Fidel Castro, the Cuban president on medication, has made caustic remarks about the plans of United States of America to raise the level of biofuel consumption in order to bring down the use of fossil fuels that damage the environment.
Biofuels produced from vegetable matter have become commercially successful in many countries. Ethanol, a biofuel manufactured from sugar cane, is used to run most of Brazil’s automobiles. The USA makes its ethanol from corn. Soybean is also used to make biofuel.
Emission of greenhouse gases falls by 65% when a car is run on bioethanol made from grains, the Central Science Laboratory of the UK says. Race cars have used bioethanol as fuel since years.
Biofuel can be produced from substances like straw, timber, rice husk and other biodegradable waste. They are converted to biogas by anaerobic digestion. The plants that help produce biofuels can be grown on farms anywhere and be a source of income to the farmers.
Biofuel is seen as a renewable source of energy for the future. Countries that already use biofuels seek to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels for two reasons. The first is to relieve the economy that is weighed down by the large funds that have to be allocated for the import of petroleum. The second is to reduce emission of greenhouse gases, thus reducing damage to the environment.
President Castro’s remarks have come as a rejoinder to president Bush who made it an important point to promote the use of biofuels when he recently toured the Latin American countries.
Casrtro is obviously afraid of the possibility of large amounts of food grains getting diverted into the biofuel manufacturing units and thereby creating food scarcity. His anxiety is a valid one, as there is a possibility of food grains getting consumed to make biofuel. Plans to switch over to biofuels need to be regulated by measures that will prevent the use of food to produce fuel, as Castro’s concern has shown.
