This briefing paper reviews evidence of the impacts of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on food prices, with a focus on corn and soy, and presents new analysis on the impact of the RFS on U.S. livestock farmers. Studies examining the relationship between food prices and biofuel demand conclude …
Biofuels, once seen as a key factor in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, are behind the current global food crisis, major oil producers and consumers charged at an energy forum here on Monday. "A conflict (is) emerging between foodstuffs and fuel ... with disastrous social conflicts and dubious environmental results,' outgoing …
Developed nations should stop paying agricultural subsidies to encourage biofuel production because the payments are making staple foods more expensive, the Asian Development Bank said Monday. Biofuels should also be re-examined by governments around the world as it is increasingly unclear how environmentally friendly they are, ADB managing director general …
Bolivian President Evo Morales on Monday criticized "some South American presidents" for supporting the use of biofuels, which he said are responsible for high food prices and global hunger. Visiting the United Nations while fighting autonomy referendums called by the opposition at home, the Bolivian president said the increased use …
The European Commission is not starting to backtrack on its target of getting 10 percent of its road transport fuel from crops and biomass by 2020, a spokesman said on Monday. The January proposals have become increasingly controversial amid soaring world food prices and fears that farm land in developing …
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 …
Britain will push for changes in European Union biofuels targets if a review of British policy shows rising biofuels production drives up food prices and harms the environment, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday. Brown is due to meet development experts and retail and farmers' representatives later on Tuesday …
Rick Wagoner, General Motors' president and chief executive, has dismissed United Nations research that links biofuel production to rising food prices as "shockingly misinformed". The blunt assessment by the head of the world's largest car company reinvigorates intense debate about ostensible social costs and environmental benefits of biofuels, a burgeoning …
High food prices are today a serious humanitarian concern. They are also a source of macroeconomic instability affecting budgets, trade balances and, of course, incomes almost everywhere in the world. Global rice prices have increased more than 50 per cent so far this year and most other food prices are …
The foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, has urged the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to immediately establish a high- level task force to address the acute global food crisis. He made the appeal while chairing a ministerial meeting of LDCs on the eve of the inauguration of UNCTAD-XII in the …
Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan Saturday told governments to invest more in agriculture to avoid future food crises, but warned that current shortages would hurt the poor. Annan said the surging price of basic foods like rice, wheat and corn in some of the world's poorest countries, which …
The nascent biofuels industry that dawned in the aftermath of massive meltdowns of polar icecaps and Himalayan glaciers, rising sea levels, tsunamis and unprecedented droughts in some regions with attendant floods in others, has already witnessed much tumult in its short history of under a decade. At the core of …
ROME - Biofuels will not solve the world's energy problem, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell said on Sunday, amid growing criticism of their environmental and social benefits. The remarks follow protests in Brazil and Europe against fuels derived from food crops. Food shortages and rising costs have set …
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury has urged the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to immediately establish a high level Task Force to address the acute global food crisis. He made the appeal while chairing a ministerial meeting of LDCs on the eve of the inaugural of UNCTAD-XII in the Ghana's …
BRAZIL'S President has blamed rising oil prices for the current global food crisis, saying biofuels are not the problem. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said rising oil prices were pushing up freight costs which, in turn, affected world food prices. "Ethanol production has not contributed in any way to …
Bio-fuels hold potential as an energy alternative Bio-fuels have recently been attracting the global spotlight for their potential as an energy alternative. Though increasing environmental concerns have led to a simultaneous cost-benefit analysis, the scales are still tilting in favour of bio-fuels. Goldman Sachs, who predicted a shift in the …
Bad agricultural policies and changing eating habits in developing nations are primarily to blame for rising food prices, not biofuel production as some critics claim, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. Environmentalists and humanitarian groups have stepped up campaigning against biofuels, arguing they divert production away from food and …
EARLIER this week, junior food minister Akhilesh Prasad Singh, during a TV discussion on soaring food prices, maintained that India had rice and wheat stocks above the April buffer norm and that FAO chief Yumkella's global food crisis assessment had relevance only to Africa. Wake up and smell the coffee, …
The UPA government on Thursday tried to partly deflect criticism for rising food prices towards the Opposition as well as on factors outside its control. Failure of foodgrain procurement by NDA-governed states and international food crisis, it claimed in Rajya Sabha, were to blame for the prices even as Left …
US President George W Bush plans on Wednesday to call for halting the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. The three candidates vying to succeed him have made more ambitious proposals. Here is what they are saying about environmental and energy issues: * CLIMATE CHANGE New York Sen. Hillary …
