Biofuel benefits ‘modest and sometimes even negative’

Rising investment in grain-consuming biofuels is a key reason food prices will stay high for at least a decade, an influential study released Thursday says.

But the report by two leading international bodies also warns that claims biofuels will resolve an array of concerns — from rendering the air cleaner by replacing fossil fuels, to reducing individual countries’ reliance on fuel imports — may be deceptive.
“Analysis to date suggests that the energy-security, environmental and economic benefits of biofuels production based on agricultural commodity feedstocks are at best modest, and sometimes even negative,” says the 73-page study from the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization and the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Vancouver Sun