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Food vs. Fuel Battle Flares at UN Summit

Egypt's Mubarak asks, should we be feeding people or cars?

By Jim O'Neill,  Newser User

Posted Jun 4, 2008 10:57 AM CDT

(Newser) – The battle over biofuels is raging at the UN’s food summit in Rome, with nations bitterly divided over whether growing corn and sugar cane for ethanol production is pushing food prices up and helping create disastrous global food shortages. On one side: Food experts who call diversion of crops to fill the fuel tanks of wealthy nations immoral. On the other: the US, Brazil, and the EU, the main players on the biofuel stage.

"Biofuels are not the villain menacing food security in poor countries," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told assembled heads of state, adding that the soaring price of oil is the larger culprit. The US says ethanol accounts for only 2%-3% of recent food price increases; one food policy analyst tells the BBC the figure is closer to 30%. UN food chief Jacques Diouf says 100 million tons of crops are being used to produce fuel, backed by subsidies in excess of $11 billion dollars." 

A group of Bangladeshi children return home after collecting rice from a government subsidized outlet at Nawabganj in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
A group of Bangladeshi children return home after collecting rice from a government subsidized outlet at Nawabganj in Dhaka, Bangladesh.   (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)
Pakistani workers hold a rally protesting against a recent price hike in front of Governor House Wednesday, May 28, 2008 in Lahore, Pakistan.
Pakistani workers hold a rally protesting against a recent price hike in front of Governor House Wednesday, May 28, 2008 in Lahore, Pakistan.   (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Somali women and their children wait to collect food aid at Johar refugee camp, Somalia.
Somali women and their children wait to collect food aid at Johar refugee camp, Somalia.   (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)
Pakistani house wives chant slogans against the government to condemn the recent wave of inflation in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday, May 14, 2008.
Pakistani house wives chant slogans against the government to condemn the recent wave of inflation in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday, May 14, 2008.   (AP Photo/K.M.Chaudary)
A group of detained men is carried on a police truck bed after trying to break into a supermarket for looting in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
A group of detained men is carried on a police truck bed after trying to break into a supermarket for looting in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.   (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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