THE title suggests a hatchet job; the text is a bit more nuanced. Sometimes, and in some places, Agrofuels argues, we may be able to grow crops to use as biofuels without them becoming tyrannical neighbours.
François Houtart, a Belgian sociologist and Catholic priest, is less interested in the crops than the political landscape in which they grow. A couple of chapters on the biofuels such as palm oil that are farmed in developing countries are squashed by seven more on topics such as “the neoliberal discourse on climate change” and “post-capitalist logic”. There is a brief and interesting interlude…
