Agrofuels: Towards a reality check in nine key areas

This paper sets out critical concerns regarding the current push to develop agrofuels in transport, especially in industrialised countries. We call ‘biofuels’ here ‘agrofuels’, in line with the opinion of the Via Campesina, for example, who declared that: “We can’t call this a ‘bio-fuels program’. We certainly can’t call it a ‘bio-diesel program’. Such phrases use the prefix ‘bio’ to subtly imply that the energy in question comes from ‘life’ in general.This is illegitimate and manipulative. We need to find a term in every language that describes the situation more accurately, a term like agro-fuel. This term refers specifically to energy created from plant products grown through agriculture.”