Every national paper and magazine is writing about the great opportunities in bio-fuels. Huge monies are being raised without due diligence or thought.

Investors in any "gold rush" should be very aware - most of you will lose all your hard earned cash.

There is no model today that shows that bio-fuels can be profitable without a huge subsidy from government. Good business sense will tell you that governmental subsidies can be given and then withdrawn. No investor should be looking at any business model that relies on a subsidy to make it breakeven or become profitable.

The South African government is looking at a mere 40% tax break while the US has implemented a huge $1.00 per gallon, that's 50% of the retail selling price. With that subsidy you could convert almost anything into a fuel and make a profit and American farmers are. Why trade your wheat and corn when it is far more profitable to turn it into ethanol?

Here in South Africa there has been a rush to get maize-to-ethanol plants up and running. Even with the 40% tax break there is not a model that can be profitable.

That brings into play the food for bio-fuel debate. The hysterical cry of "are we going to cause mass starvation in the third world just so we can keep our 4 x 4's on the road?" is ridiculous. The reality is that the third world causes its own starvation through corruption and greed without having to rely on bio-fuels to make an impact.

So what's the answer?

Look to the models that work and copy them. Brazil has gone from being an importer of oil to an exporter of fuel - bio-fuel in ten short years. In the process they created a million new jobs, mainly for shack dwellers. Almost a second million jobs have been created in the supporting service industries. More importantly, Brazil is creating more food and is supplying almost 10% of the world's organic production - that's over $4 billion of newly created foreign income.

This model makes so much sense that Argentina and Columbia are copying it. We in South Africa have sent countless people to study what has happened in Brazil and yet we are still trying to reinvent the model. Why do we always do that? I have heard arguments that our country is so different, the climate does not suit this and that and we have so many different bugs and insects. It's all rubbish. Let's look at how we can copy the Brazilian model here in South Africa.

It's all about healthy soil, food production and bio-fuels as a by-product.

The Organic Freedom Project has put a model on the table, based on the Brazilian success story. It starts with healthy soil. This means going organic to create bio-fuels. Organic farming moves away from using harmful fertilizers and pesticides and definitely does not allow the use of GMO seed in any way.

The model is built around soy. Soy is currently grown in every province in South Africa. Last year 280,000 hectares of soy was grown here in South Africa. Soy is relatively easy to grow and is very hardy. More importantly soy acts as a cleaning agent and sucks out harmful chemicals from the ground.

Soy is a rotation crop so you can only grow one season of soy then a farmer must rotate it with a different crop. Our model calls for sunflower or rapeseed as the ideal rotation crops depending on the region. This in turn is rotated with vegetables.

The result? We are getting edible oils from soy, sunflower and rapeseed which can also be blended into a bio-fuel.

We can create a soy-based textile, which is environmentally friendly and will be organic. There is a huge market worldwide for organic fibre. At home, Woolworth's just announced that they are looking to sell R1 billion worth of organic textiles in the next 5 years; let's hope this is more than PR and they can actually get supply. Soy-based fibre falls between cotton and silk - very desirable. Look at the economics. Cotton trades at $0.59 per lb on the commodity markets. Organic cotton trades at $1.28 per lb. Wal-Mart has a "put" on the Chicago commodity market for the entire world's organic cotton supply. One company prepared to buy the entire world supply of organic cotton - that's how much potential organically grown textiles have. Organically grown soy textiles will fetch a similar premium.

Finally, our third rotation is organically grown vegetables. There is a worldwide shortage of organic foods. This global organic market is growing at 30% per year compared to 2% for chemically or GM produced food products.

So, getting back to bio-fuels. Our model is based around the creation of organic based textiles and vegetables. We produce edible oils and as a by- product bio-fuel - now that's profitable.

The Organic Freedom Project is looking to farm 80,0000 to 100,000 hectares of soy. This will create over 300,000 new jobs in the farming and processing of our organic production.

Creation of new jobs, returning the soil to its healthy organic state and taking South Africa on the road to an environmentally friendly bio-fuel and all done profitably. Is there a better project that our government could invest in?

David Wolstenholme is the Managing Director of the Organic Freedom Project and founder and director of the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition