Thursday, July 03, 2008

Barilla Calls US/EU Bio Fuel Policy "Madness"

The ANNOTICO Report

 

About a year ago, some of you must have thought I had gone off my "rocker" when in one of my Reports, I called the idea of turning Food into Fuel "insane".

 

OK, now that Barilla is saying it, maybe now you'll believe me. It is galactically stupid, to drive the price of food up, in a world with so many starving, and so many people living in poverty, rather than seek alternative forms of energy.

 

Maybe cornstalks and native grasses, and maybe even sugar cane when there is a glut,........... but grains,  ?????   Super Dum.

BARILLA CALLS EU/US BIOFUEL POLICY 'MADNESS'

ANSA 'Milan,

July 1,2008

Italian pasta multinational Barilla has branded the polices of the European Union and the United States to use wheat to produce biofuels as ''madness''.

Speaking at the presentation of the group's 2007 budget, chairman Guido Barilla added that politicians championing the use of grains to produce the green fuel were acting on a ''populist logic'' and that this situation risked provoking a global crisis because of soaring prices for wheat and other commodities generally used as food staples.

''The (Italian) government should seek information on the situation from people who know about agriculture and food and explain the problem to the EU,'' Barilla said.

During Tuesday's presentation, the head of the world's biggest pastamaker said that Barilla had been forced to boost prices by 40% over the past year and a half to compensate for rocketing grain prices.

The Barilla group's 2007 balance sheet saw turnover climb by 3.4% over the previous year to 4.2 billion euros, while the group's consolidated debt fell 178 million euros to  1.26 billion euros.

 

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