Agrofuels and the right to food in Latin America: Realities and threats

Buxton, Nick
Martínez Ruiz, Beatriz

2008

978-90-71007-20-0

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Agrofuels and the Right to Food in Latin America was first published in May 2008 as a joint effort between the Transnational Institute, FIAN Brazil, the Brazilian Action for Nutrition and Human Rights (ABRANDH), FIAN Ecuador, the Plataforma Colombiana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo, the Paraguayan Servicio Jurídico Integral para el Desarrollo Agrario (SEIJA) and FIAN International. It aims to provide information about the impacts, risks and violations of the right to food and other human rights related to agrofuel expansion in Latin America. The case of Latin America clearly demonstrates that the challenges, questions and problems posed by agrofuels at the regional level are closely linked to prevalent policies and development models. The report is divided into six chapters. The first two chapters are more conceptual. Chapter one provides a review of the reasons given for the promotion of agrofuels as a solution to the global energy crisis and the protagonists who advocate this, while chapter two explains how to assess the impacts of the agrofuel boom on the human right to food and refers to the particular obligations of states (especially the fulfilment of the CESCR) regarding the realisation of the right to adequate food in the context of agrofuel promotion. The remaining four chapters contain country studies of four Latin American countries (Brazil, Paraguay, Colombia and Ecuador), which trace the processes of monoculture expansion for agrofuels in these countries and demonstrate the resulting problems and violations regarding the human right to food. What follows here is a summary of the main findings of these country studies, as well as a translation of chapter 2 of the original report (on the right to food) and its main conclusions. [Introduction]

América Latina; Biocombustibles; Brasil; Colombia; Ecuador; Paraguay; Seguridad alimentaria;