Of Ukraine's total land area of 60 million hectares, roughly 42 million is classified as agricultural land... Between 1991 and 2000, sown area dropped by about 5 percent, from 32.0 million hectares to 30.4 million
All in all, CIS doesn't seem to be able to offer surplus production for much more than 5% of European consumption, even in the best-case scenario... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Plus, why should Russia provide the EU's biofuels? Who is the EU to decide what Russia should do with its fallow land? Why should Russia consume its topsoil to then burn the product? When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
... a wait a minute, there might be a different set of motivations for net producers and net consumers. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
As AMcF has noted - and increase in bio-fuels has resulted in increased prices for foodstuffs which has made farming in Sub S.saharan Africa more economic and resulted in growing output. Agriculture has long been the neglected legacy industry of post-industrial and even third world economies and now it is becoming centre stage again. The problem is when this impacts on wild-life habitats and Rainforests etc. - but presumably this doesn't apply to the same extent in the east European steppes. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
I thought the extension of the steppe / prairie / pampas / plains into the Ukraine was what that short lass that won Eurovision a couple years back was stomping around about. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
The markets that small scale farmers in Africa need are not the fictitious markets in fictitious commodities, but real, actual, markets, with regulated weights and measures and protection of contracts, and secure access to a transport route to ship out a crop surplus to customers outside the local district. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
A sad commentary on the joys of human "rationality" and our religious devotion to magical market thinking without somehow managed to factor out the ecological impact of our depredations. Ancient civilisations made a God out of nature and we decry their barbarity, but have we been that much wiser when we ourselves became the masters of nature and proclaimed our subjugation of those Gods? "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
