Japan: Don’t use biofuels to power farm industry

The main purpose of promoting biofuels for vehicles is to help prevent global warming, rather than shoring up the nation’s agricultural industry. Unfortunately, this fact seems to have slipped the minds of some government officials.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry aims to increase in about 15 years the annual domestic production of bioethanol–ethanol made from biological material–to 6 million kiloliters, a figure equivalent to about 10 percent of the nation’s current annual gasoline consumption. Current annual bioethanol production is a paltry 30 kiloliters.
The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has criticized the agriculture ministry’s target as being “exorbitant.” Is the farm ministry’s goal realistic? The ministry should clarify precisely what steps it will take to achieve the target.

Daily Yomiuri