Shift to Bio-Fuels Cause for World Food Crisis, Says Expert
Posted on: Wednesday, 7 May 2008, 09:00 CDT
Increasing demand for bio-fuels in the US and the European Union has made farmers prefer cultivation of energy crops to food grains, resulting in the rise of food prices, reported the Associated Press, quoting Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the United Nations.
Mr Sachs has asked the countries to reconsider their support to bio-fuels.
The news agency quoted Mr Sachs as saying: "In the US, as much as one-third of the maize crop this year will go to the gas tank and this is a huge blow to the world food supply, so these programs should be cut back significantly."
Food scientists have also recommended the countries to discontinue bio-fuels such as ethanol to cut the prices of corn by 20%.
However, Michael Mann, spokesman of the European Commission has reportedly said that poor global harvests, growing demand for food in Asia and export restrictions in Ukraine and Russia were the reasons for food crisis and not the shift to bio-fuels. He claimed that Europe is using less than 2% of its cereals production for bio-fuels.
The US ethanol industry has also claimed that bio-fuels were responsible only for 4% of the rise in food prices.
Source: Datamonitor
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