[NYTr] Bio-fuels Push Up Food Prices

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Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
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Bio-fuels Push Up Food Prices

Havana, August 2 (acn) A growing demand for bio-fuels and its 
consequent higher production have led to rising food prices with 
serious implications for developing countries reliant on food aid to 
combat famine.

Policy makers have advocated agro-fuels as an alternative to imported 
oil, and a way to revitalize the lagging agricultural industry in the 
Midwestern United States. Many in Washington believe as well that this 
is a clean, renewable energy source capable of insulating the U.S. from 
rising oil prices and instability in the Middle East.

There has been nearly a twofold increase in prices of corn as compared 
to last year's due to the increasing rate of ethanol production.

Policymakers have warned that U.S. demand for bio-fuels will likely 
spread to South American and South East Asian sugar- and palm 
oil-producing regions which are capable of producing ethanol more 
efficiently than with the U.S. corn-based methods. Brazil is the 
country that leads this trend.

According to World Bank price indexes, worldwide basic food commodities 
now cost 21 percent more than in 2005 and important commodities such as 
grain and oil have gone up in price more than 30 percent.

In an article published by the IPS news agency, as cited by Granma 
Daily, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director 
Josette Sheeran pointed to the role of biofuels in driving up food 
prices during an interview with The Financial Times last week.

She acknowledged that rising food prices were "already having an impact 
on WFP operations." "There is a realization we are facing a new level 
of challenges," she added.