Abstract
This chapter examines the impact of biofuels production on the enjoyment of the human right to food and the right of everyone to be free from hunger. It therefore explores whether and to what extent biofuel production has prejudiced or is likely in the future to prejudice the access to human food and whether there are any essential ethical concerns that can justify biofuel production even if it harms access to adequate and sufficient food to avoid hunger. The conclusions are that the biofuel production has indeed contributed and is soon likely to continue to weaken the access to adequate food or to the resources by which people, especially vulnerable people, can feed themselves.
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Notes
- 1.
United Nations Human Rights – Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2010), p. 2.
- 2.
Cfr FAO (2007).
- 3.
Benedict (2008).
- 4.
Bensalah-Alaoui (1989), p. 30.
- 5.
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1999), p. 5.
- 6.
Ibidem.
- 7.
United Nations Human Rights – Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2010), p. 3.
- 8.
Ibidem.
- 9.
Ibidem.
- 10.
Ibidem.
- 11.
Cfr United Nations Human Rights – Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2010), pp. 3–4.
- 12.
For an historical analysis of the concept of food security see FAO – Economic and Social Development Department (2003).
- 13.
United Nations (1975).
- 14.
FAO (1983).
- 15.
- 16.
FAO (1996).
- 17.
UN General Assembly (1948) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Paris, 10 December 1948, Article 25: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control”.
- 18.
UN General Assembly (1966) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right, 16 December 1966. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx.
- 19.
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1999), p. 2.
- 20.
Ibidem.
- 21.
UN Commission on Human Rights (2001), p. 7.
- 22.
FAO (2005).
- 23.
United Nations General Assembly (2015).
- 24.
FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (2017).
- 25.
- 26.
Ziegler (2002 [1999]), p. 17.
- 27.
Cfr Ziegler (2002 [1999]), p. 138.
- 28.
Ziegler (2007).
- 29.
ActionAid (2012a) Biofuelling hunger…, p. 5.
- 30.
For a short history of biofuels see Webb (2013).
- 31.
- 32.
High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) (2013).
- 33.
OECD (2007).
- 34.
Mitchel (2008).
- 35.
FAO (2009), p. 10.
- 36.
Deininger et al. (2011), p. 52.
- 37.
Actionaid (2013).
- 38.
Bowyer (2011).
- 39.
ActionAid (2010), p. 5.
- 40.
- 41.
European Commission (2007).
- 42.
Directive EU 2015/1513 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 amending Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32015L1513&from=IT. In these years, the majority of the EU Member States have implemented the Directive (EU) 2015/1513. With the Legislative Decree n. 51 of March 21, 2017, published on April 27, 2017 Italy adopted and transposed into its own legal system the ILUC Directive.
- 43.
European Commission (2016).
- 44.
United Nations General Assembly (2007), p. 8.
- 45.
UN independent rights expert calls for five-years freeze on biofuels production. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24434&Cr=food&Cr1=#.VsWUI_l6SM8.
- 46.
United Nations General Assembly (2008).
- 47.
Among all, see United Nations General Assembly (2014).
- 48.
Crutzen et al. (2008), pp. 389–395.
- 49.
Maturo (2011).
- 50.
UNEP – International Resource Panel, Working Group on Land and Soils (2014).
- 51.
IEA (2011).
- 52.
Gallagher (2008).
- 53.
Sensi (2015).
- 54.
Ziegler (2002 [1999]), p. 26.
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Cutazzo, M. (2018). The Impact of Biofuels on the Realization of the Human Right to Food. In: Isoni, A., Troisi, M., Pierri, M. (eds) Food Diversity Between Rights, Duties and Autonomies. LITES - Legal Issues in Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75196-2_17
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