Agrofuel Moratorium Campaign

The undersigned call for an immediate moratorium on U.S. incentives for agrofuels and agroenergy from large-scale monocultures and a moratorium on global trade of such agrofuels. This includes the immediate suspension of all congressionally mandated targets and incentives such as tax breaks, tariffs and subsidies that benefit and promote agrofuels from large-scale industrial monocultures, including financing through carbon trading mechanisms, international development aid or loans from international finance organizations.

This call responds to the rapid concentration of the agrofuel industry in the U.S., driven largely by U.S. and E.U. renewable fuels targets, and to the growing number of calls from the global south against the expansion of agrofuel monocultures. Agrofuels refer to large-scale industrial monoculture production of crops such as soy, oil palm, sugar cane, jatropha, canola etc. for fuels and do not include small scale, sustainably grown fuel crops that benefit local communities, do not employ genetically engineered (GE) varieties, and can be accurately referred to as "biofuels."
Agrofuels cause deforestation and environmental damage

Industrial monoculture production has numerous negative impacts on the environment, climate and on people. These include soil depletion and erosion, contamination and depletion of waterways, increased use of nitrogen fertilizers and toxic agrichemicals and an increasing reliance on a small number of GE varieties at the expense of diverse and sustainable agriculture systems. Monocultures of soy and sugar cane in Latin America and palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia have led to massive deforestation and the loss of invaluable biodiversity.
Agrofuels will worsen global warming

Agrofuels are promoted as a solution to global warming, but more accurate life-cycle assessments suggests that they increase carbon emissions by increasing deforestation and degradation of peatlands and soils, while also creating more nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer use. Crop irrigation and refineries deplete already dwindling fresh water resources.
Agrofuels seriously threaten food and land rights of indigenous people and the rural poor.

Promoted as a benefit to the rural poor, agrofuels are instead causing the displacement, often violent, of indigenous people and the diversion of lands formerly used to produce food for local consumption into production of agrofuels for export to wealthy northern countries. Workers are subjected to poor conditions, chemical exposures, and other abuses.
Certification will not provide adequate protections

Certification systems cannot control macro-level impacts such as the displacement of other land uses, cannot be adequately monitored and implemented in many countries, have thus far failed to ensure full participation of affected communities, could conflict with WTO agreements, and cannot be designed and implemented fast enough to keep pace with current development.

The International Energy Agency estimates that over the next 23 years, the world could produce as much as 147 million tons of agro-fuel. This fuel will barely offset the yearly increase in global oil demand, now standing at 136 million tons a year, without offsetting any of the existing demand. Is this worth it?
Urgent and effective measures other than agrofuels are available

The undersigned support urgent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, based on climate science assessments, which involve a drastic overall reduction in energy use in industrialized countries, strict energy efficiency standards, and support for truly renewable forms of energy, such as sustainable wind and solar energy and promotion of land use patterns that preserve 'carbon sinks'.

Read more about the call for a moratorium (pdf)

Download the call in Portuguese
Download the call in Spanish

Members of the working group:

Rainforest Action Network
Global Justice Ecology Project
Food First
Grassroots International
Family Farm Defenders
Student Trade Justice Campaign

Signers:

Altropico Foundation, Ecuador
Amazon Watch
American Jewish World Service
A SEED Europe, Netherlands
ATTAC, Germany
BASE-Investigaciones Sociales, Paraguay
Biofuelwatch, UK
Biowatch South Africa
Border Agricultural Workers Project
Brazilian Association for Agroecology
Carbon Trade Watch, Europe
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
Climate Action Coalition, Bulgaria
Concerned Citizens of Newport
Cornucopia Institute
Corporate Watch, Europe
Dogwood Alliance
EasySweet Farm
Ecological Society of the Phillipines
Ecologistas en Accion, Spain
Energy Justice Network
EPIC (Environmental Protection Information Center)
ETC Group
FIAN (Food First Information and Action Network), Netherlands
Food and Water Watch
Food for Maine's Future
Foreign Policy in Focus
Friends of the Earth International
Friends of the Earth, Brazil
Friends of the Earth, Sierra Leone
Friends of the Earth, Sweden
Global Exchange
Global Forest Coalition
Grupo de Reflexion Rural, Argentina
IFG (International Forum on Globalization)
Institute for Production and Investigation of Tropical Agriculture (IPIAT)
International Society for Ecology and Culture
Institute for Social Ecology Biotechnology Project
Land Action Research Network
Life of the Land
Mesa Global de Guatemala
Mother Earth Foundation, Philippines
Movimento das Mulheres Camponesas, Brazil
NOAH/Friends of the Earth, Denmark
Northwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering
Organic Consumers Association
Regenwald-Institut, Germany
Rising Tide North America
Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville
Small Planet Institute
Small Producers Movement (MPA)
Third World Network
UNAC - Mozambique Farmers' Union
WALHI/Friends of the Earth, Indonesia
World Hunger Year
World Rainforest Movement