Agro-fuels:
A turn of the screw in power concentration
With much song and dance, Agro-fuels
have quickly found a place on the agendas of the governments of
the North…and of the South. They promise energy independence,
business, a solution to global warming, business, more foreign
currency, business!!!
They also give rise to new political
and regional positioning. During a controversial trip through
Latin America, the United States was seeking to strengthen a partnership
with Brazil regarding ethanol. Cuba has stated its rejection of
agro-fuels, together with Venezuela and Bolivia. Others look,
listen and remain silent…but have agro-fuels on their agendas
and the enabling legal frameworks are being established.
The possibility of using rice husks,
used cooking oil, grass or hay may conjure up a picture of good
use and recycling of resources. However, if we apply a macro vision,
agro-fuel fever comes in a very different package: intensification
of industrial agriculture (together with the well-known model
of monoculture crops – from food crops to trees – on a large-scale)
and conversion of vast stretches of farm land into plantations
for energy, no doubt in the countries of the South. Summing
up, a turn of the screw by colonization. And another step forward
in accumulating power.
The case of cellulosic ethanol provides
an ideal scenario for this concentration of power.
Current research on obtaining ethanol
from the cellulose of woody species (also known as “Treethanol”)
follows two main lines of work:
* enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose;
and
* thermo-chemical cellulose conversion
The first option is still at the laboratory
stage and genetic engineering work is being done to obtain, on
the one hand transgenic enzymes and, on the other, trees that
grow faster, producing less lignin or more easily degradable cellulose.
Synthetic biology (a combination of genetic engineering and nanotechnology)
is working on the creation of totally new organisms, in this case,
enzymes. Genencor (US), Novozymes (Denmark), and Diversa, are
working to find cheaper and more efficient enzymes. These techniques
and research strengthen the monoculture model, in detriment to
species diversity, considering that it would be more costly to
research the multiple enzymes necessary to degrade cellulose from
different species of trees.
In the attempt to lower the cost of
enzymes (transgenic or synthetic ones) to obtain cellulosic ethanol,
millions of dollars are at stake. Among the major investors
is the US Department of Energy, which granted a four-year 385
million-dollar subsidy to six projects aimed at producing cellulosic
ethanol. The US Department of Agriculture is also funding numerous
projects at various universities throughout the country.
Cellulosic ethanol has become a new
commodity attracting powerful groups from various sectors that
are constructing an intricate labyrinth of interconnections, mergers,
partnerships. Biotechnology companies such as Diversa Corp, Genencor
(US), Novozymes Inc. (Denmark), share interests with automobile
manufacturers such as Ascoma (US), or Volkswagen, and with oil
companies such as Chevron and BP. In their research they are supported
by research centres such as Craig Venter (US), Scion and AgResearch
(New Zealand), and the Swedish SweTree Technologies. For its part,
ArborGen –involving the paper companies International Paper and
Mead Westvaco and the biotechnology company Genesis— is assessing
the feasibility of marketing bio-fuels made from cellulose.
The other line of research to obtain
cellulosic ethanol through thermo-chemical conversion carried
out in bio-refineries, opens the door to another series of partnerships.
The pulp and paper companies are going into partnership with chemical
companies, as it would seem that it is relatively simple to convert
pulp mills into thermo-chemical or integrated bio-refineries to
process cellulosic ethanol. The pulp mill could gasify biomass
to create synthetic gas (syngas) and then convert it into a series
of fuels and chemical materials. For the pulp and paper companies
this is just another opportunity for trade as it opens up another
market and they could then choose the best bidder.
Thus, the biomass gasification model
has created convergence of interests between the pulp and paper
industry and the chemical industry. Partnerships have already
been established such as that of the forestry company Weyerhaeuser
with the Chevron oil company.
This is perhaps one of the most alarming
aspects of agro-fuels: that of joining powerful actors from different
sectors that previously had not collaborated so closely and thus
enabling them to take a qualitative jump
forward in the concentration of world power.
However, it also generates another process
in the opposite direction. Resistance to this advance of agro-fuel,
with the greater usurpation it involves, has given rise to greater
synergy between social organizations and movements that previously
had perhaps carried out parallel struggles.
Peasant communities, with their models of bio-diverse agriculture
under threat, indigenous forest communities endangered by the
destruction of their habitat with the advance of energy crop plantations;
those defending water and soil, alert to the expansion of an agriculture
that takes away water and soil; those who struggle for human rights,
because the progress of power groups is made at the expense of
the peoples’ rights.
All these movements are converging around
resistance to this new attack and are gathering forces to denounce
what it generates: an irresponsible, merciless, inhuman production,
trading, and consumption model. In this process, other values,
other principles, other models, another world is taking shape.
By Raquel Núñez, WRM e-mail: raquelnu@wrm.org.uy
