Author: Pablo Bachelet

Source: Miami Herald 

Jeb Bush, Inter American Development Bank chief Luis Alberto Moreno and Roberto Rodrigues, Brazil's agriculture minister until 2006, have teamed up to form the Interamerican Ethanol Commission -- a venture they hope will not only make Latin American farmers richer but unite countries around a feel-good theme.

The three spoke at a jam-packed Inter American Development Bank seminar on biofuels this week as part of a public relations campaign in favor of fuels made from renewable resources, like ethanol made from sugar cane, corn or other farm products.

The event was organized before Cuban leader Fidel Castro wrote two Granma newspaper editorials panning the U.S.-led ethanol push as a recipe for starving the world's 3 billion poor people. But the food vs. fuel debate was clearly on everybody's mind.

Rodrigues, a farmer-turned-ethanol spokesman, pointed out that Brazil uses only 7.4 million acres for sugar cane that goes to make ethanol. But the country had 543 million acres of pastures, of which 54 million would be available for ethanol-producing sugar cane.

Improvements in yield and technology means that Brazil, already the world's second biggest ethanol producer after the United States, could increase its ethanol output 16 times without affecting food production or sacrificing the Amazon jungle, he said.

Asked about the Castro editorial, Jeb Bush said its assertion was ``bizarre.''

Bush said the Brazilian numbers show there's plenty of land to ensure no one goes hungry, but he warned that if U.S. makers produce ethanol solely from corn, ``it would create significant problems with (cattle and other) feed prices.''

DUTY-FREE IMPORTS

His solution: allow the importation of Brazilian ethanol, duty-free, instead of charging a 54 cent-a-gallon tariff.

Brazil and the United States are working to expand biofuel production and consumption in the hemisphere by setting up pilot programs in places like Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Honduras. Lula da Silva has criticized the ethanol tariff, but President Bush has said it would stay, for now.

To assess the biofuel potential in the hemisphere, the bank commissioned a study by David Rothkopf, a consultant on emerging markets.

''Latin America and the Caribbean can be the Persian Gulf of biofuels,'' Rothkopf told the gathering. The Western Hemisphere, he said, produces 80 percent of the world's biofuels.

Some places with big potential include Peru, with the highest sugar cane yield per acre in the world, Chile with its big wood-chip industry, and Argentina, a big grower of soybeans that is developing a cost-effective biofuel industry.

''There's not a country that is served by the IDB that's not an opportunity,'' Rothkopf said.

Moreno said Latin America stood at a ''transformative moment,'' thanks to biofuels.

Moreno, Bush and Rodrigues each bring their own perspective on the issue.

Rodrigues, president of the Superior Council of Agribusiness of the Sao Paulo State Federation of Industries, is well-versed in the on-the-ground realities of biofuels.

Jeb Bush, representing a state that views itself as the gateway to the Americas, is critical of the barriers to ethanol imports, which are defended by U.S. lawmakers from corn-growing states.

Moreno, a Colombian known for his networking skills, brings the bank's technical know-how and money. Lots of it.

The Inter American Development Bank, the world's biggest regional official lender, used the seminar to announce $3 billion worth of funding for biofuel initiatives in the Americas, including $2.5 billion earmarked for eight biofuel projects in Brazil and $300 million for loans and technical assistance for private sector investments in the region.

A CLEARINGHOUSE

The idea is also to make the Interamerican Ethanol Commission, launched in December, a kind of information clearinghouse on biofuels.

''We're nothing other than really promoters of the use of biofuels in the Americas,'' said Moreno.

But inevitably, energy talk leads to politics, and the three were asked if the ethanol push is really about diminishing the influence of Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez -- who fears that devoting too much land to sugar cane will drive up food prices.

Moreno noted that for all the promise, it is an ''illusion'' to believe that biofuels would replace oil.

Jeb Bush didn't duck the question.

''Chávez has control over a significant part of the supply of oil,'' he said. ``He can break contracts, as he's done.