[Marxism] How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is the story about which Prensa Latina reported yesterday, and
shows how timely Fidel's participation in these world discussions is.
Fidel has a second installment today in his "Reflections" series which
shares the front page of today's Granma with the meeting here in Havana
of the Spanish Foreign Minister, Moratinos, with Raul, Lage and Cuba's
FM Felipe Perez Roque. That, too, is very interesting as it reflects a
serious division within the EU which can help to undercut the ability
of the Czechs and Poles, etc., who are Washington's proxies in this
situation, from pushing their anti-Cuba manipulations. 

A new note from Fidel is out and it will be translated and out soon.
It takes up again these same issues of ethanol, corn, sugar and so on.
Fidel, the master of political timing, is definitely neither dead nor
is he out of the picture, though he may be off camera. For now...)

Fidel in Spanish:
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2007/04/04/nacional/artic05.html

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Cuba's Young Communist League is 45 years young today!
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How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor
C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer


Summary:  Thanks to high oil prices and hefty subsidies, corn-based
ethanol is now all the rage in the United States. But it takes so much
supply to keep ethanol production going that the price of corn -- and
those of other food staples -- is shooting up around the world. To stop
this trend, and prevent even more people from going hungry, Washington
must conserve more and diversify ethanol's production inputs.

[C. Ford Runge is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied
Economics and Law and Director of the Center for International Food and
Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota. Benjamin Senauer is
Professor of Applied Economics and Co-director of the Food Industry
Center at the University of Minnesota.]

>From Foreign Affairs magazine, May/June 2007
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86305-p0/c-ford-runge-benjamin-senauer/how-biofuels-could-starve-the-poor.html

or
http://tinyurl.com/2h2kud



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