Madam, - Your Editorial on targets for biofuels (July 29th) distorts many important points and misses others altogether. To point to the growth in biofuels as the sole cause of food riots around the world represents a dangerous and unsubstantiated presumption. In truth, rising food prices have much more to do with growing populations, increasing caloric intake and reduced agricultural yields resulting from climate change, than they do with biofuels.
More fundamentally, it is important to distinguish between bioethanol, which is an alcohol product derived from beetroot, corn, cane or other "starchy" crops and biodiesel, which is an oil product, derived from rapeseed, sunflower or other "oily" crops. The latter has been favoured in Europe, where production takes place behind the market-impervious iron curtain of subsidies known as Cap. Because Cap is already horribly distortionary, it is impossible to judge the net impact of European biofuels on global agricultural markets.
The real point about the promotion of biofuels through targets or subsidy, which you all but missed, is that such policies can never be sure to achieve their own stated goal - the reduction in CO2 emissions. This is because biofuels are not carbon neutral, and by subsidising them, we may be propping up a technology which is not only economically - but also ecologically - inefficient.
The best way to encourage sensible fuel use is to "carbon tax" all fuels. This means figuring out the cost to the environment of burning a litre of petrol, diesel, whatever, and adding that on to the pump price as an extra tax. In this way, the cost to the planet and the cost to the consumer are one and the same. If biofuels really make sense, then they should be cheaper once these eco-taxes are added in. - Yours, etc,
GRAHAM STULL, Chaussée de Saint-Job, Brussels, Belgium.
Madam - Regarding your report, "Minister abandons biofuel target" (July 26th), I would like to bring some balance to the fuel versus food debate.
The main reason for rising food prices worldwide is the increasing price of oil. This raises the cost of everything from fertilisers, to fuel for farm machinery and transportation, to the plastic packaging in which we all buy our food from the supermarket.
There is significant work ongoing in Ireland and elsewhere to produce biofuels from sources that do not compete with food production. These include marine algae that are abundant around Ireland's coastline, municipal and industrial waste that might otherwise be incinerated, and the fraction of grass that is not used for beef production. This work could provide Ireland with opportunities to reduce our dependence on the very oil that is driving up our food prices.
Biofuels can be part of the solution, not the problem. I hope the Government considers this in continuing its ambitious and forward-thinking plans to ensure Ireland's energy and food positions are sustainable in the future. - Yours, etc,
PAUL ROBEN, Booterstown Avenue, Co Dublin.