Does anyone else find it ridiculous that food is becoming more and more of a problem around the world, and yet part of the reason is because smaller countries are being encouraged to grow biofuels?

Oil is going to run out sooner or later, we know that, so there has to be an alternative. But surely food and life comes before fuel?

I regard the production of bio-fuels (except when they’re being produced from waste materials) the greatest threat to food supplies and to wildlife on planet today. The thought that we are growing crops just so that people can fly to the Mediterranean for their holidays or drive to the supermarket for their groceries fills me with horror.

This is a classic example of us, the consumer, being suckered into to thinking that something is more environmentally friendly than it actually is. I seem to remember reading about large scale clearance of natural habitats to grow palm oil for biofuel.

Yep, just because it has the word bio in fools people. This is why me must check all the consequences of something that is meant to be environmentally friendly before we do it.

It's a huge scam in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of acres of corn (maize) are being grown to be turned into ethanol.

And yet, here in the US we can't give up allowing people who drive Hummers around a tax break! Yes, they get a tax break that is meant for farm vehicles...

Kingfisher