Guatemalans Protest Use
of Food for Biofuels
The increase of planting
sugar cane and African
palm trees for
production of biofuels
is against the security
and sovereignty of
Guatemala, said here the
Farmers Unity Committee
(CUC) Wednesday.
Daniel Pascual, CUC
general coordinator,
stated that
strengthening the use of
great extensions of land
with these objectives
harms the soils and
reduces the basic grain
cultivation areas.
In statements to Prensa
Latina, the indigenous
leader criticized the
decision of the
Guatemalan government to
give a setback to the
application of a
legislation made in
1974, which forced great
landowners to dedicate
10 percent of their
lands to food
production.
Pascual urged the
authorities to retake
the agrarian topic and
the analysis of a rural
development law in an
urgent way to face the
current food crisis, not
only affecting
Guatemala, but also the
rest of the countries of
the world.
For the sake of
fostering family
agriculture that
supplies the country of
grains, CUC signed a
cooperation agreement
Wednesday with the
Faculty of Agronomy of
the University of San
Carlos and with non
governmental
organization ACTIONAID.
The agreement includes
sending of students of
the last year of
Agronomy to communities
to the north and south
coast.
Francisco Vazquez,
Rector of the Faculty of
Agronomy, manifested the
commitment of the
university of helping to
overcome the serious
situation that the
country is facing, where
50 percent of the
children suffer
malnutrition.
Guatemala suffers the
consequences of agrarian
policies giving a
privilege to the export
of agricultural products
and, in the last years,
the biofuels production
instead of the
cultivation of foods for
popular consumption.
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