Argentina's decision to go green with its biofuel may have pleased the environmentalists but the growing concern is that the move will further spike the soaring food prices in the country.
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The Argentine government plans to make five percent of the fuel supply biodiesel by using tax incentive and a mandate. But there is a growing feeling among some quarters that using farmland for biofuels might end up harming the environment itself, besides rising inflation that plagues the economy of the Latin American country.
Already demonstrators have started agitating against the decision and they claim this biodiesel bloom would result into deforestation.
Former U S Vice President Al Gore, whose documentary on global warming "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar this year, admitted that the drive to go green would pose its own challenge.
Gore said
Every potential solution much be handled carefully and the danger with biofuels is that extremely valuable forests will be destroyed unnecessarily. Another danger is that, if it is not pursued carefully, it will drive food prices up.
US President George W Bush has been advocating slashing of gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017, which would require a staggering 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels.
Argentina is already struggling with a rickety economy, with one fourth of its 38-million population in abject poverty.
Photo: Biofuel
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