Sugar cane key to energy solutions

Citing by-products such as sugar, falernum, molasses, rum, spirits, bagasse and ethanol, Barbados' Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Senator Haynesley Benn stressed that sugar cane grass was more efficient in the creation of the latter than c

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, May 9, 2008 – Barbados' Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Senator Haynesley Benn has stressed the need for creative alternative energy solutions, including the full exploitation of the sugar cane grass, in the face of spiralling oil and food prices.

He made the call at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture's (IICA) 2008 Accountability Seminar here.

Mr Benn told the audience of agricultural stakeholders that sugar cane grass had "tremendous utility and every effort must be made to exploit it".

Citing by-products such as sugar, falernum, molasses, rum, spirits, bagasse and ethanol, he stressed that sugar cane grass was more efficient in the creation of the latter than corn, and would not affect food production.

"The shift by the USA to use corn in the production of ethanol has had a severe impact on food prices and as the USA hastens to reduce its dependence on oil and petroleum products, the oil producers are responding to the demand for oil, especially in industrialised nations, by allowing the prices of this commodity to skyrocket," he said.

"An expansion in the acreage of corn on arable lands for the production of ethanol could lead to significant food shortages due to a reduction in acreage used to grow food for human consumption," he cautioned.

The Minister also highlighted the need for corporate responsibility in light of the "thunderous explosion of the cost of living throughout the world".

"Small island developing states are very vulnerable to these violent economic situations. Therefore our business community must now exercise corporate social responsibility and share the burden of the increased costs of food and non-food items, including energy," Benn said.

"In addition, oil producing nations, both at the governmental and corporate levels, must recognise that the world could explode into chaos and disharmony if too many people worldwide are driven to hunger and on the breadline," he cautioned.