Biofuels 'are to blame for high food prices'

Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe has recently spoken out about the impact biofuels are having on the global food market, saying high prices are a result of more crops being used for the sustainable fuel.

In a recent biofuel analysis on the BBC, he said: "The time of cheap food prices is over," adding that "if no food was used for fuel, the prices would come down again - that is very clear."

His critical stance on the biofuel industry and the rise in production of biodiesels comes in a damming attack on politicians world-wide, adding that leaders around the world do not understood that the food market and the oil market are the same - they are both calorific markets.

He says biofuels are only affordable because of the high subsidies they receive, particularly in the US. "It is absolutely unacceptable and cannot be justified," he said.

"There is one demand that I have, and that is not to use food for fuel."

Politicians around the world are looking to replace 20 per cent of fossil fuel usage with biofuels, but this would require the production of crops to grow threefold. Most of the world's sugar consumption is already going into making biofuels, which is obviously causing a big headache for people such as Mr Brabeck-Letmathe.

He said: "It takes about 4,600 litres of water to produce one litre of pure ethane oil if it comes from sugar, and it takes 1,900 litres of water if it comes from palm oil.

"This is not a crisis which might arise in 100 years, it is something which is already here today."

Biofuel industry experts have hit back at these claims, saying there are several reasons for increased food prices and fuel production cannot be blamed entirely for the inflation. Increased urbanisation is more likely to be a leading factor, with more food being consumed as people move to the city.

Posted by Lauren Steadman