by Miguel A. Altieri
President, Sociedad Cientifica LatinoAmericana de Agroecologia (SOCLA)

by Annie Shattuck
April 10, 2008

The debate over renewable energy is raging. The U.S. Congress recently passed a renewable fuels mandate which will effectively create an artificial market for at least 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol per year. Numerous studies have criticized ethanol's environmental footprint. From negligible greenhouse gas savings to increased ground level ozone, and dependency on high-input agriculture–corn ethanol's critics have painted a picture of a costly band-aid for our energy crisis.

Hamza Hasan

In the wake of the current ethanol boom, many agro-fuel supporters have argued that their environmental benefits make them an environmentally viable alternative to imported oil. The proponents of agro-fuels often argue that increased usage of ethanol will reduce greenhouse gases and help fight global warming. However, a more detailed examination of agro-fuels reveals some disturbing environmental effects.

Hamza Hasan
Food First

Please download the PDF and distribute widely.

Fact Sheet: Food Aid in the New Millenium

Genetically Engineered Food and Foreign Assistance

Disturbing evidence has come to light which suggests that US taxpayer dollars are being used through foreign assistance programs to subsidize the export of genetically engineered (GE) foods to the Third World and to finance GE research. This raises very serious ethical questions about our foreign aid dollars.

As Democrats and Republicans debate war and terrorism, a war has been waged against the poor at home. The numbers of Americans suffering from hunger, poverty, homelessness and lack of healthcare have dramatically increased since 2000. The latest U.S. Census found that several million more slipped into poverty and lost their healthcare insurance last year. Yet these vital issues of human security--food, housing, health care--are missing from the presidential debates, buried under headlines of war and threats of terrorism.

Republicans and Democrats alike have quickly heralded welfare reform a success by pointing to the drop in welfare caseloads. But no one knows what has happened to the mothers, children, and elderly who left welfare.

The United States has never grown so much food. Scarcity is down, food is cheap, and enough food is produced to provide for every woman, man, and child. Yet, in the world's richest nation, more than 36 million people, including 14 million children, experience hunger.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA, is a proposed trade agreement between the U.S. government and five Central American countries: Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. CAFTA has been met by mass protests in Central America, and the Bush administration is having trouble garnering even Republican votes in the US Congress. Ratifying CAFTA promises to be a highly symbolic legislative struggle, with the potential to significantly stall the free trade agenda. Citizen pressure is working and needs to continue! Tell your Representative to publicly oppose CAFTA: see the action steps below.