Biofuel Greed

· 97 million children in the Asia-Pacific region remain underweight

· 4 million children die before reaching the age of five.

With the recent increase in oil prices, corn, soya beans, sugar cane and other crops are seen as sources of clean and cheap biofuels.

However, I think it is indeed unfortunate that many developed countries to be turning food into biofuels at the cost of feeding the world’s poor which is already hit by high oil and food prices.

Developing economies will be shouldering an “enormous burden” from the relentless rise in prices of food and commodities. And the situation is worsened by the diversion of food to produce biofuels in some countries.

It is a sign of lopsided priorities in some countries that resort to measures that will produce fuel at a cheaper cost in order to meet the transport requirements even while a large proportion of the world’s population is deprived of food at reasonable prices or as in the case of some countries, deprived of food altogether.

This has resulted in maize, rice and wheat prices doubling over the last few months and places a strain on the finances of developing countries like India, which subsidies food and fuel. The rise in oil prices is another example of greed overtaking the common good of the world. This is outrageous and must be condemned.