sustainable pinoy

false green: marketing is fun with the word green around

2008-07-31T10:28:00.006+08:00

We remember Isabel Roces for endorsing vegetarianism whilst wearing dress made of cabage. Here, she endorses a dud.

Recently, lameness has further invaded the advertising landscape. Companies and products that are anything but sustainable have been taking advantage of rising environmental concern to brandish the idea of "green" around. Here are some that have been making me laugh.

C2 by Universal Robina, Inc.

C2 drinks (meaning "Cool and Clean")-- sugar bombs with green tea extract-- have been running "Green is in" advertisements, featuring models Robby Mananquil and Isabel Roces. Packaged and printed on plastic, using toxic tarpaulins to advertise, shipped miles away, made from imported and harmful ingredients. Green, for sure, riiight. To quote Jacob Weisberg on the global green tea hooplah, C2's exploiting the eco-wave is made possible "partly because green tea had the good sense to have the word green as part of its name".

Saying these things are "less bad" than softdrinks is hardly enough. Putting some "green tea extracts" in a mixture of water, sugar, coloring and preservative definitely does a healthy drink make.

Green is in! Green is the color of our bottle, the color of my shirt, and my background. That's all, k thanks.

Universal Robina runs a campaign called "C2 Life", which includes some "relaxation and rejuvenation" spin. They use yoga and tai-chi at their events to create a completely false brand image. It is all marketing rubbish. C2 is not healthy, nor is it green. It's just like any other commercial softdrink, only not carbonated and with a useless smattering of green tea extract.

Heck, it's made by a company that makes MSG-filled noodles, Chippy, and generally any kind of junk food you can think of. They sell low-priced products to large markets as substitutes for real nutrition. Universal Robina has likewise been cited for improperly disposing of their smelly and toxic manufacturing waste. C2 requires petrochemicals and a lot of fuel for manufacturing and distribution. They use recyclable PET bottles, but do not recycle these, as they use "virgin bottles only".

Go for water or fruit juice, or even organic coffee. Brew your own tea. Don't fall for their faux health and green claims.

Links:
PET bottle ban urged to protect environment
Can green tea save your soul?

BUM Equipment by BUM Equipment, Inc.

Clueless dancing.

A pair of girls hugging each other. A vine creeps up on one side of the billboard, while on the right hand corner it is proclaimed: "Green rocks". Nothing more.

questions about food security

2008-07-21T22:49:00.008+08:00

Cheap food is endangered?

Is it sufficient (talking national food security strategies), to know that we still have enough money to import food from other countries?

Global food systems are in peril because conventional agriculture is oil-dependent both input-wise and distribution-wise.

We are only one of the many countries that have taken cheap food for granted and made them part of our food security strategies.

We have less money than a lot of them. When push comes to shove, they'll pay higher prices, we'll lose out.

Now, ask yourself this: Is it enough that we, as a metropolis, have the same strategy for our food security? We still have enough money to import from the provinces, but how smart is this strategy? How long will it hold up?

law, order, and sustainable development

2008-07-17T01:18:00.007+08:00

Kotong kop gives me a lecture about how to conduct myself in public.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a run-in with a policeman in Manila. His group was on the prowl for some traffic offenders willing to cough up cash instead of their license (one of them was our taxi driver).

I was taking a photo of this policeman while he was "directing traffic" (waving his arms), admittedly just to see what he would do. I often do this to policemen and soldiers (and royal guards) around the world.

He accosted me and brandished his policeness around like a macho moustache. He demanded to see ID, stopped me from getting back in the taxi, etc. I tried to explain that taking photos of public servants in public places is not illegal. He told me I needed permission.

At first, it was quite clear that he was afraid I would go to the media with reports of their extortion. Afterwards, he went on about how he needs privacy, he has a family to protect from the potential madmen that commissioned me to take his photo. Pretty loony.

The issue of police corruption is tied in with poverty. With barely enough salary to make it through, officers need to support their families and fight crime. Many are below the poverty threshold. The force itself is cash-strapped and the costs and the bureaucracy has run away with the spoon.

I worked with the police for a year. And though we may see the policemen as constant antagonists, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of peace and order in a sustainable society. It is because we lack a competent and independent police force that a lot of social and environmental initiatives do not move forward.

When a police force does not have enough capacity to give its officers basic training on how to conduct itself around the public or the media, that's significant trouble. When a police officer makes a claim that he fears for his life because someone is taking his picture, we know that it's pretty much a case of karapatan de papel here-- the PNP generally has no capacity to protect non-high-profile people.

At a very local level, how can we exercise freedom of speech if we can't be protected from those who may want to shut us up? Can we openly talk about corruption at the barangay level? Can we contest rigged elections? Even sanggunian kabataan officials use force to intimidate the youth. And sadly, even police officers are afraid of force from "private" armies or hired guns. Oftentimes, they simply do not have the capacity to deal.

Getting the police force to demilitarize its psychology, acquainting them with the citizenry, and paying them adequately, and educating them on human rights should be a priority for every local government. Of course, peace and order is only part of peace as a whole. However, it is an important part, an assurance to people that their rights can be upheld by the state. We in civil society need to see the PNP as strange bedfellows.

what comes after green?

2008-07-15T20:58:00.006+08:00

A world without garbage cans?

WorldChanging has a good thought-provoking bit called "Imagine What Comes After Green".

We can see on the horizon the silhouette of something incredibly hopeful and exciting: a world of people whose boundless creativity within natural limits uplifts humanity and remakes civilization to be first sustainable, even restorative. This crisis could end up being the greatest opportunity of our generation.

Got me pretty excited! Some of their "imagined futures":

Imagine no sidewalks.

Imagine living in a compact community where people own the streets; where kids play, friends sit sipping coffee and cars move slowly when they move at all. It's not a pipe dream. In cities around the world, good design is producing vibrant, compact urban neighborhoods where streets are used as public living rooms and life without a car is made easy. So the next time you're waiting to cross a busy street, imagine a city where people, not cars, come first. Imagine no sidewalks.

Imagine no storm sewers.
Imagine communities where rain is used to grow gardens and wash clothes, instead of being channeled underground through massive tunnels, carrying oil and garbage from our streets into our rivers and waters. It’s not a pipe dream, Rainwater harvesting and natural drainage systems are already making storm sewers a thing of the past. So the next time you step over a puddle at the curb, imagine instead a rain barrel in the yard. Imagine no storm sewers.

Imagine no hurry.
Imagine no hectic deadlines, frantic commutes, meals on the go, or interrupted vacations. Imagine having more time. It’s not a pipe dream. Living more sustainably, in more compact communities with more innovative tools will save us enormous amounts of time that we waste today -- time that we can use to spend with our family and friends. So the next time you find yourself grabbing food at the drive-thru, imagine a world where you have time for a long lunch with friends. Imagine no hurry.

While "green" thinking is still rediscovering its legs in the Philippines, I wonder if we can come with our own unique vision of our future. Or even small "imagines" that are both informed by best practices from around the world and ideas from our own context.

Testing the country's first electric tricycle at Puerto Princesa.

What will our archipelagic nature have to do with it? How different will our sustainable cities look from others'? How do we create powerful visions that also address poverty? When will we lose the need to even regulate? Start dreaming :)

a ramble on reuse

2008-07-08T22:16:00.015+08:00

A chair made of an old wooden frame and a used sack. It's comfy, I sat in for a bit.

Reuse is very nice. It's my second favorite R, next to Reduce. You give a product a new shot at life, not wasting its embodied energy. Let's talk about reusing everyday stuff.

We're familiar with this. When printing stuff, it's not uncommon to go "ay, mali!!", flip the paper over, and use the other side. We reuse mineral water bottles, though apparently there are health risks. (Occasionally, someone on the street will think about the environment, take the liberty to refill a beverage bottle, and sell it to us as a new one.)

This is common-- maxing out the useful life of a product that is intended to be fairly disposable (what isn't these days), using it more or less for its original purpose. This is the best kind of reusing, as it results in a reduction of overall waste. Gets? I'm rejecting something (like packaging, for example), because I brought my own, thank you very much. Buying secondhand stuff is also a form of reuse.

I bring water around in a glass bottle. It doesn't make that annoying pisat sound, and you can leave it by a hot sunny window and not fear melted plastic. The only drawback is that people on the street think I am an alcoholic.

Other times, we reuse an item in ways very different from the original intended purpose. We've seen it all over the Philippines-- tires becoming flower pots, slippers becoming doormats, bottles becoming hanging plant containers, juice packs becoming bags, plastic cups becoming art sculptures, plastic cups becoming fiesta decorations, tarpaulins becoming tricycle mudguards, basketball stars becoming actors, actors becoming presidents... the list is endless.

Bags out of juice packs.

This is often good, because when you reuse something, you keep it out of the waste stream. It benefits us only because so many of the things we make (like plastic bags, plastic sheets, and more plastic things) are dead-end products. They have no acceptable "death" that won't make us (or the environment) sick. This is totally contrary to the natural world, where there is no such thing as waste, and keeping something out of the waste steam means losing a chance to fertilize the soil.

In other words, when we use these things, we keep them out of landfills or piles of burning basura. The questions therefore is, how long until we figure out what to do with them? What happens when you are tired of people making fun of you for wearing a hat made of Zesto packs? What happens when a jeep whose seats are stuffed with Stork wrappers meets the end of its useful life?

In one more possible instance, reusing products can actually affect the waste situation in a negative way. This usually happens when you are keeping something out of the recycling stream.

For instance, I was once in a composting seminar in the States, and the lady told us to put everything in your compost pit: phone bills, phone books, old love letters, newspapers, everything! Years later, after sharing this incident with a fellow composting Filipino, I got a stern counterprescription. "Ibigay mo na sa mga recycler yan. Pararamihin mo lang yung pinuputol na puno,", he said. "Kung gusto mong carbon sa compost mo, dahon na lang ang gamitin mo."

So, if stuff can be recycled, or if destroying them can result in even more consumption of materials, don't reuse them. For example, you smash a jar in just so you can tie broken glass to your kite and kitefight (as the kids here do). Your mom then has to go out to Divisoria to buy a new glass container for her homemade burong mangga.

Even if the bubog magically ends up being recycled (and it probably won't), we'll still need additional energy to transport it to the factory, wash the pieces, make new glass with it, and distribute it to consumers. Add to this the energy your mom spends going to Divisoria. So, although glass (unlike paper and plastic) is one of the few materials that doesn't suffer from degradation when recycled, you could have just not broken it, and caused any more energy expenditure or consternation, you naughty boy!

Here's another example. This man is making plastic decorations out of old soft drink bottles (with flowers made of old straws). Just a pity to think that if he were alive two hundred years ago or in another place, he would not be scavenging around for bottles and straws, but using readily available renewable plant resources.

I have his contact details, if you want them.

While he is proving himself to be an amazingly creative person, he is actually keeping the bottles from being recycled. In a sense, he is "trapping" the material in a certain state, when it would actually be most useful as input for a new bottle. As a result, more plastic will have to be created.

Creating softdrink bottles requires importing a lot of resins, sheets, and etc. The production process itself creates a lot of industrial waste, of which only around 10% is recycled back in. Recycling requires a mix of both "virgin" and recovered material.

Probably out of a Pepsi bottle.

True, it is probably better to make a softdrink bottle into an ornament, rather than a repository for cigarette butts in your dorm room. And true, the man doesn't probably even register as a blip in the whole materials scene. But please nobody take his business model and go crazy with it.

Probably out of a Sprite bottle.

While it's fun, buying re-fashioned materials made of trash may not always be the best thing to do (especially if they are non-biodegradable at the end of their useful life). It only draws our attention away from the scandalous fact that some companies are allowed to make and distribute products that don't break down in nature. In a way, it helps keep us from realizing the true extent of our waste problem.

Furthermore, people's livelihoods become dependent on resources that aren't even supposed to be around in the first place. It gives birth to business models that rely on the continued production of trash. At best, it's a stop-gap measure.

Reduction pa rin.

weeds respond to climate change, scientists listen

2008-07-08T09:30:00.008+08:00

An invasive vine eats up our mango tree and some sugarcane.

The New York Times recently ran a story called "Can Weeds Help Solve The Climate Crisis?". It's an insightful poking force reminding people to keep their eyes wide open for solutions everywhere.

The Philippines, in particular, lacks the long written history that says how communities and people dealt cheaply and effectively with strange climactic and social conditions. We need to be looking around, getting creative, and not relying on outside research like we usually do. Pass-the-message won't be quick enough, even in this digital age. And we can't assume that scientists will know the answers for our situations.

(Actually, we've hardly any adaptation measures in place. Can you read that last sentence again? Isn't it scary?)

The author tells us that weeds might actually be performing a hyper-function now that our planet is getting less and less healthy. Weeds and fast-growing trees are actually pioneer plants that grow fast, die fast, decompose fast, and speedily make the soil richer. I see this as the planet's urgent frenzy to reforest itself.

Here's a little tidbit from the article:

Not only did the weeds grow much larger in hotter, CO2-enriched plots — a weed called lambs-quarters, or Chenopodium album, grew to an impressive 6 to 8 feet on the farm but to a frightening 10 to 12 feet in the city — but the urban, futuristic weeds also produced more pollen. Even more alarming was the way that the increased heat and CO2 accelerated and perverted the succession of species within the plots. Typically, a cleared area in the Eastern United States, if left to itself, returns to native woodland. This process varies with the site and circumstances, but in its archetypical form fast-growing annual weeds cover the soil first, playing the role of what ecologists classify as “pioneer plants.” These gradually give way to longer-lived perennial weeds, which are in turn replaced by shrubs and trees.
In the natural version of this process, the pioneers and their successors are species indigenous to the area, and the woodland’s restoration takes decades. But what Ziska observed in his urban plots was ecology on amphetamines, a nearly completed succession to trees by the end of five years, with a domination by invasive weed trees of the most troublesome sort: ailanthus, Norway maples and mulberries. Five years after the creation of the plots, the biggest ailanthus in the rural test site measured about five feet tall. The city site boasted a 20-footer. The suburban plot was following the city’s lead, though it lagged a couple of years behind.

And a funny excerpt towards the end:

(There is one exception, Ziska admits; his Web searches have revealed that marijuana growers have an amazingly detailed knowledge of how CO2 enrichment affects their crop. But as Ziska points out, they don’t publish in scientific journals.)

are you rich enough to buy organic?

2008-07-07T09:14:00.006+08:00

As I was walking through a weekend market that shall remain unnamed, I was shocked by the lack of progress that the organic "movement" has received in the past few years.

Things are still packaged in plastic, stocks look pretty much old. Product development has sort of taken its sweet time and is possibly doing the equivalent of lazing around in a hammock.

Don't get me wrong, hammocks are great, but now is a pivotal time! Isn't it? People are caring about health, the environment is just blowing up all over every broadsheet and press release of everything.

Gas is getting more expensive. Organic should be getting more viable locally (not just for export). I hope we see a lot of changes in the future, with more farmers coming forward-- not just the usual middlemen.

I can't wait until some sort of tipping point.

musings on green building and the new (non-romantic) indigenous

2008-07-06T08:11:00.014+08:00

For relaxing times, make it bahay-kubo times.

Green building is at its infancy in the Philippines.

Not entirely true though. Unlike many developed countries, we do not have to look to our history books for several prototypes of energy-efficient, well-lit, low-impact (or positive-impact) houses made from local materials.

"Together we will transform the market", a pragmatic approach to changing a slow and gigantic industry. At the recent Building Green exhibit in Glorietta held by the Philippine Green Building Council.

Rural areas are still dotted with bahay kubo, bahay na bato, and other forms of homes that have been eschewed in city centers in favor of the boxier, stuffier, and less attractive energy-sucking buildings. Of course, there are many modern green buildings using non-renewable materials, those are excellent, but I want to focus on our homegrown examples.

Many new real estate developments lure people with promises of homes that are "Tuscan" or "from the French countryside". Often a trip down one such gated community makes you feel like you're in a parallel universe, only it's Disneyland-- completely artificial and slightly comical. Visit the same place again four years later and you will find that our tropical forces have weathered the materials down, the paint is peeling off, weeds are growing where they are supposed to grow, etc.

Live like a king in Versailles, Alabang. Wait, there is no more king in Versailles, engots.

Not romanticism, but practicality, should motivate our consumers, architects, and contractors to examine our living testaments of thousands of years of evolution, as they are a valuable source of ideas and information. First of all, they have evolved to fit our unique context and resources, with regional variations adapted to suit further nuances. Second, they are a peek into a structure created before the oiliness of the past few generations. Third, other countries are taking the lead in promoting use of "updated" versions of our materials, we should join in on the action. Fourth, it sucks to live in a city where ventilation is endangered.

Augusto Villalon, a longtime voice of sustainable architecture and heritage, outlines very briefly evolution of building in the Philippines. Sadly, after World War II, constructions no longer reflected context. The now-ubiquitous structures with little lighting and circulation (think hellish office), and completely dependent on air-conditioning are obviously no longer built with lessons from indigenous architecture.

Materials

When I talk of indigenous, I don't mean the romanticized nativeness, but appropriate. Before dirty energy became cheap, lives were dictated by the unique materials, resources, and climate of their regions. In this way, they were appropriate, not (always) trying to be different, but just being practical. They lived the smarter way, less dependent on outside resources. There was a time when materials self-sufficiency was sometimes present at a family level!

Bamboo is used only to make scaffolding at the big, dark monster that is the Pasay City Hall.

These days, there are contentions with using formerly appropriate materials. Apparently, for most people, nipa, cogon, bamboo, wood, and other renewable materials have become too costly to use and continually replace. Materials that were once cheap (or free) are now unreasonable. Instead of making people change their minds and turn to using imports, let's ask ourselves why it has become expensive to build local.

Our tropical environment is one of much life and quick cycles. Materials enjoy speedy and abundant growth (but the weather decomposes them inevitably at faster rates than in temperate countries). You can see it as a curse, or an advantage. It's really only a curse when you don't have the foresight to grow a replacement set of materials once your old one goes away. Then, in effect, you are not harvesting materials, but mining them.

The New Indigenous

To survive this era, our generation has the unique challenge of opening up and re-localizing simultaneously. New ideas are being created and shared around the world at an unprecedented rate. On the other hand, we are faced with dwindling resources and a risk of homogenization.

The New Indigenous requires openness to ideas, as well as the intelligence to filter out those that don't make sense in the local context (old practices notwithstanding). The New Indigenous isn't against the modern-- he/she just believes that all the diversity of climate, terrain and culture in the world cannot result in just one or two ways of building and living. The New Indigenous is after an appropriate version of modernity.

As our soft human flesh calls for protection, shelter was the obvious answer, and our homes become extensions of ourselves. Not to be alarmist, but if we find ourselves in a time when imports are too expensive, and local materials are destroyed... do you want to be caught naked in the rain? (Don't answer that question :).)

Links:
How green is my building?
Is there a Modern Filipino style?
Cradle to Crade Design

random plastic reduction tips

2008-07-04T02:36:00.008+08:00

Quezon Avenue MRT Station bathroom gives people clever ideas.

Tip #1: Instead of using plastic bags to line your garbage cans (and some people really say they collect supot just for that!), use newspaper.

Ashtray? Bowl? Maracas? Coconut-shell bikini? The possibilities are endless and exciting.

Tip #2: When you buy niyog, have them put the grated coconut meat back where it came from-- inside the shell! Not only will you refuse plastic, you can make stuff out of the bao.

the week in fruit pesticide

2008-07-03T15:22:00.012+08:00

"100% natural, health-giving, delicious refreshment. Has phytochemicals to help fight certain cancers." Did we mention the neurotoxic hormone disruptors?

These past two weeks brought about several stories that should raise some eyebrows about the things we eat. There is good news in there. Smile!

In a nutshell, the past policies and expert prescriptions pushing for vast monocultures (here I am again talking about monocultures) and chemical-intensive farming are starting to prove to be too expensive, precarious, and harmful to the Filipino people.

So let's dream a little: When can we finally not even have to ask if we're eating pollution?

Endosulfan in Pineapples

On June 21, typhoon Fengshen brought us the incredible sinking ferry M/V Princess of the Stars. Before we knew it, the search for hundreds of dead passengers was aborted upon finding ten metric tons of endosulfan on board. This dangerous cargo was bound for the pineapple plantations of Del Monte in Bukidnon in Northern Mindanao. The company allegedly did not declare the contents to the shippers, Sulpicio Lines.

Pineapples probably become quite bored in large monocultures, and need drugs like endosulfan to keep them amused.

The "highly acutely toxic" pesticide is banned in the EU and other nations. It bioaccumulates-- meaning, it doesn't break down. Say, if you eat a fish that ingested endosulfan, it could still cause poisoning to you. The Philippines had it banned it until 1993, when there was some kind of disease that put our pineapple export industry in peril.

Today, the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority says, endosulfan is banned, but giants Del Monte and Dole are given "institutional exemption".

So when a storm strikes and the goods (or should I say "bads") sink, who takes the blame? Sulpicio points to Del Monte, Del Monte points to government. Government says you have to be an "accredited corporate institution" and not just any farmer in order to use endosulfan. And how did their legal entity help prevent situations like this?

Meanwhile, as the argument goes around in circles, there is a fishing ban in Sibuyan, those who violate it are unable to sell their fish due to fear of contamination, people are going quite hungry over there. Whether the cargo has seeped out or not, great damage has been done, and the chemicals will have to end up somewhere-- either on the fields or some toxic dumpsite, merrily bioaccumulating away.

And thus the question remaining in my head is: why are companies like Bayer "CropScience" still even allowed to produce poisons like this? I say shine the light on the brand name and let them know they're not welcome here-- and on our plates.

Links:
50 NGOs push for ban on endosulfan
Sibuyan Island fishermen ignore fishing ban (video)
Agri chief defends use of endosulfan

Davao Banana Spray Ban Constitutional

Davao's solicitor-general has ruled that the current ban on fungicide spraying is constitutional. This followed some questioning by Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) on the validity of the ruling, spurred by perhaps nightmares of a pest takeover.

Unlike those in question, these bananas are constitutional.

Aerial spraying of fungicides has been banned in Davao since 2007, after thirty years of widespread use. Villagers are no longer caught in the hazardous "drift" that gives them pulmonary and skin disorders. Other crops like coconut, which suffered a drops as large as 50% due to a mass migration of pests from banana plants, can now recover.

We commend Davao City for standing its ground, and placing importance on villagers' first-hand accounts over "expert" witnesses by the PBGEA. One such hilarious example was Richard Billington, "Human Health Leader" from Dow AgroSciences, who was arguing the safety points of carcinogen mancozeb.

Links:
Aerial spraying issue turns seesaw court battle
Interface Development Interventions- a blog about the Davao spraying happenings

Demand for Local Organic Fertilizer Up As Oil Prices Soar

Here's some encouraging news that once again proves that old Chinese saying about crisis and opportunity.

Because a lot of fertilizers and pesticides are petroleum-based (and shipped using petroleum), increasing prices have begun to make small farmers reconsider organic farming.

Organic fertilizer produced by a farmers' coop in Mindoro.

Small organic fertilizer producers are reporting an increase in demand for their products, which are produced locally from readily available resources and are easily transportable. A few that I've spoken to are faced with demand exceeding their capacity.

Now, national and local groups and governments can either cry about their failure to prepare for such demand, or get started in meeting it. In fact, I'd like to address this challenge to the whole entire complete planet.

Links:
Rising prices argue for local, organic

food vs. fuel? biofuel production in the philippines

2008-07-02T09:31:00.012+08:00

Sugar in your gas tank.

I've heard environmentalists battle it out pretty violently over biofuel. While I'm happy to say that there have not been any heads ripped off just yet, surely some form of explanation on the "hot issue" is enough to get your mind running.

Global food production must increase 50% by 2030, according to the UN Secretary General. At the same time, the FAO warns that increase in global temperatures can cause crop yields around the world to decrease by as high as 35%.

Meanwhile, organizations like Oxfam (and the usually conservative IMF!) are giving us a picture on the impact of biofuels on the world. Global food costs are pushed up by 30%. Biofuel policies in OECD countries have already pushed 30 million people into poverty.

While we are left data-less again in the Philippines (it's not there, or we can't find it), we can pretty much guess the possible impact on us. We know that oil prices are skyrocketing, and in return, food prices (which include transport costs, along with expenses for chemical fertilizer and pesticide, which are mostly petroleum-based) are becoming pretty exorbitant.

Rep. Roilo Golez says biofuels can drive beer prices up. Panik!

The Philippines has one of the lowest levels of agricultural productivity in Southeast Asia, and we've been importing rice since the 1800's. Even without biofuels, our food systems have already been under stress. On the other hand, efficient and cheap transport is essentially linked to distribution and spoilage issues. Because food is either imported or grown outside city centers, we are affected by every gas price hike.

So what impact will biofuels have on this? Sure, we won't be subject to rising oil prices. But as our population swells, and we'll need more and more land to grow food. This means less land for fuel plants. Will we end up suffering from the same kind of "price squeeze" that we are experiencing with oil? What if we end up importing biofuels from mega-producers such as Brazil?

And it's not just food consumption that grows with population-- as we continue to make poorly designed cities and ignore the potentials that high population has for effective public transportation, fuel consumption for mobility's sake will continue to increase.

To meet these needs without relying too much on the volatile oil market, our government plans to attain 60% energy self-sufficiency by 2010. They are doing this by encouraging biofuel production mostly from sugarcane and jatropha. Each potential crop has its own issues to contend with.

For instance, jatropha needs a lot of land and water to produce a financially viable amount of oil. And like food crops, anything planted in large monocultures will require a lot of resources-- energy, chemicals, water-- and will ultimately be environmentally destructive.

Personally, I feel that biofuels may have their use in replacing fossil fuels. We need to exlore if small-scale production of biofuels may be harmonized with local food production and processing. Otherwise, the large biofuel monster replace the large petroleum monster. The only justifiable place that biofuel can hold for me is in small-scale production for more varied energy uses.

However, there are far more pressing questions that have to do with how we get around, and how we plan our cities.

Should we keep planning our cities with cars in mind, or should we start making walkable, mixed-use areas that allow people to choose not to live with cars? Should we develop local economies and stop farmers and producers from surviving only be exporting to far-flung centers? Should we invest in making more fuel to power the growing number of cars, or create better public transport to decrease the purchase and use of cars?

One can almost imagine a "clean and green city" with millions of cars running on biofuel. The invisible part is that, somewhere else, land for food production is shrinking every year to accommodate increasing production of "clean fuel". Things are not so simple. Renewable does not necessarily mean sustainable.

Links:
DOST says 5M hectares of jatropha is needed
Rethinking biofuels in the Philippines
Pinoy love for cars stronger amid fuel price hikes