Biofuel production

Experts on agro-economics say biofuel production is largely responsible for the current rise in food prices.

The crisis, according to them, is not going to end unless the rich countries change their energy consumption patterns.

Official statistics show that about 20 percent of U.S. corn, amounting to about 81 million tons, was used to produce alternative fuel in 2007, accounting for almost twice the annual growth in world grain consumption.

The European Union is implementing its own biofuel targets, planning to have 10 percent of its fuel supplied by biofuels in 2020.

The International Monetary Fund has said that almost 50 percent of the increased global demand for food has been triggered by wealthier countries' craze for biofuel production.

Making 50 liters of ethanol requires 232 kg of corn, which can feed a child for a whole year, United Nations experts reckon.

If developed nations were to stop biofuel production this year, it would lead to a 20 percent decline in corn prices and a fall of about 10 percent in wheat prices within the next two years, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already sounded a retreat on biofuels.

He said that Britain would reconsider how far it was prepared to sign proposals for a tenfold increase in the use of biofuels by 2020, in response to fears that they are causing the global food crisis.