As pork prices soar, Chinese put brakes on corn for ethanol
With a famine less than 50 years in its past, China remains sensitive about using food for fuel.
from the May 31, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Debate in China picking up speed
In the ongoing debate among Chinese leaders and scholars about the value of ethanol and biofuels, "more and more people think that China's potential is not so big, that China cannot use food for fuel because food security is more important than energy and because food is politically very important," Zhang says.
Such arguments convinced the government to slap new controls on the corn-processing industry late last December, suspending all investment projects still in the pipeline and insisting that all future ethanol projects should apply for approval from state planning agencies.
The continuing rise in corn prices since the beginning of this year suggests that the central government is having its usual difficulty in controlling developments in China's provinces. But the crisis has not deterred the authorities from pursuing other ethanol distilling projects and biofuel experiments.
A state-owned grain and oils conglomerate will launch a pilot project later this year to process cassava – a starchy tuber that is not considered a food in China – into ethanol. Plans are also under way to plant tens of thousands of acres of jatropha – also inedible and grown in wastelands – by the end of the decade.
One principle must rule the development of China's alternative fuel industry, the National Development and Reform Committee insists: "a guarantee that foodgrains are not the main source" of its raw materials.
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