Submission brought to the Altinget Fødevarer on Friday 25 March 2022 by Jeppe Juul, senior advisor in climate and transport and Kristine Clement, campaign manager for agriculture and forestry, Greenpeace

If you find yourself in a hole, it is a good idea to stop digging. The brutal invasion of Ukraine is currently digging a big hole under global food security.

Both Ukraine and Russia are among the world's granaries. Together, the two countries produce a quarter of the world's wheat and barley and more than 60 percent of the globally traded sunflower oil. Already today, sunflower oil is rationed in Spanish, German and Italian supermarkets and the price of wheat has increased by around 50 percent since the beginning of February.

Unfortunately, we in Denmark have not yet stopped digging the hole deeper. Every day we refuel large quantities of biofuels, which are produced from raw materials that could have been used for food and feed.

Put to the point, we are pouring climate-damaging rapeseed, grain and sugar into the gas tank in a situation where the world may soon experience acute food shortages.

Food becomes fuels

In fact, the gap in food security is so deep that The European Commission now calls on the member states to increase food production.

This, among other things, by reducing the consumption of biofuels, as it can lead to "a reduction of the EU's agricultural area used for the production of biofuel raw materials and thus ease the pressure on the markets for food and feed".

It is obviously crazy to put rapeseed, grain and sugar in the tank and not in hungry stomachs

Kristine Clement & Jeppe Juul, respectively Greenpeace and the Green Transition Denmark

In 2020, Denmark used 380 million liters of biofuels, of which around 90 percent is based on rapeseed, grain and sugar – raw materials that could have been used as food and feed. Our consumption seizes enormous amounts of agricultural land every year, both at home and abroad. It is simply irresponsible.

Ironically, we mix biofuels in the tank for the sake of the climate. But it is a disservice of dimensions. Some biofuels made from raw materials that normally function as feed and food are up to three times more climate-damaging than fossil diesel. In addition, biofuels are also more expensive than their fossil counterparts.

The key lies with the climate minister

Biofuels from feed and food have therefore always been a bad idea. But in a situation where Spanish supermarkets have introduced rationing on sunflower oil and the EU's environment ministers want to disregard environmental considerations for the sake of food safety - yes, it is obviously crazy to put rapeseed, grain and sugar in the tank and not in hungry stomachs.

It is the Danish Biofuels Act that dictates how large a proportion of the petrol and diesel we refuel that must come from biofuels.

But when the politicians adopted the Danish biofuels law, they were actually farsighted enough to foresee a situation like the one we now find ourselves in. The law thus states that the climate minister can remove the requirement for the mixing of biofuels in a crisis.

We therefore believe that the climate minister should follow the call from the Commission and remove biofuels based on food and feed from Danish petrol stations. To the benefit of the climate, food safety and Danes' costs for both food and transport.