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BRAZIL: Sugarcane Alcohol Tarnished by U.S. Maize Ethanol
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Recent efforts by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to clearly mark the difference between Brazilian ethanol and the agrofuels produced by the United States are an admission that signing an agreement with Washington to promote a global bioethanol market was a serious political mistake, say analysts.
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LATIN AMERICA: Food Summit Declares Regional Emergency
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA - The presidential summit on "Food for Life", held in Nicaragua, has ended with 16 Latin American countries agreeing to produce more food and sell it at low prices through strategic alliances, amid criticisms of free markets and capitalism.
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EUROPE: Warnings Against Biofuels Get Louder
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS - European efforts to promote biofuels should be rethought because of the contribution they have made to rising food prices, according to Jeffrey Sachs, a top economic advisor to the United Nations.
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RIGHTS: Native People Warn U.N. of Biofuels Disaster
By Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS - Growing demand for biofuels by the world's rich nations is propelling attacks on indigenous people and destroying their lands and forests, according to native leaders attending a three-week international meeting here.
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ECONOMY: IMF Reforms Itself, A Little
By John Vandaele
BRUSSELS - The poor have been given a little more say in the IMF. It is still a small step, but the biggest such in the last 60 years.
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AFGHANISTAN: Global Emergency Triggers Food Riots
By Anand Gopal
KABUL - In the teeming, dense flour bazaars of Kabul, it's hard not to miss the anger.
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EUROPE: Subsidies Feeding Food Scarcity
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN - European subsidies for agriculture are contributing to rapidly rising food prices and the destruction of small-scale farming in the South, experts say.
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CHINA: High on Ethanol Despite Rising Food Prices
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - Studies debunking the environmental benefits of ethanol have made little impression in this country, which is betting on bio-fuels as the green answer to coal and oil to help clear its increasingly smog-filled skies.
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AGRICULTURE: Brazil Shares Technology with Africa
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - The people of Brazil have reason to believe that they are making a real contribution to reducing hunger and environmental threats in the world by developing agricultural technology that has begun to be shared with poorer countries.
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ENVIRONMENT: But What Is Good About Biofuels?
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN - The German government decision two weeks back against increased use of biofuels was based on technical reasons -- more than three millions vehicles cannot burn biofuels without risking engine breakdown.
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LATIN AMERICA: Food or Fuel - That Is the Burning Question
By Walter Sotomayor
BRASILIA - The difficult balancing act between fighting hunger, producing biofuels and defending the environment is at the centre of the debate at the 30th Regional Conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the Brazilian capital.
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BRAZIL: Clean Gasoline Fuels Soybean Production
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - The Brazilian government has decided to move up the deadlines for obligatory addition of biofuels to gasoline and diesel fuel, a measure that will boost the production of soybeans, the oilseed crop with the lowest yield and that causes the most environmental damage.
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TRADE-AFRICA: France to Push For Extension of EU Farm Subsidies
By Hilaire Avril
PARIS - France is expected to push for the further entrenchment of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies when it ascends to the presidency of the European Union (EU) on July 1 this year.
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Subsidies - Who Really Benefits? - RSS Why Do Subsidies Matter?
Subsidies -- transfers of public money to private interests -- have profound and long-lasting effects on the economy, the distribution of income in society, and the environment. Holding governments to account for how they allocate resources is important to citizens, not least because the bill goes to the taxpayers. At a global level, the impacts of subsidies are felt across borders, often most acutely in developing countries.

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Issue Ten: Irrigation Subsidies
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Issue One: Biofuels
Subsidies Newsletter - Sign up for the free GSI-IPS monthly newsletter, addressed to journalists and experts.
Partnership with the
GSI
Global Subsidies Initiative
Understanding the complexity of subsidies -- the jargon, rhetoric and figures -- and the effects they have on people, the environment and economies is a challenge for journalists. IPS is an independent media partner of the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), in a collaborative effort to raise the capacity of journalists to investigate the hidden impacts of government subsidies. The GSI, a programme of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), is a research-driven organisation that aims to put a spotlight on subsidies and the ways they can undermine efforts to put the world on a path toward sustainable development. The International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) is another GSI media and communications partner.
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SUBSIDIES DRIVE US CORN ETHANOL BOOM DESPITE MAJOR DRAWBACKS
by Mark Sommer
The fuel source the United States has chosen to start replacing petroleum, corn-based ethanol, is expensive, inefficient, and both environmentally and economically destructive, writes Mark Sommer, who hosts the award-winning, internationally-syndicated radio programme, ''A World of Possibilities''.


BIOFUELS: NO SILVER BULLET AGAINST FOSSIL FUELS
by Vicente Paolo Yu III
While increasing the proportion of biofuels in the fuel mix for motor vehicles is a step in the right direction, it is not the ''silver bullet'' that will break the world's dependence on fossil fuels, writes Vicente Paolo Yu III, coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme at the South Centre.


BIOFUELS: MORE BENEFITS THAN JUST ENERGY
by Supachai Panitchpakdi
Many economic, social, and environmental goals could be fulfilled by increased production, use, and international trade of biofuels, writes Supachai Panitchpakdi Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).


AFRICA, LATIN AMERICA AND THE BIOFUEL REVOLUTION
by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Biofuels should be at the centre of a planetary strategy to preserve the environment and spur sustainable development, writes Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil.


BUSH ALLIANCE WITH BRAZIL FOR CONTROL OF WORLD BIOFUEL MARKET
by Leonardo Boff
Anyone who thinks that President Bush's current tour of Latin America, and especially to Brazil, was inspired by the urgent warnings in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is dead wrong, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian liberation theologian and member of the International Committee of the Earth Charter.


THE SINISTER NEW BIOFUEL ALLIANCE
by Joao Pedro Stedile
The Landless Movement of Brazil and the international organisation Via Campesina condemn the new initiative of President George W. Bush, who in his upcoming trip to Latin America hopes to seduce and co-opt the countries of the region into becoming major producers of biofuels for export to the United States, writes Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of the Landless Movement of Brazil (MST) and Via Campesina Brazil.