Rajesh Abraham in Mumbai | BS | June 23, 2007 | 04:10 IST
India's well-known investors who are known for their Midas touch have spotted an opportunity in bio-fuel, betting big on ethanol, bio-mass and even bio-fuel equipment makers in India and other parts of the globe.
Billionaires Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, C Sivasankaran, Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun Microsystems, and Nemish Shah, the media-shy joint partner of Enam Financial Services, are investing in bio-fuel makers quietly, expecting that bio-fuel will have a big play in the coming years as the world looks for a viable alternative to the fast depleting oil reserves.
Jhunjhunwala, who is known for his ability to spot a multi-bagger at a very early stage, recently invested in Hyderabad-based bio-fuel firm Nandan Biometrics.
He is also a 10 per cent stakeholder in Praj Industries, which is a bio-fuel technology provider and equipment maker.
"Bhai (as Jhunjhunwala is known in market circles) is bullish on biofuel and the broad alternative energy space. He is looking at several unlisted companies for more investments," said a source.
Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems and a leading green fuel investor through his Khosla Ventures, holds a minor stake in Praj Industries.
But, Khosla, who is scouting for more investments in India, is playing a high stakes game in Brazil.
He has backed Brazilian Renewable Energy Company (Brenco) and also made investments in Segetis, founded by former Soviet scientists Sergey and Olga Selifonova, to develop renewable chemical products.
C Sivasankaran, who sold his stake in mobile phone company Aircel to Malaysian conglomerate Maxis Communications for over $1 billion, has set up "E85 Inc", an ethanol producing company in Raleigh, North Carolina, investing $200 million late last year.
"Alternative energy, broadly, is an area which we are excited about as an investment opportunity," said Rahul Bhasin, managing director, Barings Private Equity, which has invested in Auro Mira Energy, a wind energy company.
Market sources say Nemish Shah, who spotted multi-baggers Sesa Goa and Infosys when everyone was looking the other way in the early 1990s, is also making quiet moves in biofuel companies in India, both listed and unlisted.
Sources say little known IKF Technologies, which is entering bio-fuel production in a big way, has come on his investment radar.
A listed company, IKF Tech recently sought government leases for a total of 150,000 hectares of land in Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa to cultivate jatropha to produce biofuel.
"There are several factors that can make India successful in the alternative energy space: availability of natural resources, cost-effective engineering and manufacturing talent and high cost of importing traditional fuels," said Arun Natarajan of Venture Intelligence, a PE tracking firm.
"While I do not see alternative energy posing a threat to sectors that are traditional favourites with investors -- like IT & IT-enabled services and manufacturing -- any time soon, there is definitely a strong interest in this sector," he added.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Programa de Reaproveitamento de Óleo Vegetal
SÁBADO, 23 JUNHO 2007 . BIODIESELBR.COM
O Programa de Reaproveitamento de Óleos Vegetais (Prove), iniciativa da Refinaria de Manguinhos, em parceria com a Secretaria de Meio Ambiente do Rio, está ampliando suas parcerias para aumentar o volume adquirido de óleo de cozinha usado.
O PROVE utiliza como mão-de-obra principal catadores de óleo reunidos em cooperativas. Atualmente, 25 cooperativas de catadores já participam do projeto, coletando óleo de cozinha usado em vários pontos da cidade para enviá-lo a Refinaria de Manguinhos, em Bonsucesso, onde é transformado em biodiesel.
A meta de produção da refinaria de Manguinhos é de 4,5 milhões de litros por ano de biodiesel, o que proporcionará às cooperativas renda de cerca de R$ 2,7 milhões.
Com a parceria, Manguinhos contribuirá para a redução da poluição dos rios e da Baía de Guanabara e do custo de tratamento de esgoto. A produção de biodiesel a partir do reaproveitamento do óleo vegetal é a primeira experiência nessa área feita no estado do Rio.
O programa iniciou o processo de certificação de restaurantes, escolas e condomínios.
- Quem quiser participar basta separar o óleo de cozinha usado em recipiente e telefonar para o Disque-Prove, no telefone 021 2598-9240 - informou Carlos Minc, secretário estadual do ambiente.
Somente no Circo Voador, que participa do projeto, deverão ser coletados 30 litros de óleo usado por semana. Além do óleo usado de pequenas lanchonetes e da creche do Circo Voador, seus funcionários estão trazendo o produto de casa.
O programa possui um caminhão coletor, doado pelo Orla Rio, que já está rodando por diversos pontos de coleta de óleo de cozinha usado instalados na cidade.
O Programa de Reaproveitamento de Óleos Vegetais (Prove), iniciativa da Refinaria de Manguinhos, em parceria com a Secretaria de Meio Ambiente do Rio, está ampliando suas parcerias para aumentar o volume adquirido de óleo de cozinha usado.
O PROVE utiliza como mão-de-obra principal catadores de óleo reunidos em cooperativas. Atualmente, 25 cooperativas de catadores já participam do projeto, coletando óleo de cozinha usado em vários pontos da cidade para enviá-lo a Refinaria de Manguinhos, em Bonsucesso, onde é transformado em biodiesel.
A meta de produção da refinaria de Manguinhos é de 4,5 milhões de litros por ano de biodiesel, o que proporcionará às cooperativas renda de cerca de R$ 2,7 milhões.
Com a parceria, Manguinhos contribuirá para a redução da poluição dos rios e da Baía de Guanabara e do custo de tratamento de esgoto. A produção de biodiesel a partir do reaproveitamento do óleo vegetal é a primeira experiência nessa área feita no estado do Rio.
O programa iniciou o processo de certificação de restaurantes, escolas e condomínios.
- Quem quiser participar basta separar o óleo de cozinha usado em recipiente e telefonar para o Disque-Prove, no telefone 021 2598-9240 - informou Carlos Minc, secretário estadual do ambiente.
Somente no Circo Voador, que participa do projeto, deverão ser coletados 30 litros de óleo usado por semana. Além do óleo usado de pequenas lanchonetes e da creche do Circo Voador, seus funcionários estão trazendo o produto de casa.
O programa possui um caminhão coletor, doado pelo Orla Rio, que já está rodando por diversos pontos de coleta de óleo de cozinha usado instalados na cidade.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Farms Fund Robots to Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers
As if the debate over immigration and guest worker programs wasn't complicated enough, now a couple of robots are rolling into the middle of it.
Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labor-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season.
The robotic work has been funded entirely by agricultural associations, and pushed forward by the uncertainty surrounding the migrant labor force. Farmers are "very, very nervous about the availability and cost of labor in the near future," says Vision Robotics CEO Derek Morikawa.
Agricultural groups hope Vision Robotics can build this harvester to replace labor crews.
Image: Vision Robotics
It's a surprising new market for Vision Robotics, which had been focused on developing consumer devices, including a robotic vacuum cleaner to compete with iRobot's Roomba.
When a member of the California Citrus Research Board approached the company in 2004, Morikawa was doubtful that an effective robotic picker was even feasible. A citrus grower brought the skeptical engineers to an orange farm in California's fertile Central Valley, where they walked down the neat rows of trees and stared at the oranges hanging in the branches.
Previous attempts at making a mechanical harvester were thwarted by inefficiency, explains Morikawa. In the past, experimental machines approached a tree as a human would, picking one piece of fruit and then looking for the next. In this slow process, the machine circled the tree repeatedly until it was sure it had picked all the fruit.
Morikawa says his engineers had their breakthrough idea right there in the orange grove. They realized that the task could be divided between two robots: One would locate all the oranges, and the second would pick them. "Once you know where all the fruit is, then it becomes an easy job to calculate the most efficient way to pick it all," says Morikawa.
The eight-armed orange harvester will strip ripe fruit from trees.
Image: Vision Robotics
But it wasn't just technological challenges that held back previous attempts at building a mechanical harvester –- politics got involved, too. Cesar Chavez, the legendary leader of the United Farm Workers, began a campaign against mechanization back in 1978.
Chavez was outraged that the federal government was funding research and development on agricultural machines, but not spending any money to aid the farm workers who would be displaced. In the '80s, that simmering anger merged with a growing realization that the technology was nowhere near ready, and government funding dried up.
This time around, growers' associations are funding the research. By the end of this year, the orange growers will have invested almost $1 million in the project, says Ted Baskin, president of the California Citrus Research Board. He estimates that it will take about $5 million more to get to the finished product.
The farmers are willing to pay up because they've been rattled by a labor shortage over the past few years -- California growers tell horror stories of watching their fruit rot on the trees as they waited for the picking crews to arrive. Last fall, growers rallied in front of the U.S. Capitol, frustrated that Congress still hadn't created a program to ease the passage of foreign guest workers across the Mexico border.
With the supply-and-demand equation uncertain, growers see the robots as a better option. "You can predict what it's going to cost to buy a machine and maintain it," says Baskin. "You can't predict the bargaining that we go through with contract labor," he says.
The two robots would work as a team: one an eagle-eyed scout, the other a metallic octopus with a gentle touch. The first robot will scan the tree and build a 3-D map of the location and size of each orange, calculating the best order in which to pick them. It sends that information to the second robot, a harvester that will pick the tree clean, following a planned sequence that keeps its eight long arms from bumping into each other.
The Vision Robotics engineers are currently building the scout. They expect to have a prototype ready next year, with the harvester to follow two or three years later. Baskin says he doesn't expect the mechanical systems to pose any serious problems. The hard work is writing the software. After the scout robot makes a 3-D map of the tree, it has to evaluate each piece of fruit. What size is the orange? What color is it? Does it have black spots on it? "It's a question of gathering the information, and then judging whether it meets the parameters that are equal to a good orange," Baskin says.
Vision Robotics has been working on that problem for almost four years now, which might give some reassurance to human pickers. The United Farm Workers' leaders say they aren't worried about the robots, because they don't believe the machines will ever be able to do the job as well as people. Spokesman Marc Grossman predicts that mechanical hands will damage the fruit and make it unappealing for supermarket shoppers. "There are already machines that will pick wine grapes, but the high end wine growers don’t use them, because they want the quality," Grossman says.
Farmers don't seem to share that concern. The Washington Tree Fruit Commission started investing in the project last year, and Vision Robotics is talking to other agricultural groups with crops ranging from cherries to asparagus.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Rio antecipa adição do biodiesel para ônibus
Em um ano, a economia é de 32 milhões de litros de óleo diesel
Rio de Janeiro - Nos próximos quatro meses, cerca de 3 mil dos 14,5 mil ônibus que circulam na região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro, utilizarão como combustível o óleo diesel derivado do petróleo com a adição de 5% de biodiesel - o diesel vegetal.
Nesse período, uma empresa especializada fará o monitoramento da qualidade do ar e do desempenho dos motores, e os dados serão analisados pela Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis (ANP).
O projeto experimental foi apresentado na quinta-feira, 31, em solenidade na Federação do Comércio e resulta de parceria entre a Secretaria Estadual de Transportes, a Petrobras Distribuidora, a Federação das Empresas de Transporte de Passageiros do Rio (Fetranspor) e as montadoras Volkswagen e Mercedes-Benz.
Na prática, o projeto antecipa em quase sete anos a lei federal que torna obrigatória, em janeiro de 2013, a utilização do B5, diesel mineral com adição de 5% de biodiesel. A mesma lei prevê, já para janeiro do próximo ano, o uso do B2, diesel comum com 2% de adição do novo combustível.
O secretário de Transportes, Júlio Lopes, destacou o pioneirismo do Rio de Janeiro em relação a combustíveis mais limpos: "Em um ano, 3 mil ônibus rodando com biodiesel a 5% significam uma economia de 32 milhões de litros de óleo diesel".
Para o coordenador de Meio Ambiente da Fetranspor, Guilherme Wilson da Conceição, o projeto não vai pesar no bolso dos usuários do transporte público, porque as tarifas não serão alteradas: "O biodiesel ainda é um pouco mais caro que o diesel, mas a BR Distribuidora nos garantiu que não vai repassar esta diferença. Vamos manter a mesma qualidade do transporte poluindo menos".
Dados da Agência Internacional de Energia indicam que o setor de transportes em todo o mundo é responsável por cerca de 24% do dióxido de carbono (CO2) lançado na atmosfera. E que a participação das frotas das grandes cidades na emissão de gases do efeito estufa aumenta 2,5% a cada ano. Nos países em desenvolvimento, essa taxa atinge até 4,4% ao ano.
Rio de Janeiro - Nos próximos quatro meses, cerca de 3 mil dos 14,5 mil ônibus que circulam na região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro, utilizarão como combustível o óleo diesel derivado do petróleo com a adição de 5% de biodiesel - o diesel vegetal.
Nesse período, uma empresa especializada fará o monitoramento da qualidade do ar e do desempenho dos motores, e os dados serão analisados pela Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis (ANP).
O projeto experimental foi apresentado na quinta-feira, 31, em solenidade na Federação do Comércio e resulta de parceria entre a Secretaria Estadual de Transportes, a Petrobras Distribuidora, a Federação das Empresas de Transporte de Passageiros do Rio (Fetranspor) e as montadoras Volkswagen e Mercedes-Benz.
Na prática, o projeto antecipa em quase sete anos a lei federal que torna obrigatória, em janeiro de 2013, a utilização do B5, diesel mineral com adição de 5% de biodiesel. A mesma lei prevê, já para janeiro do próximo ano, o uso do B2, diesel comum com 2% de adição do novo combustível.
O secretário de Transportes, Júlio Lopes, destacou o pioneirismo do Rio de Janeiro em relação a combustíveis mais limpos: "Em um ano, 3 mil ônibus rodando com biodiesel a 5% significam uma economia de 32 milhões de litros de óleo diesel".
Para o coordenador de Meio Ambiente da Fetranspor, Guilherme Wilson da Conceição, o projeto não vai pesar no bolso dos usuários do transporte público, porque as tarifas não serão alteradas: "O biodiesel ainda é um pouco mais caro que o diesel, mas a BR Distribuidora nos garantiu que não vai repassar esta diferença. Vamos manter a mesma qualidade do transporte poluindo menos".
Dados da Agência Internacional de Energia indicam que o setor de transportes em todo o mundo é responsável por cerca de 24% do dióxido de carbono (CO2) lançado na atmosfera. E que a participação das frotas das grandes cidades na emissão de gases do efeito estufa aumenta 2,5% a cada ano. Nos países em desenvolvimento, essa taxa atinge até 4,4% ao ano.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Food prices rise as more crops go into producing biofuels
By KANAKO TAKAHARA
The increasing demand for biofuel, which is derived from biomass — usually plants — has taken a bite out of supplies of crops and other farm products worldwide. The redirection of crops from mouths to fuel tanks is reflected in the rise of prices of ordinary food items in Japan.
For the first time in 17 years, Q.P. Corp., Japan's biggest mayonnaise maker, will raise the price of its main product by about 10 percent, starting with Friday's shipment.
"It's because the price of the ingredients, mainly rapeseed and soybeans, rose," said Shunsuke Horiike, spokesman for Q.P., citing stronger demand in China. But he also blamed the price hike on biomass fuel.
"Rapeseed oil is used for biodiesel in Europe," Horiike said. "In the United States, corn is used to produce ethanol, and because of that, soybean acreage has been decreased."
Many countries, including Japan, see biofuel, mainly ethanol, as an eco-friendly replacement for petroleum, but experts doubt it can be a sustainable alternative energy resource.
Masatoshi Matsumura, a professor of life and environment sciences at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, said using food resources to produce biofuel is meaningless because it would cause unnecessary agricultural competition and lead to higher crop prices.
When U.S. President George W. Bush pledged in January to increase the supply of alternative fuels to 35 billion gallons (132.5 billion liters) a year in 2017, six times the amount in 2006, corn futures topped $ 4 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade, or about twice as high as the same period last year.
"We need to produce fuel from new resources that are not food," Matsumura said.
Matsumura is currently working on a project to produce biodiesel from sunflower oil and is seeking ways to increase its production. Making biofuel from resources not widely used for food is one of the most sustainable ways to produce alternative fuels, he said.
Sunflowers can be imported from many parts of the world, including Russia, South America and Southeast Asia, that would diversify sources of fuel, Matsumura said.
However, most biofuel currently produced in Japan is a mix of gasoline and ethanol derived from crops.
In April, Japanese oil companies started selling bio-gasoline — a mixture of imported ethanol produced from sugar cane and corn, and gasoline — at 50 gas stations in the Kanto region.
The fuel appears to be off to a good start, partly because retail prices are the same as regular gasoline thanks to government subsidies.
"Apparently because the name bio-gasoline appeals to people, we are seeing pretty good sales," said Fumiaki Watari, president of the Petroleum Association of Japan.
Watari, who is also chairman of Nippon Oil Corp., said the industry intends to increase the number of gas stations selling bio-gasoline to 100 by the end of March 2009.
Japan has been keen on fighting global warming under the Kyoto Protocol by committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
But observers say Japan lags behind Brazil, the U.S. and Europe in promoting biofuel.
In February, a government panel on biofuel announced Japan should aim to boost production to an annual 6 million kiloliters in fiscal 2030 — a big leap from the approximately 30 kiloliters per year in fiscal 2005.
It was the first time the government has come up with a numerical target.
But Miyuki Tomari, chairman of the nonprofit organization Biomass Industrial Society Network, said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is merely promoting biofuel, currently focused on ethanol, to win support for the ruling bloc in the runup to the July Upper House election.
"He's using it to gain support from rural areas" where farmers, who are strong supporters of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, believe his policy will increase production of crops and additional subsidies from the project, she said.
In a campaign speech in April in Okinawa, Abe praised ethanol as a state-of-the-art fuel that is environmentally friendly.
"What the government actually needs to do is create a framework in which individuals and businesses will be motivated" to reduce gas emissions, she said.
Introducing a carbon tax, raising prices of electricity sold to utilities and promoting emissions trading — which allows high-emission companies to purchase credits from others — are among the key policies the government should promote, Tomari said.
"Producing biofuel may be a good option for Europe and the U.S., where their food self-sufficiency rate is high," Tomari said. "But for countries like Japan with a 40 percent food self-sufficiency rate, the priority should be placed on providing food for humans and livestock."
The Japan Times: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
(C) All rights reserved
The increasing demand for biofuel, which is derived from biomass — usually plants — has taken a bite out of supplies of crops and other farm products worldwide. The redirection of crops from mouths to fuel tanks is reflected in the rise of prices of ordinary food items in Japan.
For the first time in 17 years, Q.P. Corp., Japan's biggest mayonnaise maker, will raise the price of its main product by about 10 percent, starting with Friday's shipment.
"It's because the price of the ingredients, mainly rapeseed and soybeans, rose," said Shunsuke Horiike, spokesman for Q.P., citing stronger demand in China. But he also blamed the price hike on biomass fuel.
"Rapeseed oil is used for biodiesel in Europe," Horiike said. "In the United States, corn is used to produce ethanol, and because of that, soybean acreage has been decreased."
Many countries, including Japan, see biofuel, mainly ethanol, as an eco-friendly replacement for petroleum, but experts doubt it can be a sustainable alternative energy resource.
Masatoshi Matsumura, a professor of life and environment sciences at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, said using food resources to produce biofuel is meaningless because it would cause unnecessary agricultural competition and lead to higher crop prices.
When U.S. President George W. Bush pledged in January to increase the supply of alternative fuels to 35 billion gallons (132.5 billion liters) a year in 2017, six times the amount in 2006, corn futures topped $ 4 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade, or about twice as high as the same period last year.
"We need to produce fuel from new resources that are not food," Matsumura said.
Matsumura is currently working on a project to produce biodiesel from sunflower oil and is seeking ways to increase its production. Making biofuel from resources not widely used for food is one of the most sustainable ways to produce alternative fuels, he said.
Sunflowers can be imported from many parts of the world, including Russia, South America and Southeast Asia, that would diversify sources of fuel, Matsumura said.
However, most biofuel currently produced in Japan is a mix of gasoline and ethanol derived from crops.
In April, Japanese oil companies started selling bio-gasoline — a mixture of imported ethanol produced from sugar cane and corn, and gasoline — at 50 gas stations in the Kanto region.
The fuel appears to be off to a good start, partly because retail prices are the same as regular gasoline thanks to government subsidies.
"Apparently because the name bio-gasoline appeals to people, we are seeing pretty good sales," said Fumiaki Watari, president of the Petroleum Association of Japan.
Watari, who is also chairman of Nippon Oil Corp., said the industry intends to increase the number of gas stations selling bio-gasoline to 100 by the end of March 2009.
Japan has been keen on fighting global warming under the Kyoto Protocol by committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
But observers say Japan lags behind Brazil, the U.S. and Europe in promoting biofuel.
In February, a government panel on biofuel announced Japan should aim to boost production to an annual 6 million kiloliters in fiscal 2030 — a big leap from the approximately 30 kiloliters per year in fiscal 2005.
It was the first time the government has come up with a numerical target.
But Miyuki Tomari, chairman of the nonprofit organization Biomass Industrial Society Network, said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is merely promoting biofuel, currently focused on ethanol, to win support for the ruling bloc in the runup to the July Upper House election.
"He's using it to gain support from rural areas" where farmers, who are strong supporters of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, believe his policy will increase production of crops and additional subsidies from the project, she said.
In a campaign speech in April in Okinawa, Abe praised ethanol as a state-of-the-art fuel that is environmentally friendly.
"What the government actually needs to do is create a framework in which individuals and businesses will be motivated" to reduce gas emissions, she said.
Introducing a carbon tax, raising prices of electricity sold to utilities and promoting emissions trading — which allows high-emission companies to purchase credits from others — are among the key policies the government should promote, Tomari said.
"Producing biofuel may be a good option for Europe and the U.S., where their food self-sufficiency rate is high," Tomari said. "But for countries like Japan with a 40 percent food self-sufficiency rate, the priority should be placed on providing food for humans and livestock."
The Japan Times: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
(C) All rights reserved
Friday, May 25, 2007
Biofuel seen biting into food supply
Biofuel seen biting into food supply
Kyodo News
The country should raise its food self-sufficiency rate as the global balance of food supply and demand is expected to get tighter as biofuel production increases, according to a government white paper approved Friday by the Cabinet.
The balance is also likely to tighten due to increases in the world population that will boost grain consumption, according to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry's fiscal 2006 report.
Japan may "face rising food prices and difficulties in securing sufficient amounts of foods," the report warns.
Demand for corn has been increasing rapidly. More plants have been built in the United States to produce ethanol, a renewable fuel distilled from crops such as sugar cane, corn and wheat. This has led to higher prices for food and animal feed there, the white paper says.
Demand for corn for biofuel production is expected to rise to 31 percent of overall U.S. demand for corn in 10 years, from 18 percent in 2006, making the amount for export inevitably lower, which will affect food-importing nations like Japan.
The world's population will continue to grow, with particularly notable increases in developing economies, the report says. The global population is expected to top 9 billion in 2050, compared with 6.5 billion in 2006, and grain consumption will rise as a result.
Grain consumption in developing countries is seen doubling in 2050 from the annual average of 1.1 billion tons between 1999 and 2001.
To address the tightening supply and demand situation, some members of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy have proposed Japan strengthen relations with food-exporting nations to secure a stable food supply and conclude more economic partnership agreements with them that would include trade liberalization of farm products.
But the white paper also points to risks of depending on imports, saying that in a crisis exporting countries would supply food to their own populations first.
On measures to improve the food self-sufficiency rate in Japan, the paper calls for creating large-scale farming with an eye to reducing production costs.
It calls for revitalizing agriculture by encouraging residents in urban areas to start farming as populations in farming communities are aging and declining. It also suggests growing rice on abandoned farmland to stockpile for emergencies.
The Japan Times: Saturday, May 26, 2007
(C) All rights reserved
Kyodo News
The country should raise its food self-sufficiency rate as the global balance of food supply and demand is expected to get tighter as biofuel production increases, according to a government white paper approved Friday by the Cabinet.
The balance is also likely to tighten due to increases in the world population that will boost grain consumption, according to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry's fiscal 2006 report.
Japan may "face rising food prices and difficulties in securing sufficient amounts of foods," the report warns.
Demand for corn has been increasing rapidly. More plants have been built in the United States to produce ethanol, a renewable fuel distilled from crops such as sugar cane, corn and wheat. This has led to higher prices for food and animal feed there, the white paper says.
Demand for corn for biofuel production is expected to rise to 31 percent of overall U.S. demand for corn in 10 years, from 18 percent in 2006, making the amount for export inevitably lower, which will affect food-importing nations like Japan.
The world's population will continue to grow, with particularly notable increases in developing economies, the report says. The global population is expected to top 9 billion in 2050, compared with 6.5 billion in 2006, and grain consumption will rise as a result.
Grain consumption in developing countries is seen doubling in 2050 from the annual average of 1.1 billion tons between 1999 and 2001.
To address the tightening supply and demand situation, some members of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy have proposed Japan strengthen relations with food-exporting nations to secure a stable food supply and conclude more economic partnership agreements with them that would include trade liberalization of farm products.
But the white paper also points to risks of depending on imports, saying that in a crisis exporting countries would supply food to their own populations first.
On measures to improve the food self-sufficiency rate in Japan, the paper calls for creating large-scale farming with an eye to reducing production costs.
It calls for revitalizing agriculture by encouraging residents in urban areas to start farming as populations in farming communities are aging and declining. It also suggests growing rice on abandoned farmland to stockpile for emergencies.
The Japan Times: Saturday, May 26, 2007
(C) All rights reserved
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Schwarzenegger attacks ethanol tariffs, subsidies
Schwarzenegger attacks ethanol tariffs, subsidies
Fri May 18, 2007 7:08PM EDT
By Bernie Woodall
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Friday he wants markets to set policies on low carbon fuels, and called for eliminating subsidies and tariffs related to ethanol.
"We need to take down the barriers we have created," Schwarzenegger said at a symposium on low carbon fuels at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, California.
The United States, he said, subsidizes domestic corn-based ethanol and imposes a 54-cents-per-gallon tariff to limit cheap ethanol imports from Brazil.
"It makes absolutely no sense. It's crazy, and it's definitely not in the best interest of the customers," said Schwarzenegger.
Brazil, which uses sugar-based ethanol, is the No. 2 producer of the biofuel after the United States and its corn-based fuel.
He did not offer specific alternatives to the tariffs and subsidies, but said the market should be allowed to come up with the best solutions after targets are set by governments like California's.
"We set the targets. The market decides how best to get there," Schwarzenegger said.
The booming U.S. ethanol production has increased corn costs and in turn feed costs for chickens, hogs and cattle. The result is a $47-per-person increase since last July in the average U.S. grocery bill, a study issued last week by Iowa State University found.
U.S. fuel ethanol gets a 51-cents-per-gallon tax subsidy.
The low carbon fuel symposium held Friday is a method to allow the markets to decide the best way forward on alternative fuels, the governor said. The governor in January called for California to set a "low carbon fuel standard" meant to cut carbon emissions in transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020.
Schwarzenegger on Friday said the federal government's help is essential in establishing standards that stakeholders -- from industry to scientists to environmentalists -- can then strive to meet.
He called on the U.S. Congress "to adopt a fuel policy that works."
Transportation accounts for about 40 percent of the climate changing carbon emissions in California, and the state now relies on petroleum-based fuels for 96 percent of its transportation fuels.
Record gasoline prices can also be helped by less reliance on oil-based fuels and more on alternatives that cut carbon emissions, Schwarzenegger said.
Travel and motor club AAA on Friday said the U.S. average for regular gasoline was $3.13 per gallon, and $3.46 per gallon in California.
"The low carbon fuel standard is our best weapon against rising oil prices and gas prices," Schwarzenegger said.
"A vibrant market in alternative fuels and alternative vehicles and alternative engines give customers a great choice, and that empowers the customers to say, 'No,' to these high fuel prices. To say, 'Hasta la vista, baby,' "
Fri May 18, 2007 7:08PM EDT
By Bernie Woodall
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Friday he wants markets to set policies on low carbon fuels, and called for eliminating subsidies and tariffs related to ethanol.
"We need to take down the barriers we have created," Schwarzenegger said at a symposium on low carbon fuels at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, California.
The United States, he said, subsidizes domestic corn-based ethanol and imposes a 54-cents-per-gallon tariff to limit cheap ethanol imports from Brazil.
"It makes absolutely no sense. It's crazy, and it's definitely not in the best interest of the customers," said Schwarzenegger.
Brazil, which uses sugar-based ethanol, is the No. 2 producer of the biofuel after the United States and its corn-based fuel.
He did not offer specific alternatives to the tariffs and subsidies, but said the market should be allowed to come up with the best solutions after targets are set by governments like California's.
"We set the targets. The market decides how best to get there," Schwarzenegger said.
The booming U.S. ethanol production has increased corn costs and in turn feed costs for chickens, hogs and cattle. The result is a $47-per-person increase since last July in the average U.S. grocery bill, a study issued last week by Iowa State University found.
U.S. fuel ethanol gets a 51-cents-per-gallon tax subsidy.
The low carbon fuel symposium held Friday is a method to allow the markets to decide the best way forward on alternative fuels, the governor said. The governor in January called for California to set a "low carbon fuel standard" meant to cut carbon emissions in transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020.
Schwarzenegger on Friday said the federal government's help is essential in establishing standards that stakeholders -- from industry to scientists to environmentalists -- can then strive to meet.
He called on the U.S. Congress "to adopt a fuel policy that works."
Transportation accounts for about 40 percent of the climate changing carbon emissions in California, and the state now relies on petroleum-based fuels for 96 percent of its transportation fuels.
Record gasoline prices can also be helped by less reliance on oil-based fuels and more on alternatives that cut carbon emissions, Schwarzenegger said.
Travel and motor club AAA on Friday said the U.S. average for regular gasoline was $3.13 per gallon, and $3.46 per gallon in California.
"The low carbon fuel standard is our best weapon against rising oil prices and gas prices," Schwarzenegger said.
"A vibrant market in alternative fuels and alternative vehicles and alternative engines give customers a great choice, and that empowers the customers to say, 'No,' to these high fuel prices. To say, 'Hasta la vista, baby,' "
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