As predicted, our thirst for ethanol is causing others to hunger for food. An article by Leigh Phillips at EUobserver:
A UN summit in Rome gathering together world leaders and food and agriculture experts has seen a showdown on EU and US biofuels policies and agricultural subsidies.
One UN official called the policies “incomprehensible,” while development organisations and the biofuels industry campaigned fiercely to try to influence the meeting’s outcome.
In an impassioned speech, Jacques Diouf, the director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation told some 60 heads of state that it is “incomprehensible…that subsidies worth €7-8 billion ($11-12 billion) in 2006 were used to divert 100 million tonnes of cereals from human consumption mostly to satisfy a thirst for fuels for vehicles.”
Read the whole article here.