Bio-fuels were a

Alarmed by rising global food prices, some European leaders are rethinking their commitment to use ethanol fuel and are considering other policy changes to lower the costs of basic staples. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown became the latest official to say that the European Union may have to back off its goal of having ethanol account for 20% of the motor vehicle fuel burned on Europe's roads by 2020.

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.

With global tensions over food supplies mounting, prices of world staples rice and corn surged on Tuesday amid strong demand and concerns over slow planting of the new US corn crop. Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank warned Asian countries against export controls, and the Inter-American Development Bank said the food-versus-fuel debate had changed the way it evaluates financing of biofuel projects that could siphon off staples like corn or soybeans.

Bioethanol and biodiesel are coming under increased criticism for diverting food resources and driving up food prices across the world. Second-generation biofuels are gaining credibility as a solution. Praj Industries has achieved a major breakthrough technology for the production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic feedstock, creating an alternate agri-waste feedstock for ethanol production. The company has already filed a patent for this technology, Pramod Chaudhari, chairman, Praj said.

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.

Political will has a big role to play if we are to save our planet. Why is it we cannot find a single green politician in India? It took just a small glass bowl to bring home the message of global warming. Its mouth covered with a thin plastic, the bowl containing some soil and humus was home to a plant. Like earth is our home. The bowl had to be placed in sunlight once in a while for a few minutes and that was all the plant needed to stay alive. It was a self-sustaining system. Like earth has been.

Bold reform is needed to deal with the long-term problem of rising food prices, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in an comment piece published yesterday. He wrote in the Financial Times that high food prices were "a serious humanitarian concern" and that more aid would be needed to help feed the poor, but added that "we must be bolder in tackling the long-term challenges of food supply."

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, ADB managing director general Rajat Nag said in an interview with The Associated Press. The production of biofuel leads to forests being destroyed and reduced land area for growing crops for food, he said.