Castro hits out at US biofuel use

BBC ^ | Thursday, March 29, 2007

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Officials expect Mr Castro to return to public life soon

Cuban President Fidel Castro has strongly criticised the use of biofuels by the US, in his first article since undergoing surgery last year.

He said George W Bush's support for the use of food crops in fuel production would cause 3bn deaths from hunger.

The article in the Granma newspaper did not mention Mr Castro's health.

Officials say they expect Mr Castro - who temporarily handed over power to his brother last July - to resume activities in government soon.

Last month, Mr Castro appeared in a live radio broadcast for the first time since falling ill.

The Cuban leader's failure to appear in public - and the silence from the Cuban authorities - had fuelled speculation about the seriousness of his condition.

Ethanol targets

Mr Castro's article appears in Thursday's edition of Granma, under the headline: "Condemned to premature death by hunger and thirst more than 3bn people of the world."

The sinister idea of converting food into combustibles was definitively established as the economic line of foreign policy of the United States Fidel Castro Quick guide: Biofuels

In it, he says he has been "meditating quite a bit since President Bush's meeting with North American automobile makers".

During that meeting on Monday, Mr Castro writes, "the sinister idea of converting food into combustibles was definitively established as the economic line of foreign policy of the United States".

Mr Bush has set targets for an increased use of ethanol - which in the US is mainly made from corn. The US government hopes this will reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil.

The US and Brazil recently signed an agreement to develop biofuels, and their presidents are expected to hold further talks on the matter at the weekend.

[ClaireSolt]

Too bad he ruined the soil by overfarming or Cuba could develop a cash crop in ethanol.

[CholeraJoe]

Tell it to the Brazilians, Fidel. They use more Biofuel than we could ever hope to.

Let me get this right. Half of the world's population is going to starve starting tomorrow morning if I fill up with E-85? Bwahahahaha!

Them damn narcotics have made Fidel null and void.

[1rudeboy]

It's a tough one to consider. I'll wait until Dan Rather goes down there and explains it all to me. Harry Belafonte will do in a pinch.

[Mr. Lucky]

I have been driving on E-85 for largely personal reasons. From now on, I can wallow in the smugness of knowing it breaks Fidel's heart as well.

[thackney]

Tell it to the Brazilians, Fidel. They use more Biofuel than we could ever hope to.

The US produces more ethanol now than Brazil does and still imports ethanol from Brazil. Brazil may have a higher percentage of biofuel use, but the US uses more gallons.

U.S., Brazil plan ethanol partnership

[CholeraJoe]

The US produces more ethanol now than Brazil

Does that include or exclude ethanol produced for human consumption? Lotsa "corn squeezins" coming out of the stills at McCormick and Jack Daniels.

[mt tom]

i sure hope that fidel thanked nancy pelosi for the donation

[thackney]

Just fuel (denatured) ethanol.

[dc-zoo]

ROTFLMAO!! I'll have to admit, I never thought of that 'angle'.

[BuffaloJack]

Castro has a point.
Using food for fuel is dumb. Make the world dependent upon us for food and then use food as a weapon. (The Middle East does this with oil, we should do this with food.)

[-YYZ-]

Does the United States, or Canada, have some sort of "duty" to feed the rest of the world with our successful, productive farmlands? It was to the advantage of our farmers to sell surplusses of grain to Red China and the USSR back in the old days, but if they can find better paying markets for it, why wouldn't they take advantage of it? It's not our fault that various socialist countries around the world are consistenly unable to feed themselves (ie "40 years of bad harvests").

The funny thing is, I agree with him - turning valuable foodstuff into fuel is not viable in the long run, IMO, and is mostly only profitable to farmers due to subsidies.

[Kellis91789]

Well, gosh. Now I'm torn.

On the one hand, I think using food crops to produce fuel is stupid. On the other hand, anything Castro is against, I am for.

What a pickle ...

[FormerACLUmember]

Cuba is making aggressive measures to develop a sugar cane to ethanol program. The fact is easily determined (took me 15 seconds on Google) and utterly ignored in the shabby, lazy BBC and US lamestream media. Don't want to make their demi-god Fidel look like the mega-liar he is.

[surely_you_jest]

Using corn as a feedstock for ethanol is not the most efficient usage of surplus farmland.

But until some better fuel technologies and farming techniques come along, it is a good start.

And I really don't give a rip about Fidel's point of view. I grew up in Miami, and have a lot of Cuban friends. Screw him.

[oldenuff2no]

I have to laugh at this crap. Lets take a look at some plain provable facts again.
At one time a barrel of oil was worth 2-3 bushels of grain. the ratio of the price of grain to oil has plummeted in the last 30 years. But then something happened. There came about discussion about using American grown corn as the basis for the alcohol that goes in to ethanol. The price of corn has doubled in the last year and is still on the rise. The ratio of corn to oil is changing in a direction that is more favorable for us and is still headed up. If this program goes into production it will do two things. It will drop our level of oil imports and it will make food more expensive for those countries that are oil rich bu food poor. Our farmers will be bringing more money back into our country. The shift is not huge at this point in time but it is definable by looking at the numbers.
Those folks that can't feed their own people are as hooked on cheap grain from the US as we used to be on their cheap oil. Right now, Castro has neither oil or food in excess. He has to import both. Sorry old man but that is the way socialism crumbles.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Holy cow, I agree with El Presdiente.

[tom paine 2]

Cost of corn tortillas going up socialism going down.

[reg45]

Fidel is pissed because his buddy Hugo is not getting any money from biofuels.

[oldenuff2no]

The United States has no more responsibility to provide the world with cheap grain than Saudi Arabia does to supply us with cheap oil.
We do not own the world anything. All of our foreign aid has been a one way street for the last 60 years. We have been feeding nations that are now lining up to take cheap shots at us at every opportunity. If they do not want to deal with us in a civil way then maybe then need reminded just where all this money is coming from. I think we need to take a one year break from giving foreign aid to most of these countries. I will bet it will greatly enhance their memory.

[magellan]

Well now I know where Rosie gets her whacko ideas.

As for hunger, I don't think hunger has been caused by low food production in over a century. Famine in the 20th century was typically caused by politics. Just ask the Ukrainians.