Global backlash hits biofuels

DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Researchers say a recent backlash against biofuels could overshadow their positive effects and damage their future, a U.S.-based group reports.

"Biofuels do have the potential to herald in a brighter, more sustainable future -- if they are developed wisely," said Raya Widenoja, biofuels researcher with the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute, an environmental group.

The backlash against biofuels began early this year with reports of Brazilians forced to work in near-slave labor conditions to help keep down the cost of ethanol production from corn, the Des Moines Register reported Saturday.

Scientist Jane Goodall has said the rush to grow biofuels is threatening primate habitat in Uganda and Indonesia, while in Colombia peasants report being forced from their land to make room for palm oil plantations.

Widenoja said researchers worry the backlash could threaten critical funding for the next generation of biofuels that could cool the climate and boost developing economies by using, for example, locally grown algae rather than corn and soybeans, the Register reported.