Agrofuels: Big Profits, Ruined Lives and Ecological Destruction

This book presents the issue of agrofuels within the global context of the capitalist economy, stressing the role played by the oligopolies in promoting 'green energy'. Agrofuels provide no solution for the climate and they are marginal to the energy crisis. Above all they serve the interests of capitalist accumulation. This is the best book so far written on the subject. -- Samir Amin, Director of the Third World Forum in Dakar This book is a unique and important contribution to the debate on agrofuels. Firstly, it ... offers a much-needed political economic perspective on the issue. Secondly, Houtart dares to question the sustainability of the lifestyle encouraged by our consumer society. This book is therefore vital reading for all those interested not only in the question of agrofuels, but also in the direction of our civilisation and its shameful waste of natural resources. -- Professor Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food That solutions can be the causes of problems is well known and brilliantly illustrated by Francois Houtart's account of the nature, role and impact of agrofuels. Technically sound, socially thorough and politically grounded, it is also compassionate - see his personal account of the disaster for the poor wrought by agrofuels in Colombia. A highly recommended, balanced primer for anyone who wants to understand why agrofuels are spreading, who benefits from them and why we should - mostly - oppose them. -- Susan George, Honorary President of ATTAC-France and President of the Board of the Transnational Institute