Today in Biofuels Opinion: “it is not difficult to cast biofuels as the villain of the piece”

US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, at the UN FAO Summit on the food crisis: “I’m not here to take offense. It seems to me that what we need to do is focus on the real issues. Focusing on biofuels will not solve the food crisis.”

Leo Lewis, London Times: “When it comes to the food crisis, it is not difficult to cast biofuels as the villain of the piece: biofuels are new, the food crisis is new and the two seem connected intimately. Even villains can serve a purpose. In this case, biofuels have been a barium meal for the globalised economy, exposing the astonishing fragility of food and energy supply so that the correct treatment can be applied. [Biofuels] have sounded a deafening klaxon over the global food system, revealing weaknesses that turn out to have riddled the food production business for many years.

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