Food inflation in the time of rising fuel prices has a new dimension: diversion of more and more farmland for bio-fuel production. Three experts debate whether food and fuel are either/or choice. What is the long-term solution for obtaining food security? Can a multilateral body like the WTO or UN have a role in this? Can reneweable fuels meet growing energy demand? SUNITA NARAIN Director, Centre for Science and Environment WITH climate change accepted as a threat by even its strongest sceptics, there is a rush to find quick and dirty answers. One buzz is to substitute fossil fuel with bio-fuels, that is, fuel processed from plants. But unfortunately bio-fuels are fast becoming a good idea, but bad in practice. We know today that global food prices have risen to an all-time high, already leading to inflation in many countries and even food riots in some. In the last few years, the US alone has diverted about 25% of its maize crop to bio-diesel, and so the price of maize has increased by 60%. The European Union mandate, to put 6% bio-fuel in the transport sector by 2010, is diverting land from food to fuel and increasing volatility of prices of oilseeds and their substitutes. In part, the price of wheat has increased because it is also used as an animal feed, substituting now-expensive maize. Also, the world is beginning to see the first impact of climate change in the increasingly variable, erratic and unseasonal weather events