I had a hearty laugh while reading Santiago declines Zubiri’s challenge to debate on biofuels. Apparently, Zubiri, who is an alumnus of UPLB, is only looking on one side of the coin and is not doing his homework that Miriam wants him to have a debate with her 1 month old granddaughter!
What's happening now: The price of corn and soya are on the record high because of biofuels. In the US where most of the world supply of soya comes from, farmers are shifting to corn instead of planting soya because of the increased demand of corn for the production of bioethanol. This decreased by a big percentage the area planted with soya. This affects Filipinos because we rely on US soya for the protein needs of our pigs and our chicken because US soya is better in terms of quality compared with those coming from South America and Asia. This is due to the better post-harvest facilities that they have in the US and their efficient transportation system. This affects all of us because we love to eat pork chop and chicken barbecue. It's our main source of protein and we need protein to live and function normally. So there.
Dr. Michel, who recently visited the Philippines has cautioned the government against rushing into biofuel development because he thinks that there is very little energy to be gained from it. This is true because planting crops for fuel would directly reduce the hectares that would be planted with crops for food both for human and animals. The overall economic impact of this may be negative because for one, Jathropa could not be eaten!