Subsections

Future of Global Nutrition


Global corporations

According to Peter Dicken ( University of Manchester, UK), most writers on globalization project a highly simplistic conceptualization of the firm that spans the ideological spectrum: from the hyper-globalist of the populist business literature to the anti-globalization movements:

The view of business: One of the center claims of hyper-globalists in business is that international firms are inexorably and inevitably abandoning their ties to their country of origin and converge towards a universal global organizational form[1599].

Kenichi Ohmaes exhortation (1990:94) to business manager is usually invoked as the exemplar of such a position:
"Country of origin does not matter. Location of headquarters does not matter. The products for which you are responsible and the company you serve have become denationalised." Some of these ideas were existent before Ohmae, such as the US Under-Secretary of State, George Ball in 1967 coined the liable " Cosmocorp", describing what he saw as the emerging global corporation. Barned and Muller (1974) gave examples of US corporate executives to transform their forms to placeless global corporations.

Other quite bizarre ideas are that technological and regulatory developments in the world economy have created a "global surface"on which a dominant organizational form will develop and inexorably wipe out less efficient competitors who are no longer protected by national or local barriers. Such an organization is "placeless" and "boundry-less".

This claims that the placeless corporation is becoming the norm amongst international firms received a substantial boost in the 1990s with the persistence of the Japanese financial crisis and the unexpected East Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998.

The US corporation became model of the global corporation. The US-style corporation was projected as being the most effective way of maximizing shareholder value. All other models of business organization were not less efficient but would be vanquished.

The collapse of Enron, WorldCom and other high profile US companies in 2002 seriously threw into doubt both the efficiency and incorruptibility of the US corporate model.

According to global executives and managers, the suggestion that multinationals were "national companies with units abroad" was roundly rejected as old fashioned and not compatible with the demands of the contemporary global economy. Most of them considered their corporations to be in a transitional state between the multinational corporation and the global corporation.

The view of the anti-globalizers: These groups like to compare TNCs ( transnational corporations) with nation-states in order to demonstrate that TNCs have become more powerful than states. The Institute for Policy Studies in the US published Anderson and Cavanagh (2000:3) stating:

Of the 100 large economics in the world, 51 are corporations and only 49 are countries (based on a comparison of corporate sales and country GPDs).

General Motors is now bigger than Denmark, DaimlerChrysleri is bigger than Poland. Royal Dutch/Shell is bigger than Pakistan. The 1999 sales of each of the top five corporation (General Motors, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor and DaimlerChrysler are bigger than the GDPs of 182 countries).

These figures do not tell us much about the gobalness of corporations or even the extent to which corporations are more or less oriented to domestic or foreign operations.

Analyzing all data Peter Dicken comes to the conclusion that contrary to many sayings, place and geography still matter fundamentally in the way in which firms are produced and in how they behave. The basic point of Dickens is that firms - including TNCs are produced through an intricate process of embedding in which the cognitive, cultural, social, political and economic characteristics of the national home base play a dominant part.

The view of Peter Dickens: Despite the unquestioned geographical transformations of the world economy, driven at least in part by the expansionary activities of transnational corporations, the convergence to a single "placeless" type did not take place yet. This is because, over time, and under specific circumstances, societies have tended to develop distinctive ways of organizing their economies, even within the broad, apparently unitary, ideology of capitalism
Not all capitalisms are the same and come in many different varieties. Forms of economic coordination and governance cannot easily be transferred from one society to another for they are embedded in social systems of production distinctive to their particular society.
Economic performance is shaped by the entire social system of production in which firms are embedded and not simply by specific principles of management styles and work practices.

Dickens says that the differences of firms from different geographical context have enormous implications for economic development policy at national, regional and local levels. He calls for meticulous comparative international analysis of firm-place relationship. Transnational corporations are not placeless; "global" corporations are, indeed, a myth.

Instruments of economic regulation

The three most important instruments of economic power are the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).


World Trade Organization ( WTO )

Established in 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO), located in Geneva, Zwitzerland, enforces a dozen separate trade agreements and serves as a forum for ongoing talks to develop new trade agreements. The WTO is the product of the Uruguay Round (1986-1994) of negotiations. Today, the WTO has 146 members.

It includes specific commitments by WTO member governments to improve market access and reduce trade-distorting subsidies in agriculture. These commitments are being implemented over a six year period (10 years for developing countries) that began in 1995. Participants have agreed to initiate negotiations for continuing the reform process one year before the end of the implementation period, i.e. by the end of 1999.

These talks have now been incorporated intothe broader negotiating agenda set at the 2001 Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar Environmentally speaking, the most important new topics under negotiation in the WTO are investment and services. Its Budget for 2003 was 154 million Swiss francs.

Functions of WTO

Agreements and other organizations resulting from WTO

WTO's Agriculture Agreement

The WTO's Agriculture Agreement wants to promote fairer competition, improving market access and reducing trade-distorting subsidies in agriculture. These commitments are being implemented over a six year period (10 years for developing countries) that began in 1995. Participating governments have agreed to initiate negotiations for continuing the reform process one year before the end of the implementation period, i.e. by the end of 1999. These talks have now been incorporated into the broader negotiating agenda set at the 2001.

Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar

The Doha Declaration: The declaration reconfirms the long-term objective to establish a fair and market-oriented trading system through a program of fundamental reform. The program encompasses strengthened rules, and specific commitments on government support and protection for agriculture. The purpose is to correct and prevent restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets.

Without prejudging the outcome, member governments commit themselves to comprehensive negotiations aimed at market access and export subsidies that distort trade. The declaration makes special and differential treatment for developing countries integral throughout the negotiations, and should enable developing countries meet their needs, in particular in food security and rural development.

The non-trade concerns, such as environmental protection, food security and rural development will be considered in the Agriculture Agreement.

The Peace Clause of the Uruguay Round[1601]
The Peace Clause was introduced at the eleventh hour during the Uruguay Round as a "take-it-or-leave-it" condition for signing a deal. After protecting illegal subsidies for nine years, that Peace Clause elapsed in 2003. While the details of a new Peace Clause are not known it is almost certain that it would block developingcountries from taking a raft of new cases to the WTO.

The US said last week that it needs the Peace Clause to be renewed to protect itself from litigation while it is in the process of reducing its trade-distorting subsidies. But Charveriat said that members of the WTO should make a stand.

The US and EU currently pay at least $13bn worth of illegal subsidies for agriculture. If the Peace Clause were reintroduced, no poor country would be able to take them to the WTO court for this, for possibly up to 10 years.


Suspension of the Doha negotiations

[1715] The General Council, at its meeting on 27-28 July 2006, supported a recommendation by Director-General Pascal Lamy to suspend the Doha negotiations. The Task Force on Aid for Trade submitted its report and recommendations aimed at helping developing countries increase exports of goods and services.

According to FAO, the Doha Round of international trade negotiations collapsed mainly because of a fight for advantage in agricultural markets by large and powerful countries, corporations and lobbies. [1716]

The approach adopted in the talks was flawed from the outset, FAO said. It failed to take sufficient account of the interests of developing countries and focussed on "free trade, rather than fair trade." China, a hope to resumption of Doha talks

Transatlantic free trade zone

The emerging financial markets in China and India force western countries to look after counterweights. A free trade zone between Europe, USA and Canada would bring together financial markets with similar social structures. In case of a total failure of the WTO, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel will try to relaunch a 1998 plan for a transatlantic free trade zone when it takes up the rotating EU presidency in January 2007.


Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures ( SPS )

Sanitary and phytosanitary of WTO wants to ensure that every consumers are being supplied with food that is safe to eat, and at the same time, to ensure that strict health and safety regulations are not being used as an excuse for protecting domestic producers. An agreement on how governments can apply food safety and animal and plant health measures (sanitary and phytosanitary or SPS measures) sets out the basic rules in the WTO.


Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF)

The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) is a global program in capacity building and technical assistance to developing countries in trade and standards. The Facility builds upon a Head of Agency communiqu�issued by the World Bank, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE), World Trade Organization (WTO), World Health Organization (WHO), and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at the Doha Ministerial of the WTO in 2001. Funding is initially provided through the World Bank's Development Grant Facility, along with support from the Doha Development Trust Fund of the WTO.

The activities of STDF relate specifically to food safety, plant, and animal health, and to the standards developed by the FAO/WHO Joint Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), the FAO International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), and the OIE.

WTO is important and can turn out to be a good partner of the United Nations as soon initial errors are amended. Learning from errors of the past, global control can be improved using feedback from NGOs ( Non-Governmental Organizations.)

WTO: The World Trade Organization
The WTO is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nation. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.

It is located in Geneva, Switzerland. It had been preceded by GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) since 1948 and was established on 1 January 1995 by the Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-94). A second WTO ministerial meeting was held in Geneva in May 1998. 146 countries are members of the WTO.

GATT had mainly dealt with trade in goods. WTO and its agreements now cover trade in services, and in traded inventions, creations and designs (intellectual property) TRIPS.


Functions of the WTO

The WTO shall facilitate the implementation, administration and operation, and further the objectives, of
  1. TRIPS
  2. Multilateral Trade Agreements
  3. Plurilateral Trade Agreements
The WTO provides the forum for negotiations among its Members concerning their multilateral trade relations in matters dealt with under the agreements in the Annexes to this Agreement. The WTO administers the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). The WTO cooperates with the International Monetary Fund and with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Administering WTO trade agreement
The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the rules of trade between nations at a global or near-global level. These agreements are often called the WTO's trade rules. These rules are actually agreements that governments negotiated. These agreements and annexes deal with the following specific sectors or issues:

For goods (under GATT) For services (the GATS annexes)

Forum for trade negotiations: The WTO agreements are negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world's trading nations. These documents provide the legal ground-rules for international commerce. They are essentially contracts, binding governments to keep their trade policies within agreed limits.

Handling trade disputes: The most harmonious way to settle these differences is through some neutral procedure based on an agreed legal foundation. That is the purpose behind the dispute settlement process written into the WTO agreements.

The Doha Development Agenda: The bulk of the WTO's current work comes from the 1986-94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO is currently the host to new negotiations, under the "Doha Development Agenda" launched in 2001.

The Ministerial Conference of WTO

The Ministerial Conference is composed of representatives of all the Members. The Ministerial Conference carries out the functions of the WTO and take actions necessary to this effect. The Ministerial Conference has the authority to take decisions on all matters under any of the Multilateral Trade Agreements, if so requested by a Member. It meets every two years. The General Council is composed of representatives of all the Members. It conducts the functions of the Ministerial Conference during the intervals between meetings of the Ministerial Conference.

Decision-Making: The WTO continues decision-making followed the agreements of GATT 1947. At meetings of the Ministerial Conference and the General Council, each Member of the WTO has one vote. The European Community has a number of votes equal to the number of its member States. Decisions of the Ministerial Conference and the General Council are taken by a majority of the votes cast.

WTO related Agreements

List of Annexes of the Agreement establishing the WTO
Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 General Agreement on Trade in Services International standards: An annex to the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement cites standards which are to be used in connection with trade matters: Protection of life or health: Article 20 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) allows governments to act on trade in order to protect human, animal or plant life or health, provided they do not discriminate or use this as disguised protectionism. In addition, there are two specific WTO agreements dealing with food safety and animal and plant health and safety, and with product standards.

Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement (SPS): The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement sets out basic rules. It allows countries to set their own standards. But it also says regulations must be based on science. They should be applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health. And they should not arbitrarily or unjustifiable discriminate between countries where identical or similar conditions prevail.

Member countries are encouraged to use international standards, guidelines and recommendations where they exist. However, members may use measures which result in higher standards if there is scientific justification. They can also set higher standards based on appropriate assessment of risks so long as the approach is consistent, not arbitrary. And they can to some extent apply the "precautionary principle", a kind of "safety first" approach to deal with scientific uncertainty. Article 5.7 of the SPS Agreement allows temporary "precautionary" measures.

The agreement still allows countries to use different standards and different methods of inspecting products. If an exporting country can demonstrate that the measures it applies to its exports achieve the same level of health protection as in the importing country, then the importing country is expected to accept the exporting country's standards and methods.


Codex Alimentarius Commission

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.

The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organisations. The Codex Alimentarius Commission published only voluntary standards for the hygienic and nutritional quality of food, food additives, pesticide residues, contaminants, labelling and methods on analysis and sampling. The General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) transformed into a formal organisation the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1994.

The chloramphenicol ban that certain U.S. States placed in the mid 1980s and the current hormone ban negotiations between Europe and the U.S. initiated the creation of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) WTO document which was written by the U.S. Codex delegation in 1987.
Chloramphenicol has been banned in Europe for use on animals since 1994.
Drugs such as chloramphenicol and sulfonamide are sometimes used to protect honey bees from brood diseases. Honey with elements of chloramphenicol and sulphonamide were detected in a UK honey brand which was composed of a blend of imported honey.The honey was recalled in November 2005.
Exposure to chloramphenicol in food in any quantity is undesirable, but the level of risk will depend on how much is consumed and how frequently. Chloramphenicol and sulphonamide in food are illegal. Chloramphenicol can cause cancer and lead to aplastic anaemia in susceptible people.
The importance of the Standards and Guidelines of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the WTO is growing with global trade and exchange of foods enforcing the ban of pesticides and antibiotics in food worldwide.

The Codex Standards are now being recognized as scientific and they are being used as a point of reference in cases of disputes over non-Tariff trade barriers and whether certain trade restrictions have a legitimate scientific basis by the WTO agreement on the SPS and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). International Corporations and global trade organizations are becoming strongly interested in the Codex, as it helps to harmonize regulations on a worldwide level.

Developing Countries and the WTO System

WTO Sanctions on US: The United States came under World Trade Organization penalties failing to eliminate a tax break. It was declared an illegal export subsidy by the WTO. A 5 percent penalty tariff awaits U.S. exports such as jewelry and refrigerators, toys and paper. The dollar's sharp decline in value against the euro, the European Union currency, means American goods are cheaper on European markets. That may protect U.S. Manufacturers.


Export Dumping

The practice of selling products at prices below their cost of production is one of the most damaging of all current distortions in world trade practices.

The U.S. is one of the world's leading sources of dumped agricultural commodities such as wheat, maize, soybean, rice and cotton. Brazil is considering a case against U.S. cotton before the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2001, Canada briefly imposed both countervailing and anti-dumping duties on U.S. corn imports.

Three steps to address dumping: WTO wants to address dumping in agriculture following three steps
1. The elimination of visible export subsidies as quickly as possible.
2. A commitment from exporting countries to keep products priced below the cost of production out of world markets.
3. The publication of annual fullcost of production estimates for OECD countries.

Developing countries need healthy agricultural sectors to eliminate poverty. To achieve this, agricultural commodities must be priced fairly.

Definitions of Dumping: If a country determines that imports into their country are dumped, and if they can establish that "material injury" to domestic competitors is occurring, then antidumping duties are a WTO-legal response. There are two common definitions of export dumping contained in Article Six of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT):
First definition:The first definition describes the export of a product at a price below the normal selling price in its domestic market. For example, if a Japanese car is sold in Japan at a higher price as it is sold in an other country, this fact is called dumping.
Second definition The second definition of dumping contained in Article Six of the GATT applies to situations where the domestic price is too distorted to provide a useful reference. This happens when government regulation crowded out (or even prohibited) the functioning of an open market through regulations, subsidies, price supports and other instruments. This is the case when the export price into another market is less than the cost of production in the country of origin plus a reasonable addition for transportation, handling and profit. Agricultural production is often exported under these conditions.

Oligopolis: Market prices are also distorted by the presence of oligopolies. A few transnational agri-business firms dominate all agricultural commodity production, transportation and processing in the United States. Over 80 per cent of US corn is exported by three firms: Cargill, ADM and Zen Noh. The top four beefpackers in the United States are Tyson (owner of Iowa Beef Packers), ConAgra, Cargill (owner of Excell Corporation), and Farmland National Beef Packing Company. They control 81% of the market.

Three of these four (Smithfield replaces Farmland) are also the top pork packers; two (Tyson and ConAgra) are among the top poultry producers. Cargill ranks among the top three or four companies across the sector, from beef and pork packing, to turkeys, animal feed, grain terminals, corn exports, soybean exports, flour milling, soybean crushing, and ethanol production.

End Dumping: Visible export subsidies should be eliminated as quickly as possible via the WTO or the OECD over the next few years. Countries must make a commitment to keep products priced below the cost of production out of world markets. Since the exporting and importing corporations that profit at present from this dumping are not likely to voluntarily give up this practice, countries will need to take policy measures to gain corporate compliance.

By far the easiest and most WTO-legal approach is for the importing country to impose countervailing duties to bring the dumping prices up to the cost of production levels. The most effective way to end dumping will be to work inside the United States, the European Union, and other major grain exporters to secure legislation that ensures export prices capture the full cost of production, including the cost of marketing and a reasonable profit. The OECD has to publish each year a full-cost of production estimate, including all producer paid costs, government paid input costs, and the cost of marketing with a fair profit, as the GATT proposes in Article 6.

Governments could phase out dumping over five years through eliminating direct export subsidies and using full cost of production prices to ensure fair prices.

Australia: Europe has used the so-called Peace clause that was put in place during the Uruguay Round to protect many of its farm industries with hefty subsidies that adversely affected Australian producers. The Peace clause is believed to be finished at the end of 2003. Australia, together with Brazil use the end of the clause to particularly target subsidies such as sugar.

Sugar world prices are low mainly because of the ten-fold increase in exports from Brazil (to over 10 million tons) in the last 10 years aiming to expand its production even further to 50 per cent of the world sugar market. According to British Sugar Brazil has been able to expand its exports of sugar to the world market only because of repeated massive devaluations of its currency and has been supported by cross subsidy from their heavily government-supported bioethanol industry. Danisco, big in business with sugar from sugar beet in Europe, is also consternated about the matter.

With the failure of WTO talks in Cancun in September 2003, pressure has intensified on Europe The three options for change the regime of sugar currently under discussion in Brussels are: leaving the regime as it is; providing a price reduction; or alternatively full liberalization for sugar.

While critics want to see a fairer regime with Europe flinging open the doors to imports from developing countries, European sugar producers are concerned that full liberalization would raze the industry to the ground killing about 75 per cent of the sugar production with massive job losses. The European beet growers' association (CIBE) estimates that 500,000 jobs in the EU depend on the current common market organization (CMO) sugar regime, in place since 1968.

Full liberalization would mean abolishing the current domestic EU price support system, abandoning production quotas and totally removing import tariffs and quantitative restrictions on imports.
Meanwhile the struggle between EU and USA continues. The dispute arose over the so-called Foreign Sales Corporation tax ruled illegal at the end of the 1990s. [1602]

The wonder of sugar beet for food and biofuel

[1603]
India, second in sugar plantation after Brazil, may now increase its output using the new sugar beet plants from Syngenta. The plant needs 30 to 50 per cent less water than sugar cane.

The new sugar beet can grow well in warm climate where it can bring two harvests a year. Its sugar yield is higher as obtained with sugar cane. It sounds good. It grows at saline and poor quality soil that cannot be used for other agricultural purposes, so not more land is needed to increase sugar output. This means that sugar output can be expanded without taking land from other food crops.

After ten years of development the sugar production for food started in Ambad near Jalna, and bioethanol at Kalas, near Pune. The use of tropical sugar beet in other tropical regions with poor soil conditions is being examined.

It is the revival of the Green Revolution, were there not the doubts about gene transfer to soil, bacteria and other plants. Can poor farmer afford to buy Syngenta sugar beet seed and the accompanying agrarian chemicals?

The joint paper for Cancun

The joint framework of EU and US had been presented for the WTO negotiations Cancun meetings, focusing on three areas: domestic support, market access and export competition. For domestic support, the paper provides substantial cuts by all members who use trade distorting subsidies. For market access, there is a formula which takes on board both the formulas discussed to date (Uruguay Round and so-called 'Swiss' formula), while fully preserving the elements of flexibility and recognition of the existence of sensitive products.
The framework paper addresses export subsidies refunds and exports credits, provides partial elimination of export subsidization for a common list of products of interest for developing countries and provides a path for parallel reduction of export subsidization for the products that are not eliminated.

Globalization benefits the shift of production from traditional countries to emerging markets, bringing important consequences for the US soybean industry.
Peter Goldsmith at the University of Illinois says that the US share of world soybean production has declined since the early 1990s from about 50 per cent to less than 40 per cent. During that time, Brazil's share increased to more than 25 per cent, and Argentina's share rose to nearly 15 per cent. Similar changes are underway in the processing sector.

The staple food for over 500 million people, cassava is a good commercial cash crop and a major source of food security, but it needs a competitive edge to thrive in the global starch market. Competing in the mainstream commodity starch arena - maize, wheat or potato - is 'extremely difficult', particularly when it is not the commodities themselves that are the competition, 'but rather the functional characteristics of the value-added products'.

Until recently, the starch markets of the world were virtually closed to foreign countries because high import duties created barriers to trade for anything but the most basic of commodities. But in April 1994 the GATT Uruguay Round paved the way for new trade opportunities.

In 2002 Nigeria came in as the largest producer of cassavain the world. But in 2003 despite favorable weather conditions in the country, an outbreak of mosaic disease placed its cassava crop under pressure.
Cassava is cultivated for its starchy, tuberous roots that can be processed into tapioca, ground to produce manioc or cassava meal (Brazilian arrowroot), used as animal fodder or cooked and eaten as a vegetable.

Thailand is the world's leading exporter of aggregate dry cassava products, also known as tapioca, in the form of pellets for the feed industry in USA under a low tariff rate preferential quota.

The three most important instruments of economic power - World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) try to force the worlds acceptance of genetically modified foods and crops. The American administration launched in May 2003 a complaint with the WTO against the European Union for its five-year ban on approving new biotech crops, claiming the European policy to be illegal, harming the American economy. The WTO Agreement on Agriculture is being used to attack the European Union, which will be forced to either alter its policy toward GM crops and foods, or face economic sanctions across a range of sectors.

The US has so far opposed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which entered into force in September 2003 and has been signed by over 100 countries being intended to ensure through agreed international rules and regulations that countries have the necessary information to make informed choices about GM foods and crops.

The USA has also avoided to sign the Kyoto Protocol (Biosafety). Since the US has still not ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), it has no need to follow the Cartagena Protocol and therefore will try to force the GM food to be accepted by all other countries.

With the biotech patents coming into force with TRIPs Agreement in 2005, agriculture research in developing countries will not be possible any more.


Kyoto protocol

During the Kyoto summit, participating nations agreed to reduce the CO$_{2}$ levels to 7% below the levels found in 1990. It is an agreement made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and was negociated in Kyoto in December 1997. It entered into force on February 16, 2005. [1604] [1605]

Australia and United States have signed but, currently, refuse to ratify it.
The United States produces 20% of total carbon dioxide. To protectig its industry the USA did not sign the protocol, proposing to plant forests in the USA and third world countries.
CO$_{2}$ is not eliminated by photosynthese. It is released again once organism dies and decays.

Studying forestation it has been found that forests inherently warm the atmosphere by absorbing heat from light due to their non-reflective leaves.

An increase of number of trees means more fires, and this increases global warming. The only option for reducing the amount of carbon dioxide is by reducing the amount of gas released from burning of fossil fuels.


Climate change makes near-surface fish grow faster

Ronald E. Thresher and colleagues (2007) studying the the biological impacts of the climate change on marine species found that six of eight species show significant changes in growth rates during the last century. In depths$<$250 m temperatures increases speeding growth rates. Deep-water ($>$1,000 m) cool down and species register a decline in growth during the last century. The authors conclude that marine life is growing faster nears the surface, but is slowing down in deep water. The researcher used otolith analysis. [1606]

Otoliths are calcified structures located in the inner ear just behind the brain that assist fish with balance and hearing. In temperate waters seasonal growth periods appear on otoliths asalternating opaque and translucent bands. This pattern looks much like the annual growth rings present in the trunks of trees. Depending on the number of rings in these structures the age of each fish can be determined. Similar seasonal bands can also be found in other hard parts  such as scales, fin rays, spines, and vertebrae. [1607].

However, Hans O. Pörtner and Rainer Knust from the Bremerhavener Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar- und Marine Research warn that a mismatch between the demand for oxygen and the capacity of oxygen supply to tissues is the first mechanism to restrict whole-animal tolerance to thermal extremes. The researchers studied the eelpout, Zoarces viviparus, a bioindicator fish species for environmental monitoring from North and Baltic Seas (Helcom). Warm water prevents an eelpout from absorbing enough oxygen to cope with a changing environment. Both scientists found out how changes in temperature directly affect the fish physiology of fish, a link between rising sea temperatures and declining numbers of fish. They concluded that decrements in aerobic performance in warming seas will be the first process to cause extinction or relocation to cooler waters. [1608]

Tobias Wang a zoophysiologist at the University of Aarhus in Denmark does not believe that the species will go extinct necessarily, but they will move and a major impact on the distribution of animals will take place. [1609]

Earth warming: Giant squids are becoming a plage for Californian coast

[1610]
The Humboldt Squid, Dosidicus gigas , the fiercest of all the cephalopods, and for reasons unknown to science, they are appearing in huge numbers along the West Coast, from the Gulf of Mexico to Southeast Alaska, including the Monterey Bay. The squids are more than 2 metres large and weigh up to 50 kilogram.

According to Louis Zeidberg from the University Stanford these giant squids had only be seen at the region of the equator. Zeidberg believes that due to the earth warming the squids now spread northward.

Other scientists , like Zeidberg and Robinson support this theory saying that this sustained range expansion coincides with changes in climate-linked oceanographic conditions and a reduction in competing top predators. [1611]

Acidification of the North sea induced by atmospheric CO2

[1612]
Blackford and Gilbert 2007 describe a coupled carbonate system-marine ecosystem-hydrodynamic model. According to the researchers the biological activity in the benthic, the region near the ground, as well as pelagic, the deep water, is an important factor in this variability. The acidification of the region due to increased fluxes of atmospheric CO2 into the marine system is calculated and shown to exceed, on average, 0.1 pH units over the next 50 years and result in a total acidification of 0.5 pH units below pre-industrial levels at atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 1000 ppm.

The potential for measurable changes in biogeochemistry are demonstrated by simulating the observed inhibition of pelagic nitrification with decreasing pH. Scientists believe that further decreased pH of the North Sea water will destroy corals and biological system of the coastal and deeper regions.

No chance for DOHA no chance for climate control no chance to avoid nuclear war

EU leaders (Chancellor Angela Merkel) met with the Bush administration on May 2, 2007 and debated co-operation, trade, climate change, energy security and climate control. Not a word about US signing the Kyoto Protocol was heard.

The Transatlantic Economy Council [1613]
Agreements were made which lead to a stronger and more integrated transatlantic economy. Particular focus is on removing barriers to trade, cooperation on regulations, intellectual property, secure trade, financial markets and the automotive industry, and establishment of a transatlantic economic council to monitor implementation of economic agreements. This transatlantic economy council leaves out any cooperation with the third world. The spirit of DOHA is being buried for sure.

Doha, food and agriculture
The agreements encourage further cooperation in the areas of agriculture, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, and food safety are directed to increase traffic between rich countries which can afford complex safety systems. With the talk of EU-US there can no commitment be seen to bring the Doha trade talks to a positive conclusion. US as the main cause of the collapse of the talks last July does not change its attitude.

The outcome of the EC-US talks were mainly directed to develop the trade between both powers in detriment to environment and directed against the development of the third world.

Climate change
No firm conclusions on action to combat climate change only a vague and ridiculous statement of Merkel said that progress had been made and that both sides agreed on the urgency of action, but the US continues to refuse to sign up to plan to cut greenhouse gasses by 20 per cent by 2020.

The so-called "open skies" deal to remove restrictions on transatlantic flights was signed demonstrating clearly that there is no commitment to combat climate change. Increasing air traffic increases the most dangerous CO2 producer because it happens in high altitudes were the atmosphere is most vulnerable. On the way to a nuclear catastrophe.

President Bush said he would consider Merkel's advice to include Russia in discussions related to a missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic which brought back the cold war between Russia and the rest of the world.

The four Uranium producers [1614]
The uranium business is going through an enormous boom because of high demand for military uses and for power plants.

According to Handelsblatt Urenco has today 23% of world production of enriched Uranium. The company wants to increase it up to 30% in the next 5 years. Incoming orders have doubled since 2006. Urenco works with high speed centrifuges to enrich the uranium as the main cause of their success in the uranium business, compared to less efficient method of gas diffusion used in France and USA which consume four times more energy. The other three producers of uranium are: Areva France, USEC U.S. and Tenex Russia.

The Anti-Urenco conference in Almelo looked at the dangers that the depleted Uranium (DU) and Uranium hehafluorid (UF6) which may be used for military purpose or is being put to 90% into permanent storage in Russia by Urenco. The actual booming uranium business is based on the bad politic of the US which instigates a nuclear armament. [1615]

Conclusion
The agreements between the two powers concerning trade are everything but directed to a commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, the Doha trade talks and there are no steps to avoid a nuclear armament.

Global climate change is happening faster than previously believed and its impact is worse than expected. According to Ogunlade Davidson,the co-chairman of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) there are only eight years left for changes [1616]. Actual activities of the leaders of the power nations China US and Europe go in the wrong direction. They should reduce traffic, should spend efforts on solar energy (great success in Spain, the Sahara could be used to produce energy as electricity and hydrogen.)

GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services)

The General Agreement on Trade in Services is an agreement of the member states of the WTO opening the world market to an unrestricted competition. The states lose most of the means to regulate the market. The European Union has given its consent to the Agreement in the name of all their member states.

In July 2002, the EU presented its requests for improved market access to WTO members seeking a reduction in restrictions and expansion of market access opportunities for the European services industry. The services sector is the most important economic activity in the EU accounting for over two thirds of GDP and employment such as the telecommunication, financial, business, and environmental services sectors, postal services, distribution, construction and related engineering services, tourism, news agency services and energy services.

The requests do not seek to dismantle public services, nor to privatize state-owned companies. No requests are being made on health services or audiovisual services to any country. EU requests do not touch the access to water resources and in no way undermine or reduce governments' ability to regulate pricing, availability and affordability of water supplies.

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is an international trade agreement that came into effect in 1995 and operates under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Critiques on GATS: Negative impacts on universal access to basic services such as healthcare, education, water and transport. Fundamental conflict between freeing up trade in services and the right of governments and communities to regulate companies, a one-sided deal, GATS is primarily about expanding opportunities for large multinational companies.

Origin of GATT and other Agreements

Following the end of WWII, the allies decided that prosperous and lasting peace depended not only on the creation of a stable international political order based on principles embedded in the United Nations (UN) Charter, but also on the creation of a stable liberal international economic order. The twin pillars of the international financial system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), emerged as the institutional alternative to the regionalism characteristic of international financial practices in the post-WWI era. From ITO to GATT: The International Trade Organization (ITO), was negotiated in Havana, Cuba. Political disagreements ultimately spelled the end of the ITO as a formal organization, yet participants considered trade issues important enough to resurrect portions of the ITO charter and transform them into a less formal, free standing trade agreement known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. (GATT).

From GATT to WTO: During the first twenty odd years of its existence, members of GATT focused almost entirely on negotiations aimed at reducing tariffs (taxes on imported goods), one of the traditional barriers states enact to protect their markets from import competition. Six rounds of negotiations, through the completion of the Kennedy Round in 1967 introducing an anti-dumping code, accomplished substantial tariff reductions in the manufacturing sector. Finally at 1986-1994(Uruguay Round) the GATT 1994 gave origin to the World Trade Organization.

By the 1970s, with tariffs on most goods substantially reduced, and the world falling into a depression/hyper-inflation cycle due to the twin oil price shocks, states began implementing other non-tariff policies as a way to protect their industries from import competition.


Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights TRIPs

Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.

There are two main areas of intellectual property rights:
Copyrights: The rights of authors of literary and artistic works (such as books and other writings, musical compositions, paintings, sculpture, computer programs and films) are protected by copyright, for a minimum period of 50years after the death of the author.

Also protected through copyright and related (sometimes referred to as "neighboring") rights are the rights of performers (e.g. actors, singers and musicians), producers of phonograms (sound recordings) and broadcasting organizations. The main social purpose of protection of copyright and related rights is to encourage and reward creative work and computer programs.

Industrial property: These are signs, trademarks, geographical indications, design and the creation of technology ( patents). Ideas and knowledge are an increasingly important part of trade. Most of the value of new medicines and other high technology products lies in the amount of invention, innovation, research, design and testing involved.

Creators can be given the right to prevent others from using their inventions, designs or other creations and to use that right to negotiate payment in return for others using them. These are "intellectual property rights".


TRIPSs and Software:

For the last few years the European Patent Office (EPO) has granted more than 30.000 patents on rules of organization and calculation claimed in terms of general-purpose computing equipment, called "programs for computers" in the law of 1973 and "computer-implemented inventions" since 2000.

To legitimate this practice Europe's patent movement is pressing by writing a new law. The basic documentation, starting from the latest news and a short overview are available at http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html.

According to US magazine Business Week (2003 December 16th) a group of "left-leaning politicians" upended a directive proposal in such a way that it actually bans software patents, thereby creating an industry-specific exemption which violates the TRIPs treaty and erases billions in intellectual property granted by the EPO.

The author gives Europe a lot of advice, demanding that Europe should set an example by finding a formula that "spurs innovation while safeguarding intellectual property".
The European Patent office has already grated 30 000 patents and problems come up:
Some basic algorithms from software will be patented like:

Good algorithms featuring software:
With a click to next "Top"
Save it on disc
Remember me later
Save before Quit

Useful technical algorithms:
" Boot directly from CD after insert." Without such an algorithm some users will have trouble in starting the CD depending on the system in use. They are in use in a wide range of software such as:
Catalogues from Warehouses
Information CDs on a companys products for distribution among its customers.
Training's CDs for employees.

Drop Down menus: Drop Downs are indispensable for an easy surfing of a program with topics such as Format, Tolls, Edit or File.

Hyperlinks: Quick access to URLs or specific location in a text.

Search algorithms: No user can survive in the jungle of informations without these algorithms. Software-controlled industrial production processes: Such as algorithms useful for robotronics.

The European Commission and the US Trade Representative cites in favor of their software patentability proposal:" Proprietary software directly remunerates those who write programs, and it does this by means of "intellectual property", of which patents are one important kind."

The mission of the United States of America to the European Union in the paper "U.S. Comments on the Draft European Parliament Amendments to the Proposed European Union Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions" to members of the European Parliament says that the US warns Europe falling afoul of the TRIPs treaty.

The US Mission warns that any failure to endorse patentability of software in the directive might adversely impact certain sectors of the economy, because copyright does not protect the functionality of the software, which is of significant value to the owner, and that lack of clarity would lead to a continued need for negotiations with the US in WIPO.

The US Government promotes international harmonization of substantive patent law in order to "strengthen the rights of American intellectual property holders by making it easier to obtain international protection for their inventions".

The software engineers, however, say that the tools they work with and the basics of their ideas are being patented. The originality of creative work and the freedom of the profession will be destroyed by this regulation. So, I think, we have to say good by to a good trade which had given support and satisfaction to a lot of software engineers which will in future seek their fortune in the offices of the software giants.


NAFTA and FTA

The Trade Act 1979 called for study on the possibility of a free trade area around the Americas. Throughout the 1980s, economic problems, including heavy international debt burdens, precluded trade liberalization policies in Mexico. U.S. trade negotiations turned north, and by 1989 a U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed.

The Bush administration in 1990 signed an agreement with the Mexican government and in 1992 Canada joined the negotiations. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into life, entering into force an 1994.

The Clinton administration proposed expanding NAFTA to whole of Latin America in 1994. The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) aims a comprehensive trading regime, reducing both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade among the thirty four democratic states of North and South America.

Nine areas covered by FTAA:
Agriculture, Market Access
Investment
Government Procurement
Services
Dispute Settlement
Intellectual Property
Competition Policy
Subsidies, Anti-dumping
Countervailing Duties

NAFTA dates back as far as 1956. It just confirmed what has been going on for over 35 years. The U.S. government first sponsored and funded the moving of U.S. factories to Mexico and Central America in 1956. In these regions very low pollution standards still exist. It was supposed to be just a temporary program where the U.S. consumer could enjoy cheaper prices while at the same time help saving the Mexican economy.

The Free Trade in the form it is now being practised bears danger not only to developing countries, it also outbalances the home labour market of US as well all other places of well developed economy moving abroad not only jobs, but also whole agrarian and industrial segments such as soybean moving to Brazil and clothing industry moving to Asia.

A conference from 4-5 November 2005 comprising 34 countries was held in Mar del Plata. No agreement could be achieved to create The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Opposition to the FTAA was presented by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. These countries demanded that agarian subsidies of the United States should be stopped.

Alca, an organisation which tries to support the creation of FTAA, pledges to continue the talks on agreemets and proposes to exclude the five counteracting countries from the free trade area.

Trade once was based on trading products and not on moving of production and exporting of decent paid jobs to cheaper labor markets. It is a hard task of WTO to eliminate the unevenness between economic regions looking forward to a fair Free Trade. WTO will play the keys of a humanitarian future world backed by its head office, the UN looking benevolently to NGOS both should behave as partners working on the dissent between human groups.

Environment and trade

OECD: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a multilateral organization composed of members from the industrialized nations looked after the impact on environment caused by the industries on move.

To get pollution under control, the OECD Guiding Principles Concerning the International Economic Aspects of Environmental Policies was issued in 1972. According to this Guiding, containing the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP), all member states should cooperate.

Some other trade agreements include environmental protection, such as The Montreal Protocol and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. It includes trade sanctions in case of non-compliance.

In the 1990s, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for Tuna/Dolphin dissent. The WTO had ruled the US policy of banning imports of tuna from states that used purse fishing techniques to catch tuna, and subsequently kill dolphins, violating the terms of GATT, followed by the rule against US (1998) to ban on shrimp imports caught without Turtle Excluder Devices.

Environmental treaties can be disrupted if WTO rules of trade are used to nullify those environmental enforcement measures under the assumptions that they violate free trade principles. The WTO has therefore the responsibility to look for a future balance between environmental behalves as being part of good trade principles.

The Declaration of Doha on Trade and Environment 2001: The Declaration of Doha wants to increment the relationship between existing WTO rules and specific trade obligations set out in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).

World Bank

The World Bank Group's mission is to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in the developing world. It is a development Bank which provides loans, policy advice, technical assistance and knowledge sharing services to low and middle income countries to reduce poverty.
Education: Education is central to development. The Bank has committed in loans and credits for education.
HIV programmes: The World Bank is combating the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world.
Anti-corruption effort: The WB is a leader in the anti-corruption effort. It is committed to ensuring that the projects it finances are free from corruption, setting up stringent guidelines and a hotline for corruption complaints.
Debt reliefs: In 1996, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative reducing the external debt of the world's 26 poorest, most indebted countries.
Biodiversity: The World Bank is one of the largest funders of biodiversity projects. The greatest impacts are felt by rural people in developing countries.
Environmental assessment: In addition to environmental assessments and safeguard policies, the Bank's environment strategy focuses on climate change, forests and water resources. For example, to help to reduce the effects of global warming launching the new BioCarbon Fund.

Organization of the World Bank Group: The World Bank Group consists of five closely associated institutions, all owned by member countries that carry ultimate decision-making power. Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world. The term "World Bank Group" encompasses all five institutions. The term "World Bank" refers specifically to two of the five, IBRD and IDA.

IBRD: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) lends to developing countries with relatively high per capita incomes.

IDA: The International Development Association (IDA) provides assistance on concessional terms to the poorest developing countries, those that cannot afford to borrow from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

IFC: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) promotes growth in developing countries by providing support to the private sector. In collaboration with other investors, the IFC invests in commercial enterprises both through loans and equity financing. IFC's mandate is to further economic development through the private sector.

MIGA: The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) helps encourage foreign investment in developing countries by providing guarantees to foreign investors against loss caused by noncommercial risks, such as expropriation, currency inconvertibility and transfer restrictions, and war and civil disturbances.

ICSID: The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is an autonomous international organization. However, it has close links with the World Bank. ICSID provides facilities for the conciliation and arbitration of disputes between member countries and investors who qualify as nationals of other member countries.

IMF International Monetary Fund

The IMF is an organization of the United Nations. It was established to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements; to foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help to ease balance of payments adjustment. The IMF is the central institution of the international monetary system of international payments and exchange rates among national currencies that enables business to take place between countries.

The IMF works for global prosperity by promoting the balanced expansion of world trade, stability of exchange rates, avoidance of competitive devaluations, and orderly correction of balance of payments problems.

The work of the IMF is of three main types. Surveillance involves the monitoring of economic and financial developments, and the provision of policy advice, aimed especially at crisis-prevention. The IMF also lends to countries with balance of payments difficulties.

Surveillance: IMF in its work of surveillance developed internationally recognized standards and codes covering government policy making and operations.

The IMF plays a key role as standard setter in this area. Such as the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), The Code of Good Practices in Fiscal Transparency, the Code of Good Practices in Monetary and Financial Policies, and the Principles and Guidelines for Insolvency and Creditor Rights Regimes.

Loans: A main function of the IMF is to provide loans to countries experiencing balance-of-payments problems so that they can restore conditions for sustainable economic growth.

Technical Assistance: The IMF provides technical assistance in its areas of expertise, which include fiscal policy, monetary policy, and macroeconomic and financial statistics.


OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach. Best known for its publications and its statistics, its work covers economic and social issues.

Anti-corruption Instruments and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises The Guidelines seek to promote and facilitate companies' contribution to the fight against corruptionbribery, solicitation of bribes and extortion.

OECD Anti-corruption Activities :The core of the OECD's action against corruption is dedicated to curbing bribery in international transactions.

European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF):The European Commission, in close co-operation with the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF), Brussels Prosecution Service and French and Dutch police arrested two officials at the Commission's Directorate General for Agriculture on 21th October 2003 alleging corruption and insider trading in the cereal market. They had supplied confidential information with major economic and strategic value for the cereals business Paris and Rotterdam headquarters of two French and Dutch cereals groups. This demonstrates how important the work on anti-corruption and anti-fraud is especially in inter-government and international bodies.

Excessive trade endangers species

The trade in caviar endangers the population of sturgeon [1617]
Important sturgeon basins include the Caspian Sea, the Great Lakes of North America, the Azov Sea and the Amour River. The number of sturgeons and their status have been affected by such negative factors as regulation of water flow, decrease in natural spawning sites, poaching and illegal trade in sturgeon caviar and other specimens.

In an attempt to assure sustainability of sturgeon (species in the order Acipenseriformes) the FAO Committee in its Tenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES Bremen, 3-6 June 1998 presented considerations and recommendations on the "Conservation of Sturgeons"
Important recommendations of the conference of 1998: [1617]

To avoid depletion of sturgeons the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) publishes export quotas for caviar in an attempt to assure the sustainability of sturgeon.

High levels of poaching and illegal trade in the Caspian Sea accounts for some 90 per cent of world caviar trade. It is believed that for every registered 1,000 tonnes of caviar, there is 12-14,000 tonnes placed on the black market.

The 169 member countries of CITES have set strict conditions for permitting caviar exports. Countries sharing sturgeon stocks must agree amongst themselves on catch and export quotas based on scientific surveys of the stocks.

Importers in the European Union must ensure that all imports are from legal sources, and they must establish registration systems for their domestic processing and repackaging plants. However, many key importing countries have still not put these measures in place.

Further action is needed to regulate trade in caviar, meat and other Sturgeon products and to ensure that fishing levels are sustainable: [1618] Re population of European Riverswith Sturgeon [1619]
A fish specialist at Berlin's Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Frank Kirschbaum, along with his Polish colleague Jörn Gessner want to repopulate German rivers with the Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrhyncus) , which had been threatened with extinction worldwide In 2007 young sturgeons will be set free in the river Oder , a river ending in the Baltic Sea. This fish had been bred in aquariums in the Regional Center for Agriculture and Fishery in the town of Born.

Other rivers such as Elbe and Weser ending in the North Sea, are difficult to repopulate with sturgeon because of weirs blocking the sturgeon off to their spawning ground. There the European variety of sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) had its natural home a century ago. This variety of sturgeon is being bred by Frank Kirschbaum using remnants from a tiny population still living in the Gironde River, near Bordeaux, France.

The sturgeon lives in the sea and migrates upriver only to mate. Pollution from factories and sewage from the cities and weirs caused the population of sturgeons to diminish.

Another variety of sturgeon is Hausen, the German name for the beluga sturgeon ( Huso huso ). It is the largest species of the sturgeons and can weigh up to a ton. It is known because of the Russian caviar. It lives in the Caspian, Black Sea and occasionally in the Adriatic Sea.

The Roadmap to Recovery of Marine Reserves

[1620] The high seas lie beyond the 200 nautical mile limits that define the extent of national sovereignty by countries of the world. They cover 64% of the area of the oceans, and nearly half the surface of the planet.

They are a global commons, under the stewardship of the United Nations Law of the Sea for the benefit of all nations. However, the sustainability of this area is endangered.

Cod stocks in the North Sea, Irish Sea and west of Scotland, for example, remain well below minimum recommended levels.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), preparing the Roadmap, calls for a ban of fishing for cod in the North Sea for the fourth year running.
To avoid further depletion Callum M.Roberts and colleagues brought together many different kinds of biological, physical and oceanographic data,enabling to identify hotspots of activity of vulnerable species which include tunas and billfish, albatrosses, turtles, pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) and penguins. The Roadmap includes maps of different biogeographical zones and recommend areas for protection.

In order to reverse the precipitous decline of the life in our oceans and fulfil the targets set by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Roadmap calls on the United Nations to take urgent action to establish and protect a global network of marine reserves on the high seas.

The Roadmap is available at http://oceans.greenpeace.org/raw/content/en/documents-reports/roadmap-to-recovery.pdf Law of the Sea (LOS) [1620] [1623]
The high seas are the least regulated and least protected places in the world. Lying beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, they are governed by the United Nations Law of the Sea. This convention only came into force in 1994, and has yet to be signed by some of the most influential nations in the world.

The Law of the Sea enshrines the right of access and use of the high seas for all. It allows for nations to fish, lay submarine cables and pipelines, or create other installations such as rigs and even artificial islands. Fishing operations are insufficiently being monitored, leaving fishing fleets to exploit high seas resources unhindered.

U.S. arguments against the treaty of the Law of the Sea:
National sovereignty: The treaty limits US legal authority by granting power to a United Nations-created agency.

War on terror: The treaty limits US military activities especially relevant to anti-terror operations, such as intelligence collection and submerged travel in coastal waters and the boarding of ships for anti-terror purposes and limits the sea to "peaceful purposes," which is said to restrict all military operations (Articles 88 and 301).

Redistribution of wealth: The treaty would force the US to pay taxes to the United Nations, further increasing the UN's power.

Redistribution of technology: The treaty would force US businesses to turn over economically and militarily relevant technology to other countries.

Undesirable precedent: The treaty paves the way for increased power of Non-governmental organizations over the US and other nations.

Indicators of Sustainable Development for Scotland: Progress Report 2004 [1621]
Scotland, in its report Progress Report 2004 related to sea fishery analysed 21 species, of which only five stocks were found within safe biological limits in Scottish waters in 2003. These safe stocks were North Sea Norway Pout, North Sea Herring, North Sea Haddock, Saithe (VI, IV & IIIa) and West of Scotland Haddock.

All other stocks were found to be outside safe biological limits. Some of them, such as Cod, Haddock and Plaice for example, are particularly at risk (i.e. close to collapse).

Aquaculture increases for fish meal for feed [1622]
According to the Report to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds June 2004 aquaculture has become the fastest growing sector in the world food economy. According to FAO, aquaculture and marinculture will dominate in the next few decades, increasing the demand for fish meal and oil for feed, derived predominantly from wild stocks of pelagic fish harvested by "industrial" fisheries.

Peru, Chile,China and EU are the largest manufacturer of fish meal. Within the EU, Denmark is the most significant producer of fish meal and oil.
Fish meal and fish oils are used internationally as feed for farmed animals and are considered a high quality source of proteins, minerals and vitamins. Carnivorous fish require more protein than herbivorous fish and the meal is produced accordingly. China is the largest consumer of fish meals and takes approximately a quarter of world production.

Many industrial stocks are susceptible to collapse under intensive harvesting regimes, resulting in a wider ecosystem effect of these fisheries and the impacts on commercial fish and wildlife dependent on them. Many species of sea bird are dependent on small fish such as sandeels and anchovies. Intensive fishery will endanger these sea birds and other species feeding on these small fishes.

Alternate Protein and Oils Sources [1622]
Alternatives to animal feed produced from fish meal and fish oils are limited Fishmeal provides a better balanced amino acids, vitamin composition, and lower cost compared with other protein sources

EU legislation on additives and GM ingredients constraining high levels of substitution limits the substitutability of fish oils
Fatty acids and aminoacids profile are limiting barriers to substitution of omega-3 fatty acids marine oils with plant oils rich in omega-6 fatty acids will weaken the immune system, making fish more vulnerable to diseases and low oxygen levels. The report says also that higher plant protein diets may increase particulate waste and organic pollution.

Soya is the main competitor product to fish meal. Soya is cheaper than fish meal but nutritionally poorer.

Recommendations for improving the sustainability of feed fisheries [1622]

Destruction of the Amazon rainforest

In its report "Eating Up The Amazon" Green peace illustrates the soya crisis through the example of two key global players: Cargill (possibly the largest private company in the world) in the Amazon and McDonald's (the largest fast food company in the world) in Europe. Green Peace documents the flow of soy from ilegally cleared farms, to Cargill and its competitors, through the ports, processors and meat producers of Europe, and finally into the Chicken McNuggets sold under the golden arches across the continent. According to this report Cargill and ADM have been encouraging local farmers to cut down the rainforest and plant massive soy monocultures. [1624]

Ethical trade Other organisations are looking at the problem of the land workers which are often used as slaves in the soy farms.

Ethical trade - or ethical sourcing - means the assumption of responsibility by a company for the labour and human rights practices within its supply chain.

Ethical sourcing tries to ensure that decent minimum labour standards are met in the production of the whole range of a company's products. By contrast fair-trade is primarily concerned with the trading relationship, especially those involving small producers in the South. Fair-trade ensures that producers are paid a decent price that at least covers the true costs of production, despite often serious fluctuations in world commodity prices.

Many consumers will always be prepared to buy special fair-trade products, while expecting that mainstream products are safely and decently produced. [1625]

Cargill will support Conservancy efforts in Brazil's Amazon region to increase awareness and use of agricultural best practices among soya producers and help promote sustainable economic development in a region that is experiencing rapid agricultural development. The Conservancy has been working with farmers, along with governmental and private sector agricultural partners, to encourage better management practices and conservation opportunities for critical habitat located on private lands.

The Nature Conservancy www.nature.org:
The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 100 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. [1626]

Cargill, however, argues that it alone cannot ensure sustainable soy development throughout Brazil.

Fire-mediated dieback of the Amazonian forest

[1627]
The Amazon forest is menaced by biofuel and food industry. Man made and wild fires change the vegetation of the region preparing large areas for agriculture and cattle breeding.

Barlow and Peres 2008 write that a land-atmosphere global climate model predicts a widespread dieback of Amazonian forest cover through reduced precipitation. According to the authors, these predictions are controversial, however, structural and compositional resilience of Amazonian forests may also have been overestimated, as current vegetation models fail to consider the potential role of fire in the degradation of forest ecosystems.

In a vegetation survey of the region of the Arapiuns River basin in the central Brazilian Amazon the authors evaluated the consequences of recurrent fires. Barlow and peres concluded that episodic wildfires can lead to drastic changes in forest structure and composition, with cascading shifts in forest composition following each additional fire event. The authors used also the results of their survey to evaluate the validity of the savannization paradigm.

Fermentation products

Alcohol and vinegar are typical products of fermentation. New fermentation of sugars of cereals, corn or wheat by bacteria or fungi produces antibiotics, amino acids such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) threonine, tryptophan, and lysine, an ingredient of feed industry. Organic acids, such as citric acid are another important part of biotechnology. [1628]

Enzymes, vitamin C amino acid market of lysine and MSG, opened a production facility of aminoacids in 2005, situated in Limeira, Brazil, where abundant main raw materials are available. Amino acids are marketed for beverages, health foods, supplements and sports nutritional such as glutamine and branch chain amino acids (valine, leucine and isoleucine) used for maintaining and building skeletal muscle.

The global market for alternative sweeteners, currently leading growth in the food additives market, holds considerable potential- growing 8.3 per cent year on year until 2008 according to market analysts Freedonia - as rising health concerns drive consumers towards sugar free products and food makers introduce zero-calorie or low-calorie sugar substitutes into their new product formulations. Alternative sweeteners like aspartame, xylitol and other sweeteners are won by fermentation.

Biotechnology can thus bring new fields of activities to developing countries.


Particulate Matter

PM represents a broad class of chemically and physically diverse substances. Particles can be described by size, formation mechanism, origin, chemical composition, atmospheric behavior and method of measurement. [1629]

Classification of particulate matter according to EPA:
PM can be principally characterized as discrete particles spanning several orders of magnitude in size, with inhalable particles falling into the following general size fractions: Fine particles are directly emitted from combustion sources and are also formed secondarily from gaseous precursors such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, or organic compounds. Fine particles are generally composed of sulfate, nitrate, chloride and ammonium compounds, organic and elemental carbon, and metals. Combustion of coal, oil, diesel, gasoline, and wood, as well as high temperature process sources such as smelters and steel mills, produce emissions that contribute to fine particle formation.

Fine particles can remain in the atmosphere for days to weeks and travel through the atmosphere hundreds to thousands of kilometers, while most coarse particles typically deposit to the earth within minutes to hours and within tens of kilometers from the emission source. Some scientists have postulated that ultrafine particles, by virtue of their small size and large surface area to mass ratio may be especially toxic.

There are studies which suggest that these particles may leave the lung and travel through the blood to other organs, including the heart. Coarse particles are typically mechanically generated by crushing or grinding and are often dominated by resuspended dusts and crustal material from paved or unpaved roads or from construction, farming, and mining activities.

There is a serious lack of information about the human health and environmental implications of manufactured nanomaterials, e.g., nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanowires, fullerene derivatives, and other nanoscale materials. Environmental and other safety concerns about nanotechnology have been raised (Dagani, 2003; Masciangoli and Zhang, 2003; Service, 2003).


Nanoparticles

Nanostructures, their size, and material into which they may be formed, indicating the type of application in which they may be used [1680] [1630]:
Adapted from J.Jortner and C.N.R.Rao, Pure Appl Chem 74(9), 1491-1506, 2002. [1680]

Barbara Karn leads researches of the US EPA which address implications including studies on the potential toxicity of quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, iron oxide nanoparticles; research on the environmental fate and transport of carbon nanotubes and fullerenes; and studies on how nanotechnology affects material flows. [1681]

Potentially harmful effects of nanotechnology might arise as a result of the nature of the nanoparticles themselves, the characteristics of the products made from them, or aspects of the manufacturing process involved.

The large surface area, crystalline structure, and reactivity of some nanoparticles may facilitate transport in the environment or lead to harm because of their interactions with cellular material. In the case of nanomaterials, size matters, and could facilitate and exacerbate any harmful effects caused by the composition of the material.

Some research has been done on inhalation exposure to nanoparticles. A related research area that EPA research is addressing deals with the health effects of ultrafine (less than 100 nm) particles on lungs.

However, the current research on ultrafine particles may not be applicable to manufactured nanoparticles because the ultrafine materials studied are neither a consistent size nor pure in chemical or structural composition. Exposure may occur via the dermal and ingestion, as well as inhalation routes. It is unknown whether nanomaterials bioaccumulate and,thereby, pose human health and environmental risks because of this potential property.

Ecotoxic Effect of Photocatalytic Active Nanoparticles (TiO2) [1631] Kerstin Hund-Rinke and Markus Simon from the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology stress the potential impacts on the environment as large amounts of nanoparticles may reach the environment. According to Hund-Rinke it is unknown if size, crystalline form, porosity or the combination of all these structures may be responsible for the toxicity. For instance, nanoparticles of titanium dioxide with 25 nanometres presented inhibition of the growth of algae, particles with greater size then that does not present such toxicity.

The researchers studied the ecotoxic effect of photocatalytic active nanoparticles (TiO2) on algae and Daphnids (8 pp), concluding that it is principally possible to determine the ecotoxicity of (photocatalytic) nanoparticles using methods comparable to the procedures applied for assessing soluble chemicals. The ecotoxicity depends on the test organisms and their physiology. The photocatalytic activity of nanoparticles lasts for a relevant period of time. Therefore, pre-illumination may be sufficient to detect a photocatalytic activity even by using test organisms which are not suitable for application in the pre-illumination-phase.

Hund-Rinke also stresses the problem of platinum being released as nano particulates from tree-way catalysts using platinum palladium and rhodium alloys, and its possible toxic reactions in the ecosystem.

Nanotechnology and food

[1632] Nanoscience and nanotechnology are generally concerned with materials that are 10 - 100 nm in size or less (molecular or atomic level). A nanometre (nm) is one-billionth of a metre. At this size range, the behaviour of materials begins to change, particles are so small, they disperse evenly in products.

Nanoparticles are already on sale for use in food packaging and the manufacture of plastic food containers. Synthetic nanoparticles of lycopene are an example of nanoparticles that have been developed and tested, and are accepted as GRAS-affirmed by the FDA for use in food in the USA. [1632]

Current use of nanotechnology in food
Embedding vitamin C, vitamin E or Q10 in nano micelles, hydrophilic and lipophilic substances can be integrated in the same system. It opens the way for some new functional foods like water and other beverages containing CoQ10 with appealing appearance to address fat reduction and alpha-lipoic acid for satiety targeting visceral fat. [1682]

The study was made by Dr Ute Gola of the Institute for Nutrition and Prevention in Berlin, Germany, and Prof Dr Biesalski, head of the department of biological chemistry and nutrition in Hohnheim, Germany. Christine from Foresight, however, calls to the attention that there are no claims for weight reduction for CoQ10 been related. [1683]

Aquanova presents antioxidant nano structured micelles for vitamin C and vitamin E, introduce antioxidants into food and beverage products easily and effectively.Antioxidant system for essential oils and flavours are already presented. [1684]

Nanotechnology White Paper [1685]
The paper begins describes what nanotechnology is, what opportunities and challenges exist regarding nanotechnology and the environment, potential environmental benefits of nanotechnology. The paper provides an extensive review of research needs for both environmental applications and implications of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology and regulations Some regulations concerning nano products in food products are contained in European Regulation (EC ) No.178/2002 [1686] The Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) calls for labelling requirements and a separate evaluetion as novel food.

Should nanoforms of materials such as TiO$_{2}$ or SiO$_{2}$ be employed in edible coatings on foods, then there may be additional risk factors triggered by their ingestion.

According to IFS additives such as SiO$_{2}$ and TIO$_{2}$ and nano-sized clay particles are also available for use in food packaging material and food containers. A variety of other nanoparticles are being considered for use in surface coatings. The bioavailability is likely to be enhanced, and the toxicological data for the macroscopic form may no longer be valid, because the small size of these particles may allow them to reach regions within cells or tissue that normal macroscopic particles of the same composition could not reach. An appropriate pre-market safety evaluation of nano products should be required even if the compound is already food-use approved. [1632]

Concerns about safety of Nanoparticles [1633]

Nanoparticles, ranging from 2 - 10 atoms, less than 100 nanometres, can potentially invade body systems. Studies to date show that the human body's normal defence mechanisms treat nanoparticles like micro-organisms but nanoparticles could link together to form fibres that are too large to be engulfed by macrophages.

Developments in gene therapies, targeted drug-delivery systems, microencapsulation in food technology and other science fields rely on techniques that manipulate nanoparticles so that they can bypass the human body's defence mechanisms, but also unwanted nanoparticles could also penetrate into cells or cross natural barriers.

The UK's Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency MRHA stoped its participation in the British Standards Institute's Nanotechnology Standardisation Committee arguing that existing regulatory frameworks and trial safety procedures were sufficient to cover the use of nanotechnologies in medicines and medical devices.

MRHA says that one of the conclusions of the many nanotoxicology reviews, is that there isn't yet enough data to derive systematic rules that govern toxicological characterisation of the nanotechnology products. Another is that there might be new hazards associated with loose nanoparticles. The main conclusion that MHRA has come to after reviewing this enormous amount of data was: there is currently no evidence for the actual existence of any such new hazard. [1634]

The MHRA members agree that the mechanisms of toxicity seen with healthcare nanoparticles are not unique. The review on The Toxicology of Nanoparticles Used in Healthcare Products does not currently indicate the need for nanotechnology specific regulations. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has also concluded that the current requirements for safety testing of medicinal products is sufficiently rigorous and are currently believed to be adequate. MHRA concludes, however, if research identifies toxicological risks that are unique to nanomaterials, additional testing requirements may be necessary. [1635]

Life Cycle Assessment of nanotechnology using ISO 14040:2006 [1636]

According to a report summarising the workshop discussions, held in October 2006, among international nanotech and LCA experts the impact on environment and human health can be accessed using Life Cycle Assessment.

Life Cycle Assessment is a method for estimating and assessing the resource usage and environmental impacts attributable to the entire life cycle of a product, from raw material extraction and acquisition, through energy and material production and manufacturing, to use and end-of-life treatment and final disposal (ISO 14040:2006). The environmental and resource impacts include climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, toxicological stress on human health and ecosystems, the depletion of resources, water use and many others. The report points out, that confidentiality is also referred to as a major problem, as existing Life Cycle Assessment data is often proprietary data of companies and even the exact composition of nanomaterials is strictly confidential.

Renewable fuel in the City of Portland

USA and Biofuel
USA, trying to boost farming started many projects. National Renewable Energy Laboratory claims that the production of ethanol from US corn has already reached the volume of the Brazilian production. [1637]

The City of Portland, Oregon issued the Biofuel Requirements act, demanding that in the City of Portland, on and after July 1, 2007 all diesel fuel shall contain 5% biodiesel (B5 fuel) and on and after September 16, 2007, all gasoline shall contain a minimum blend of 10% ethanol (E10 fuel), Biodiesel for this act is produced from used cooking oil and/or feedstock from the Genera Brassica (rape, mustard), Caina, Helianthus (sunflower) or Carthamus (safflower).
Palmoil is excluded from this issue. [1638]

The sustainability of corn farming in the US corn belt [1639]
Tad Patzek, from the University of California looks at the thermodynamics of the corn-ethanol biofuel cycle in 2004. He concludes that the minimum cumulative exergy consumption in restoring the environment polluted and depleted by the industrial corn-ethanol cycle is over 7 times higher than the maximum shaft work of a car engine burning the cycle's ethanol.

The industrial corn cycle is not renewable, and is unsustainable by a wide margin. The limiting factors, nutrient-rich humus and water that carries the dissolved nutrients to plant roots are augmented by chemicals obtained in the linear, irreversible fossil fuel-based processes. Corn yields demand continuously increases in fertilization rate of corn fields. Patzek writes that the annual corn-ethanol biofuel production is a human assault on geologic processes and the geologic time scale.

Ethanol became the salvation for Midwest corn growers struggling to make ends meet with a saturated market and slumping prices. U.S. ethanol production is rising dramatically, thanks to generous corn subsidies, American soils have been depleted for like 50 years or something. The only reason we can get any good yeilds out of them is through massive fertilization. Fertilizer that we synthesize using gasoline. It's very inefficient to use the new bio-fuels, as they ultimately require more fossil fuels to produce than enrgy they yeilds. [1640]

Bio fuel worldwide
Sugar cane: Sugar cane grows in regions with abundant rain all the year round growing season, cheap land and not expensive labour. The product can be sold as sugar or as alcohol according to the demands of the market. [1640]

Also there is great potential in "enzimatic hydrolysis" for efficiency improvement of the conversion The biomass wastes contain cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin. Acids or enzymes are used to break down the cellulose and hemi-cellulose.into sucrose sugar that is then fermented into ethanol. The lignin is more resistant to these pre-treatment processes and is therefore burned to produce energy for the system. [1641]

China stops bio ethanol production from food and starts using Lignin and cellulose as raw material

[1642]
Biofuels are currently manufactured from food crops including corn, wheat, sugar, cassava, sweet sorghum, and oilseeds.The Chinese government fears shortage of food in these items due to biofuel demand which could increase food prices and issued a moratorium on these sources.

China produces about one million tons of Ethanol annually from three million tons of corn. Non-food crops, such as cassava and drought-tolerant sweet sorghum will now have to be used for the production of bio-ethanol. Due to the great demand, China imports cassava from Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Lignocellulose ethanol plant in China

[1643]
Cellulosic ethanol can be produced from almost any organic matter, including agricultural waste, grasses, sewage, sludge, switchgrass, plant stalks, trees and straw. Cellulose and lignin cannot be digested by humans, the production of cellulose does not compete with the production of food. Transforming them into ethanol using efficient and cost effective hemi(cellulase) enzymes or other processes might provide as much as 30% of the current fuel consumption in the US and probably similar figures in other oil-importing regions like China or Europe.

There are two ways to produce ethanol from cellulose:
- Cellulolysis processes which consist of hydrolysis on pretreated lignocellulosic materials followed by fermentation and distillation.
- Gasification that transforms the linocellulosic raw material into gaseous carbon monoxide and hydrogen. They are then fed into a special kind of fermenter or to a catalyst bed.
They both include fermentation and distillation as final steps.

Wheat, sugar beet and rapeseed as biofuel in UK [1644]
ESRU at the University of Strathclyde made a survey of biofuel using setaside land in UK.

The paper stresses limitations.
Bioethanol produced from Sugar beet results in a much greater yield, but should not be used as mono culture. When only one type of crop is grow on the same land for successive years then this crop will become very susceptible to certain pests and diseases as well as causing the depletion of certain minerals in the soil. The net result of these effects is a requirement for increased use of pesticides and fertilizers which due to their production process results in CO2 emissions. Sugar Beet yields are considerably higher than that of wheat and so fertilizer requirements are likely to be higher also, again causing increased emissions.

U.S. corn ethanol neglects the problem of monoculture. Depletion of the region and environmental destruction of the Gulf Region will be the result of U.S. ethanol agrarian politics.

ESRU suggests crop rotation to address this problem, stressing that it is necessary to use at least two different crops for producing bioethanol. If rapeseed, which is the crop used to produce biodiesel, is also added in then this will also help the problem. [1645]

ESRU says that total use of the 644.000 hectares of setaside land in UK could supply 9,7% by volume and 5,5% by energy of fuel using sugar beet / wheat 50:50.



  Yields Ethanol energy content
  Tonnes/hectare m$^{3}$/Tonne  
Wheat 7,74 0,336 Ethanol = 21,1 MJ/L
Sugar Beet 53,30 0,108 Petrol = 31,5 MJ/L
Rape seed 3,00 0,400 Rape oil = 35,6 MJ/L
      Diesel= 37,9 MJ/L
Corn 2,00   [1645]


Biofuel leading to food-shortage

[1646]
According to the United States Department of Agriculture the maize consume 2006 increased by 20 Million Tonnes compared with foregoing year. 14 Million Tonnes were used for the production of ethanol, only 6 Million Tonnes were used as food. Cereals which are used to produce alcohol has tripled in five years from 2001. Filling a tank of 120 liters of a Landrower could feed 26 persons for one year. More than half of the harvest of maize from South Dakota is being transformed in alcohol.

A reduction of US maize export which is two third of world export amount, could seriously hamper the cattle and poultry industry in Japan, Egypt and Mexico. Biofuel from food crops are being produced in Brazil (alcohol from sugar cane), USA ( alcohol from maize) and Europe (biodiesel from rape). Sugar price doubled in Brazil since 2004.

The production of alcohol in China from maize in India from sugar cane, Thailand from cassava is being pushed by the government. Malaysia and Indonesia invest in oilplants for biodiesel. This will lead to a shortage of food and increasing prices.

On account of that it is irresponsible from the leaders of the nations which will meat at the G-8 Summit in Germany try to increase world traffic and global increase of energy consumption.

UK Environment Agency report says biofuel rises food prices and threatens food security

[1647]
The UK government 2008 report on biofuels says that this form of renewable energy is an expensive and ineffective way to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and is likely to cause increasing food prices and insecurity in Europe. This assertion is backed by the United Nations FAO which states that biofuel production rises food prices and threatens food security in developing countries.

The report say that the arable land in the EU is not sufficient to meet the target set by the EU Biofuels Directive. Imports will therefore be needed, increase environmental pressures in developingt countries, such as happening with palm oil is already happening in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The production of biofuels affects water use, water quality, waste management, and soil fertility, overuse of chemicals, preparing new land release CO2 and increase the risk of nitrate leaching.

South Africa revises biofuel program down to 2% and excludes corn from fuel production

[1648]
Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica announced that South Africa revised the initial proposal of 4,5% down to 2% biofuels of its total petrol production by 2013. Maize will be excluded from biofuelproduction because it is a staple food and food security concerns demand the move to soya beans, canola, sunflower and sugar cane and sugar beet for ethanol.

South Africa produces liquid fuels by synthesis from coal and natural gas making 36% of fuels demand. Imported crude oil covers 64%.

The Southern African Biofuels Association Paper

[1649]
The Association, however, presented a paper calling biofuel a unique opportunity for South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa to:
a) attract significant investments into rural areas;
b) promote agricultural development at a scale never before seen;
c) materially provide for import substitution of oil with subsequent savings for the national fiscus in many poor developing countries;
d) providing ethanol exports primarily to the north, and
e) overcoming the trade distorting effects that Africa and the developing world have faced for years because of subsidised agricultural commodities.

Net gain balance between biofuel and conventional fuels

[1650]
The overriding conclusion of the Blottnitz report [1650] and the IFEU report [1651] had similar findings and concluded that for energy balances was that the use of bio-ethanol in place of conventional fuels or as an additive leads to a net gain, whereas most of the other parameters , such as Acidification, human toxicity and ecological toxicity impacts, mainly occurring during the harvesting and processing of the biomass are in favour of fossil fuels.

Quantity Potential
Blottnitz says the potential of biofuels production is limited. While the annual produced biomass in the world could theoretically provide our total fuel demand, there are restrictions from other competing land use (food production, natural conservation, sustainable agriculture) and usages (biomass for material uses, source of bioenergy for power and heat production). In this way, competing land use alone reduces the usable potential in Germany to just a few percent of the fuel market. Such limitations do not apply to the usage of biomass from waste material.


Biofuels rise food prices, do more harm to the climate than good and it may harm engines

European plans to provide 20 per cent of EU energy from renewable sources - which are contained in a leaked draft of the EU renewable energy directive [1652]. But, the environmental campaign group warned that plans for a huge increase in agro-fuels seriously undermine the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help the world's poor.

A leak of the draft directive says that 20 per cent of EU energy must come from renewable sources by 2020. And, as part of this strategy, all transport fuels must contain at least 10 per cent agro-fuels by 2020. Friends of the Earth criticises:

Friends of the Earth say that the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) - due to come into force should be put on hold. The RTFO will require all petrol sold in the UK to contain a percentage of biofuels in order to meet EU targets to increase the use of alternativ