[chottala.com] Vote in EU poll on biofuels

Health check on European agriculture to ensure the sector can keep up with growing demand in a sustainable way. The EU commission is proposing new rules (20 May) aimed at enabling European agriculture to respond to growing demand for food and rising prices without compromising on environmental standards. The commission wants to clear obstacles that hinder farmers from responding to market signals by : abolishing the requirement for arable farmers to keep 10% of their land fallow phasing out milk quotas by 2015 removing the remaining links between subsidies and specific products. To ensure that these measures do not harm the environment, aid will come with various environmental conditions attached ("cross compliance"). To coincide with this agricultural policy "health check", the commission has produced an analysis of the reasons behind the surge in food prices and its impact – especially on the poorest. It proposes a three-fold policy response. The price increase is the result of structural factors including a rise in global demand and the increased cost of energy, but also temporary factors such as the falling  US dollar and export restrictions in some countries. While the "health check" will counter rising food prices in the short-term by stimulating European production, long-term measures including more coordinated international cooperation and investment in agricultural research are also required. Summing up the situation, president Barroso said, "The European Union has reacted rapidly to the sudden surge in food prices. We are dealing with a problem that has many root causes and many consequences. So we need to act on several fronts at the same time to address them." To make sure its biofuels policy does not drive food prices higher, the EU will impose strict sustainability criteria and require new generations of biofuels to be commercially viable.   Syed Siful Alam Shovan shovan1209@yahoo.com ACTION ALERT EU Biofuels Poll Dear Friends, There's a poll today on the European Commission website you might like to participate in right now: " Should the EU stick to its target to reach 10% biofuels by 2020?" Greenpeace and the environmental movement's answer is clearly "No". Emerging research shows that it is most probably not possible to produce 10% of the EU's transport fuel from crops in an ecologically sound way. There's a high risk that such a target (10% by 2020) will lead to enormous pressure on increasingly scarce land, and detrimental environmental and social effects, such as massive deforestation, a sharp increase in the use of GMO's and the shift from food production for the poor to car fuel production for the rich. Furthermore, the Commission's proposal for biofuels sustainability criteria are -- put simply -- a joke. Let's send a clear "No" message now Industry would use a "yes" result in this e-poll to say there is public support for their goals, when clearly there is not. It's only an online poll, but we've got to win it. Please vote and pass the message on, by email, IM, facebook or whatever way you can. Many thanks, Everyone at Greenpeace To no longer receive these messages, please send a blank email to: unsub-kbmbklimokvlxr@email.greenpeace.org OR Send a postal mail to: Ottho Heldringstraat 5, 1066 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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