Biofuels are costing the Earth
Biofuels are costing the Earth
Our dairy farmers may be riding on the crest of a wave, but there is more than a hint of hypocrisy in the smug approach to dairying on the part of our politicians. Were it not for spiralling international prices for dairy products, New Zealand would be in an even more serious mess.

Labour might believe that butter and cheese may yet save our bacon, but they overlook their unwitting complicity in global starvation. If a weekly kilo of cheese is now beyond the pockets of many Kiwis, how on earth can the world’s poorest people afford it?

The Labour-led Government played no role in producing this new-found wealth. It’s the result of international price pressures, not the least of which is the US-led move to divert food-producing land to subsidised biofuel production.

Food riots in Somalia... this is just the beginning
Food riots in Somalia... this is just the beginning
There was a time when the developed world (and the US in particular) produced so much maize at such low prices that farmers in Haiti went to the wall. Now, Haiti and other poverty-stricken countries cannot produce the basic foodstuffs for their own people, who are beginning to go on the rampage.

With the short supply of cereals, prices have risen far beyond the ability of poor people to afford and the world faces a tidal wave of starvation. Bugger global warming – this is life or death, for tens of millions of people, right now.

Our dairy industry is riding on the back of this dreadful scandal, but there is not a word from the politicians. Instead, Labour and the Greens blindly press on with policies designed to get up to 3.4 percent of our vehicle power from biofuels. Compared to other nations, it’s a modest target - but it’s nevertheless misguided.

The devastating environmental and economic effects of the push for biofuel are beginning to dawn on more enlightened governments.

In the UK, there is a strong likelihood that a halt will be called, because it’s been discovered (surprise, surprise) that the production of ethanol from plant products generates more greenhouse gas emissions than burning fossil fuels – not to mention the catastrophe that biofuels are bringing to the world’s poorest.

So once again, the Law of Unintended Consequences has struck. And doubtless, Labour and the Greens who so love to be at the forefront of ground-breaking ecological initiatives will once again be the last to drop them in the face of another man-made global disaster.

However, they are by no means the only eco-fools in the world. The European Union has just announced moves to include aviation in its carbon emissions trading scheme. This, of course, will mean even more stratospheric airfares - and deal a nasty blow to New Zealand’s tourism industry.

As the leading architects of our own flaky scheme, what will Helen and Jeanette make of that?