Biofuel boom threatens food supplies: Nestle

Growing use of crops such as wheat and corn to make biofuels is putting world food supplies in peril, the head of Nestle, the world’s biggest food and beverage company, warned Sunday.

“If as predicted we look to use biofuels to satisfy 20 percent of the growing demand for oil products, there will be nothing left to eat,” chairman and chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said.
“To grant enormous subsidies for biofuel production is morally unacceptable and irresponsible,” he told the Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag.

While the competition is driving up the price of maize, soya and wheat, land for cultivation is becoming rare and water sources are also under threat, Brabeck said.

AFP