Cuban President Fidel Castro criticized on Thursday "the sinister idea of turning food into fuel," which was definitively established as an economic line of the US foreign policy.

"I think reducing and also recycling all engines that consume electricity and fuel is an elemental and urgent need of all humanity," stated the Cuban Revolution leader in an article published in Granma newspaper today.

It is a tragedy to turn food into fuel, warned the text entitled "Over three billion people in the world condemned to premature death due to starvation and thirst."

This is not an exaggerated, rather cautious figure, said Fidel Castro, who mentions in his comment the meeting President George W. Bush held with US car manufacturers on March 26.

According to a press release, participants in the meeting discussed a group of measures to support the production of cars with alternative fuel and attempts to develop ethanol from grass or sawdust.

The Cuban president explains that with one ton of corn we can only produce 109 gallons of ethanol, so we need about 320 million tons of that grain to produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol.

In the case of Cuba, the statesman said, "those lands dedicated to the direct production of alcohol can be much more useful to produce food for the people and to protect the environment."

Fidel Castro also highlighted that all countries of the world, rich and poor, could save millions of dollars in investment and fuel by just changing incandescent for energy-saving light bulbs, something which has been carried out in all the island s homes.

Source: Prensa Latina