Activists Bring Biofuels Conference to Stand Still on World Food Day

Cli­mate Activists have brought the Newark Bio­fu­els Expo to a stand still with rape alarms and ban­ners.

A group of cli­mate activists call­ing them­selves ‘Action Against Agro­fu­els’ have brought the Newark Bio­fu­els Expo to a stand­still. The cam­paign­ers have suc­cess­ful­ly scaled the roof of the build­ing at the Newark Show­ground, drop­ping large ban­ners inside the con­fer­ence hall whilst oth­ers set off mul­ti­ple rape alarms inside the cen­tre to protest the rape of the plan­et that Agro­fu­els are caus­ing.

Their action against the Expo, dubbed by cam­paign­ers as the ‘Newark Exposé’, was staged, they say, to protest against the ‘green­wash’ that Bio­fu­els can be sus­tain­able and are good for the envi­ron­ment. John Sim­mons, from the roof of the Newark build­ing, said “It is unac­cept­able that the Bio­fu­els indus­try, which is respon­si­ble for large-scale rain­for­est destruc­tion, evic­tions of com­mu­ni­ties, hunger and accel­er­at­ed cli­mate change hold con­fer­ences where they por­tray them­selves as ‘green’”.

Accord­ing to a recent World Bank report, which the White House attempt­ed to bury, 75% of recent food price ris­es are attrib­ut­able to the increas­ing use of Bio­fu­els. Giv­en that 100 mil­lion extra peo­ple are going hun­gry this year alone, activists are incensed that this trade show has been timed to coin­cide with World Food Day.

Jes­si­ca Boyd jus­ti­fied her actions by say­ing that: “The evi­dence that large-scale Bio­fu­els are wors­en­ing cli­mate change, dis­plac­ing food pro­duc­tion and dev­as­tat­ing com­mu­ni­ties and bio­di­ver­si­ty is over­whelm­ing, yet gov­ern­ments still sup­port this destruc­tive indus­try. This is why I was left with no choice but to take action.”

Out­side the site, in front of a large ban­ner which reads “inside for green­wash­ing, hunger and defor­esta­tion” anoth­er sep­a­rate group of activists from Leeds are con­duct­ing a leaflet and ban­ner protest at the gate.

The action comes at the tail of anoth­er week of protest with the much pub­li­cised Cli­mate Rush on Par­lia­ment. The activists intend to stay in posi­tion for as long as pos­si­ble. Four of the group are being detained at present.