Friday, 29 June 2007

Quotes of the day


"What it comes down to: the North plans to steal food from the South to feed the North's cars, lawn mowers, ATVs, jetskis, snowmobiles, speedboats, gokarts etc. the various euphemisms of "comparative advantage" and the definition of food, soil and water as fungible commodities dispersed in the corrosive solution of transnational money camouflage this bottomline reality: a car eats more than a human being."

- Deanander, from EuroTribune, recommended reading [emphasis added]




"A lot of governments, especially in Europe, the United States, and Japan, are encouraging use of agricultural fuels. Some of these policies are not founded in solid economic rationality : biofuels will continue to be very expensive to produce. But even if these policies were carried through with, we think the share of biofuels in world fuel production in 2030 will only be 7%. To reach those 7%, it will be necessary to use a farmland surface equivalent to the combined total areas of Australia, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand combined..."

- Dr Fatih Birol, IEA chief economist, in an interview with Le Monde (6/2007, emphasis added)