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Biofuels blamed for food price hikes

  • April 22, 2008
  • Daniel Palmer

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) in America has blamed the food-for-fuel program for the high cost of commodities.

The food-for-fuel legislation provides incentives to farmers to use corn in ethanol production and has seen production of ethanol triple over the past seven years.

There has been a growing wave of discontent for the legislation as more than a quarter of corn is now directed to fuel instead of food production. It is considered that this then has a flow-on effect to other global food commodities - many of which are now trading at historic highs.

The European Commission has also been under pressure following a commitment made in January to have 10% of road transport fuel provided by biofuels by 2020. According to a spokesman for the Commission they are not going to alter that commitment despite public concern that it will lead to further food shortages.

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