Brussels/Amsterdam Drought-stricken crops and record-high grain prices have strengthened critics of the European Union biofuel industry, adding fears of a food crisis to their claims that it does not ultimately reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The renewed anxiety adds to pressure on the EU’s executive Commission to forge a deal this year to help ensure that EU biofuels do not clash with food production or the environment.

Such an agreement would remove some of the uncertainty that has hung over the multi-billion euro bioenergy industry during years of debate. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation last week called for a suspension of US ethanol quotas as a response to the impact of the worst US drought in more than half a century on corn supplies and prices.

NEW DELHI, 3 AUG: Reflecting the gravity of the situation, the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on drought will meet here again on Tuesday, 7 August, to discuss the drought situation in the coun

With rainfall set to be below normal this monsoon and Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan already facing drought-like conditions, the EGoM headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will

Experts have warned that vital corn-producing and soybean-producing states in the U.S. are in the throes of intensifying drought conditions — a revelation that has resurrected concerns of sparking another global food price shock. In 2008, it was a spike in food grain prices in global markets that led to widespread rioting and political instability across nations.

In a report released last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor agency (USDM) noted that “The widest drought to grip the U.S. in decades is getting worse with no signs of abating

A looming drought is manageable. Long-term changes to the monsoon might be catastrophic