In the News: Bitter Sugar
Bitter sugar
The world is searching for cleaner sources of energy. Fossil fuel production is finite, environmentally destructive and politically contentious. These concerns have made growth industries out of alternative energies such as hydroelectricity and biofuel, which counts sugarcane and African palm among its top sources.
Hydro and biofuel industries marketed as "green" energy are leading to widespread destruction of once fertile lands leaving entire communities without basic resources. These industries and literally diverting rivers and creating illegal dams that eliminate clean drinking and irrigation water for hundreds of communities in Guatemala. The demand for biofuel by Europe and the U.S. has increased by 46% since 2001. Diverse agricultural practices that used to provide food and a sustainable economy in Guatemala has shifted to cane and palm oil production that have dessimated the region. The farmers are now in a fight for their land and their lives to keep water flowing to their regions. The tensions between large U.S. / EU based companies and the locals have lead to a humanitarian crisis. Some sources say this industry will create more "environmental refugees" who are left without enough natural resources to survive.
“The whole country has been opened to concessions for mining, sugar cane, palm oil to provide exports. Rivers have been diverted, others are drying up. Access to land and water is denied. The resources are in the hands of a very few people.” –Mario Minera, former head of mediation at the government’s ombudsman’s office. Minera says that land conflicts across Guatemala are on the rise.
This is absolutely terrible! Africa has so very few resources and limited food supply. To think that more of its resources are stripped for fossil fuel while leaving farmers with nothing is heartless and irresposible.
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