rising gasoline prices.
The latest Lundberg Survey found the
nationwide average for gasoline has
risen 6 cents per gallon in the past
two weeks to $2.61."
I believe that reducing and
moreover recycling all motors that run on
electricity and fuel is an elemental and
urgent need for all humanity.
The tragedy does not lie in reducing
those energy costs but in the idea of
converting food into fuel.
It is known very precisely today that
one ton of corn can only produce 413
liters of ethanol on average,
according to densities.
That is equivalent to 109 gallons.
The average price of corn in U.S.
****ts has risen to $167 per ton.
Thus, 320 million tons of corn
would be required to produce 35
billion gallons of ethanol.
According to FAO figures,
the U.S. corn harvest rose
to 280.2 million tons in the
year 2005.
Although the president is talking
of producing fuel derived from grass
or wood shavings,
anyone can understand that these
are phrases totally lacking in realism.
Let's be clear:
35 billion gallons translates
into 35 followed by nine zeros!
Afterwards will come beautiful examples
of what experienced and well-organized
U.S. farmers can achieve in terms of
human productivity by hectare:
corn converted into ethanol;
the chaff from that corn converted
into animal feed containing 26% protein;
cattle dung used as raw
material for gas production.
Of course,
this is after voluminous
investments only within the
reach of the most powerful
enterprises,
in which everything has to be moved
on the basis of electricity and fuel
consumption.
Apply that recipe to the countries
of the Third World and you will see
that people among the hungry m*****
of the Earth will no longer eat corn.
Or something worse:
lend funding to poor countries
to produce corn ethanol based
on corn or any other food and
not a single tree will be left
to defend humanity from climate change.
Other countries in the rich world
are planning to use not only corn
but also wheat, sunflower seeds,
grapeseed and other foods for fuel
production.
For the Europeans, for example,
it would become a business to im****t
all of the world's soybeans with the
aim of reducing the fuel costs for their
automobiles and feeding their animals
with the chaff from that legume,
particularly rich in all types
of essential amino acids.
In Cuba,
alcohol used to be produced
as a byproduct of the sugar
industry after having made
three extractions of sugar
from cane juice.
Climate change is already
affecting our sugar production.
Lengthy periods of drought
alternating with record rainfall,
that barely make it possible to
produce sugar with an adequate
yield during the 100 days of
our very moderate winter;
hence,
there is less sugar per ton of cane
or less cane per hectare due to
prolonged drought in the months
of planting and cultivation.
I understand that in Venezuela they
would be using alcohol not for ex****t
but to improve the environmental
quality of their own fuel.
For that reason,
apart from the excellent Brazilian
technology for producing alcohol,
in Cuba the use of such a technology
for the direct production of alcohol
from sugar cane juice is no more than
a dream or the whim of those carried
away by that idea.
In our country,
land handed over to the direct
production of alcohol could be
much useful for food production
for the people and for
environmental protection.
All the countries of the world,
rich and poor, without any exception,
could save millions and millions of
dollars in investment and fuel simply
by changing all the incandescent
light bulbs for fluorescent ones,
an exercise that Cuba has carried
out in all homes throughout the country.
That would provide a breathing space
to resist climate change without
killing the poor m***** through hunger.
As can be observed,
I am not using adjectives to
qualify the system and the
lords of the earth.
That task can be excellently
undertaken by news experts and
honest social,
economic and political scientists
abounding in the world who are
constantly delving into to the
present and future of our species.
A computer and the growing number
of Internet networks are sufficient
for that.
Today, we are seeing for the first
time a really globalized economy
and a dominant power in the economic,
political and military terrain that
in no way resembles that of Imperial Rome.
Some people will be asking themselves
why I am talking of hunger and thirst.
My response to that:
it is not about the other side of the coin,
but about several sides of something else,
like a die with six sides,
or a polyhedron with many more sides.
I refer in this case to
an official news agency,
founded in 1945 and generally
well-informed about economic
and social questions in the world:
TELAM. It said, and I quote:
"In just 18 years, close to 2 billion
people will be living in countries and
regions where water will be a distant memory.
Two-thirds of the world's population
could be living in places where that
scarcity produces social and economic
tensions of such a magnitude that it
could lead nations to wars for the
precious 'blue gold.'
"Over the last 100 years,
the use of water has increased
at a rate twice as fast as that
of population growth.
"According to statistics from
the World Water Council,
it is estimated that by 2015,
the number of inhabitants affected
by this grave situation will rise by
3.5 billion people.
"The United Nations celebrated World
Water Day on March 23, and called to
begin confronting, that very day,
the international scarcity of water,
under the coordination of the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
with the goal of highlighting the
increasing im****tance of water
scarcity on a global scale,
and the need for greater integration
and cooperation that would make it
possible to guarantee sustained and
efficient management of water resources.
"Many regions on the planet are
suffering from severe water shortages,
living with less than 500 cubic meters
per person per year.
The number of regions suffering from
chronic scarcity of this vital element
is increasingly growing.
"The principal consequences of water
scarcity are an insufficient amount
of the precious liquid for producing food,
the impossibility of industrial,
urban and tourism development
and health problems."
That was the TELEAM cable.
In this case I will refrain from
mentioning other im****tant facts,
like the melting ice in Greenland
and the Antarctic,
damage to the ozone layer and the
growing volume of mercury in many
species of fish for common consumption.
There are other issues
that could be addressed,
but with these lines I am
just trying to comment on
President Bush's meeting
with the principal executives
of U.S. automakers.
March 28, 2007
Fidel Castro.
Translated by Granma International
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