Samake Bakary sells rice from wooden basins at Abobote market in the northern suburbs of Abidjan in C

Soaring food prices are a "massacre' of the world's poor and are creating a global nutritional crisis, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday, calling it a sign that capitalism is in decline. His comments came only hours after the United Nations' World Food Program called more expensive food a "silent tsunami' that threatens to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger. "It is a true massacre what is happening in the world,' Chavez said in a televised speech, citing UN statistics about deaths caused by hunger and malnourishment.

"Banning exports and going after traders is not going to prevent shooting up of prices. This is based on a false assumption. And planting Jatropha instead of soyabean will only end up tripling of food prices,' Vandana Shiva, eminent environmentalist said. Substituting food crops with alternatives such as jatropha will only end up in the extinction of agriculture she said. Shiva blamed the build up of fossil fuel infrastructure for the rise in prices.

Developed nations should stop paying agricultural subsidies to encourage biofuel production because the payments are making staple foods more expensive, the Asian Development Bank said Monday. Biofuels should also be re-examined by governments around the world as it is increasingly unclear how environmentally friendly they are, said ADB managing director general Rajat Nag in an interview with The Associated Press in Singapore. The production of biofuel leads to forests being destroyed and reduced land area for growing crops for food, he said.

Bio-fuels hold potential as an energy alternative

Bio-fuels have recently been attracting the global spotlight for their potential as an energy alternative. Though increasing environmental concerns have led to a simultaneous cost-benefit analysis, the scales are still tilting in favour of bio-fuels.

Try India's Ayurveda medicinal system that could act as a panacea for Brazil's health woes. This was the advice from 73-year-old President Pratibha Patil to her Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 10 years her junior, during their one-toone meeting here. Ms Patil, who wrapped up her three-day state visit to this Latin American country, presented a DVD on Ayurveda system of medicine to the Brazilian President. According to a Presidential aide, Ms Patil told Mr Lula that Ayurveda was being followed in India and was cost-effective.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has blown the election war bugle on the issue of rising prices with Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani saying that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government should control the prices or quit.

Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing Published: April 15, 2008 Food Prices Rise But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.