Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck has come out against biofuels, warning that trying to fill up to 20 percent of energy demand with plant-sourced fuel could result in a food shortage. As a food company executive, Mr Brabeck's opinion is neither surprising nor entirely altruistic. However, his warnings echo remarks from UN Special Rapporteur On The Right To Food, Jean Ziegler, last year. In October, Ziegler cautioned that every 13 gallons of corn-based biofuel could feed a child for a year, and called for a five-year ban in the EU on converting croplands to biofuel production. Just something to keep in mind the next time you put 30 gallons of E85 in your Suburban.
10 Comments on “Nestle CEO Opposes Bio-Fuels...”
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As self serving as Brabeck’s comments were, he has a point. E85 and the whole ethanol craze is driving up food prices, dairy prices and inflation in general. For example, a gallon of whole milk for my 3 year old daughter is around $5.00 at Wally World.
Heed this man’s words!!!
Think about it, he is CEO of a FOOD company, folks will contiune to need to eat NO MATTER what the price of food is!
If the price of a loaf of bread were to reach $100.00 you would HAVE pay it, or simply not eat!
He’s the CEO of Nestle. His comments are 100% self- serving and zero percent anything else.
whatdoiknow, you need to relax. If bread approaches $100 a loaf I’ll start hoeing my back yard and plant wheat.
“UN Special Rapporteur On The Right To Food”
’nuff said.
@Landcrusher–I suspect you may harbor deep-seated antipathy toward reports with the words “United” and “Nations” together in the title.
The U.N. is good at cranking out reports (like any bloated bureaucracy), and I’ll wager that some of them are right on the money (see Blix, Hans: Iraq WMD Report 2003). It’s acting on all those reports that the U.N. is virtually incapable of. That’s where Nestle comes in. Save us, Nestle, from $100 loaves of bread!
This is the same Nestle that pushed formula milk to third world mothers back in early 90s. Evil.
Having said that he is right of course. 3rd worlders can starve so USA can drive around in trucks. Well almost. Doesn’t seem right somehow.
BuckD,
No one has a right to food. This sort of demagoguery is the foundation of modern despotism.
What people have the right to is the fair opportunity to feed themselves through their own efforts. The distinction is not small.
Bio fuels can be good, just so long as they are not corn-based. Many people love to focus upon just this one source to further their own particular ends. Perhaps more attention should be paid to sources such as bio-waste, and switch grass (easy to grow, no one is deprived of food, uses little water, has a huge energy return). As for people having the right to food, I believe that is one of the tenants the world agreed to in the U.N. declaration of Human Rights (a document of which the U.S. is a signatory). Further, rather than leading to despotism, such a noble idea demonstrates that which is good in humanity.
@ Landcrusher
If the Government of the United States subsidizes corn based ethanol, not to mention price supports for other agricultural products like cotton, wheat and what not, that hardly results in a fair world market.
As I recall, all the famines in the modern era were due not to demagoguery but to government interference in free markets. The despotism comes first, then the famine.
And Americans can’t understand why the rest of the world doesn’t wuv dem. Maybe instead of squandering a trillion dollars to build bases and try to secure oil in Iraq, if we had instead spent that money developing technologies and just plain helping people get food to eat we’d have a lot more good will and a lot fewer people wanting to kill Americans. I seem to recall some kind of saying, about flies, honey and vinegar…
“In October, Ziegler cautioned that every 13 gallons of corn-based biofuel could feed a child for a year,…”
I hope they consume it before it gets denatured.