Dutch crown prince warns against prioritizing biofuels over food

Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander warned against diverting water resources from food production to biofuels, saying Wednesday that feeding people is more important than fueling cars.

“Biofuels is a great way to support our Western way of life, but it’s not a necessity for mankind to survive. Food is,” said Willem-Alexander, who chairs the U.N. secretary-general’s advisory board on water and sanitation.
Demand for biofuels, such as ethanol made from corn or sugarcane, is growing amid efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and power plants. But focusing scarce water resources on growing crops for biofuel production instead of food could backfire as the world population grows, he said.

“The amount of water needed to produce the biofuels for a tank of an SUV equals the amount of water needed to feed one person on grains for a whole year,” Willem-Alexander told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the World Water Week conference in Stockholm.

“It’s fine to replace fossil fuels with biofuels, but first find an alternative for food production, say a new green revolution reducing by half the amount of water needed in agriculture.”

The crown prince warned that the world is failing to meet U.N. goals to halve the proportion of people lacking basic sanitation by 2015. About 2 million children die every year of diarrhea, mostly because of unsafe water supply and poor sanitation, according to U.N. estimates.

International Herald Tribune