Before going to work for a private association of Colombian biofuels producers, Jorge Cárdenas for four decades sat at the pinnacle of rural power as vice-president and then general manager of the country’s National Federation of Coffee Growers. In the process, Cárdenas witnessed the coffee boom of the 1970s and 80s that helped make the central Andean region Colombia’s most prosperous. He also experienced the “green revolution” of that era, when coffee farmers cleared Andean forests and established monoculture plantations that dramatically reduced wildlife habitat. Now board president of the National Federation of Biofuels, Cárdenas believes biofuels production could ignite a boom as important for local producers as the one coffee set in motion decades ago. Though just two years old, the industry has... [Log in to read more]