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Food or Fuel?

Bullfrog Films • 27m

Directed by Christine Kinyanjui • Documentary • 2013 • 29 minutes

While Africa is short of food, the world is running short of fuel. Until now the fuels that power prosperity have been mostly coal, oil and gas. But these fossil fuels can pollute, and are running short, whereas new technology means cars, even power grids, can run on fuels from crops like ethanol from corn or sugar cane. It's been estimated world demand for biofuels over 20 years will need an area one and a half times the size of Kenya.

Kenyan Farmer and campaigner Moses Shaha is cynical about biofuels. He journeys through the Tana Delta, where farmers are starting to grow jatropha, a biofuel crop, to understand if is a threat to farming land and food security as he fears, or if biofuels can in fact inspire innovation and help the environment long-term.

Tags
africa, african studies, agriculture and food, agroecology, area studies, bedford biofuels, biofuels, bullfrog films, business, clifford spencer, david pimentel, doc, eirik trondsen, energy, energy africa, environment, ethanol, ethanol from corn, ethanol from sugar can, expository, farming, food, food or fuel?, food production, food security, fossil fuels, fuel, globalization, ifad, innovation, jatropha, joel ruhu, kanayo nwanze, kenya, labor and economics, lorna omuodo, marginal lands, moses shaha, ovid, ovid_ca, pollution, s_0009, s_0089, s_0105, s_0126, s_0263, s_0303, s_0358, s_0636, sociology, sub-saharan africa, tana delta, thomson sinkala, title_defgh, title_f, united nations foundation, vanilla jatropha foundation, world regions

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