和訳お願いしますT T
Most people may not know about the cassava root, but it has been an
important ingredient in making ice cream, tapioca pudding, and paper.
Recently, it has taken on new uses such as animal feed and also biofuel. The
use of cassava chips has increased fourfold since 2008, and as a result, the
price has doubled. China has become a huge importer of the product due to its
greater use of nonfossil fuels.
These biofuels are primarily based on corn, sugar and palm oil along with
cassava. As the prices rise, farmers are less likely to produce food crops which
do not earn as much, so in a continent such as Africa, biofuel farming can
quickly lead to famine. A second issue with cassava has been maintaining a
stable price. When the prices rose too quickly, developers in the Philippines
and Cambodia were forced to suspend the construction of cassava bioethanol
plants as it became too unprofi table to produce the fuel. It was further noted
that Thailand’s own biofuel industry would even have trouble getting enough
homegrown cassava as the Thai biofuel producers may not be able to match the
prices by Chinese buyers.
But as more farmland is used to produce these fuels, there is less farmland
to grow vegetables and hay to feed cows and other animals. As a result, rising
food prices have been the norm throughout 2010, 2011, and 2012. These price
rises, which have been made even worse due to financial speculation and poor
harvests, have contributed to political instability and riots in the Middle
East. The problem has become so serious that the World Bank found that from
October 2010 to January 2011, prices increased 15 percent, and this pushed 44
million people, who were at low-and middle-income levels, into poverty. During
the last half of 2010 the price of corn rose 73 percent in the United States.
Timothy Searchinger, a Princeton University research scholar, stated, “The
fact that cassava is being used for biofuel in China, rapeseed is being used
in Europe, and sugar cane elsewhere is definitely creating a shift in demand
curves. Biofuels are contributing to higher prices and tighter markets.” The
increased reliance on biofuels has led to more governmental regulations.
The U.S. Congress has declared that biofuel use must reach 36 billion
gallons a year by 2022. Likewise the European Union stipulated that 10
percent of fuel used in cars and trucks must be based on renewable sources
by 2020. Yet it seems clear that the best policy really has to be food first. In
short, the future, as always, is balanced on the two most important issues for
the human race: food and energy.
ちなみに、これは公開されているものなので、違法な添付ではありません。
どうかよろしくお願いします。
お礼
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