Industry News
Shell executive: Using food crops to produce biofuels is "morally inappropriate”
7th July 2006
Royal Dutch Shell, the world's top marketer of biofuels, considers using food crops to make biofuels "morally inappropriate" as long as there are people in the world who are starving, an executive of the company said yesterday at a seminar in Singapore. Eric G Holthusen, Shell’s Fuels Technology Manager Asia/Pacific, said his company's participation in marketing biofuels extracted from food was driven by economics or legislation. "If we have the choice today, then we will not use this route," Malaysia-based Holthusen said at a seminar in Singapore.
"We think morally it is inappropriate because what we are doing here is using food and turning it into fuel. If you look at Africa, there are still countries that have a lack of food, people are starving, and because we are more wealthy, we use food and turn it into fuel. This is not what we would like to see. But sometimes economics force you to do it."
(www.planetark.com, 7 July)
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