Rising food prices highlight controversy over biofuels

Published: 2008-04-24

LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Recent protests over rising food prices have highlighted the controversy over biofuels such as ethanol made from corn or diesel fuel made from vegetable oils. Both the United States and Europe have pledged to increase biofuel use, and about 30 percent of U.S. corn production this year will be used for ethanol, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. Calculating the exact impact of biofuel production on food price hikes is difficult. Despite the attention to biofuels as a factor in recent price increases, it probably had less of an impact than drought and other factors, said Lisa Kuennen of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. Siwa Msangi, a research fellow at the food policy institute, said a recent study found that between 25 percent and 33 percent of the increase in food prices between 2000 and 2006 "seems to be driven by the biofuels effect."

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