European Parliament
Glyn Ford (PSE ),
in writing
I welcome in principle this report by my colleague Neil Parish on the promotion of crops for non-food purposes. While these techniques will not solve our energy problems, they can make a small but significant contribution. Fast-growing willows and poplars can be used, as I saw some years ago in Austria, to provide small-scale heat and electricity supply in remote, isolated areas. Oil-seed rape and wheat can be used in the production of biofuels whether diesel or petrol and save on CO2 release. Yet one warning: the schemes must be part of the solution, not the problem. Where they make economic, environmental and energy sense, I will support them, when they merely maintain agricultural expenditure at the expense of common sense, I will not.

