About

The Food-Energy Nexus, Agro-fuels and Democracy:

Millions of people living in the so-called developing world starved as the price of food soared in 2007-2008. Globally, the poorest are broadly women and children of colour, who were among the hardest hit by the rising food prices. The drivers behind the latest food crises are complex with no single answer. But a range actors including the IMF, NGOs, FAO has correlated biofuels with food price increases. Other factors have also significantly contributed to food prices increases, such as increased demands for meat, supply dynamics, unseasonable droughts and rises in the price of oil.

It is the correlation between agro-fuels production and the recent food crisis that has led to a collective of academics, activists and NGOs to investigate the food-energy nexus. A food-energy nexus that has seen land and food rights undermined for many of the poor, for people of a particular race or caste, and for women and children of colour in the developing world.

The food-energy nexus raises many issues around gender, caste, race, poverty, climate change policies, land and food rights, and how green fuels, such as agro-fuels can undermine basic human rights – the rights to food and land. But it also raises deep concerns around democracy – who make the decisions that enable a food crisis? How and who are involved in the decision-making that leads to agro-fuels plantations? Are community consultations on agro-fuels balanced and inclusive?

In all of the analysis since the food crisis emerged one perspective was largely missing: the voices of the poor in the developing world and the poor in the developed world, indicating a democratic deficit. It is these narratives, around the livelihoods of the poor and marginalized that are missing in policy and the media accounts post the food crisis. It imperative, therefore, that a democratic safe platform is fostered that allow such voices to be heard on issues of food and land rights that are undermined by the food-energy nexus.

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Project Partners:

International Institute for Environment and Development:

http://www.iied.org/natural-resources/home

Anthra: http://www.anthra.org/

PEALS, Newcastle University: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/peals/

Yakshi: Web site under construction