On the eve of the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, a British government report has called for links between the growing demand for biofuels and soaring world food prices to be closely examined.
The European Union's decision to use biofuels as the source of ten percent of its road transport fuel has come under increasing pressure due to the alleged connection between the growing of biofuel crops in place of food crops and the subsequent rise in world food prices.
Biofuels use crops such as maize, wheat and sugarcane to supply an alternative fuel low in carbon emissions. However the growing amount of farming space used to growbiofuels has impacted on the space available to grow traditional food crops and it is this link which the British government report has called for further examination.
"There is so much evidence about the negative impacts of biofuels that setting mandatory targets seems unconscionable," said Phil Bloomer from campaign group Oxfam to Reuters UK.
"And yet that's what the UK has done, thereby sending a signal to the markets and the private sector that demand is here to stay, and keeping prices high. The EU must not follow suit."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on his way to the G8 summit where food and energy prices will play a major role in discussions, also called on Britons to cut food waste.
"If we are to get food prices down, we must also do more to deal with unnecessary demand – such as all of us doing more to cut food waste which is costing the average household in Britain around ? per week," reports the Guardian.
Brown is also expected to call for a moratorium on some biofuels at the summit and ask for the introduction of an overseeing international organisation to regulate food security. The group would have the same powers as the Inter-Governmental Committee on Climate Change which coordinates scientific debate on the environment and global warming.
Brown is among a number of G8 leaders calling for an increase in food aid to Africa.
U.S. President George Bush said: "I'm concerned about people going hungry. We'll be very constructive in the dialogue about the environment – I care about the environment – but today there's too much suffering in the continent of Africa," said the president. "Now is the time for the comfortable nations to step up and do something about it."
