U.S. fuel policies met with criticism at food summit

ROME — Outside the U.N. emergency summit on food Wednesday, protesters dressed as ears of corn. Inside, Bush administration officials found themselves on the defensive on such U.S. policies as biofuel production, genetic engineering and subsidies.

Delegates clashed during the second day of the three-day meeting on how much blame can be assigned to biofuels for the meteoric rise in food prices. The United States is an enthusiastic supporter of a heavily subsidized biofuel industry, allocating about a quarter of its corn crop to ethanol development.

But many other nations and numerous aid agencies say too much food is ending up in fuel tanks and not on dinner tables.

Secretary of Agriculture Edward Schafer, leading the U.S. delegation, emerged Wednesday from a series of side meetings and acknowledged a struggle was underway to reach compromise language on biofuels. Drafts of a final summit declaration, circulating late Wednesday, reflected watered-down recommendations of "further studies."

Finding consensus on biofuels, which are made from corn, sugar cane, palm oil and other foodstuffs, had been one of the goals outlined by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in opening the summit here at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Schafer maintains that bumper U.S. corn crops provide plenty of corn for eating and filling tanks. He says the shift to biofuels accounts for no more than 3 percent of the hike in commodity prices, which in some cases have doubled in recent years.

Several U.N. agencies, relief groups and the International Monetary Fund, however, say as much as 30 percent of the increase could be blamed on biofuels.

"Even 1 percent represents hardship for 16 million people," said Madelon Meijer, agricultural policy adviser for Oxfam. "Three percent already plunges a lot more people into poverty."

Oxfam was one of several groups staging demonstrations outside the conference, with people dressed as corn carrying out symbolic tugs-of-war between the hungry and those needing fuel. Oxfam argues that the amount of grain required to produce enough ethanol to fill an SUV's tank could feed a person for a year.

Biofuels were once hailed as an alternative to fossil fuels and a way to ease dependence on oil. But a growing body of experts and others question the efficiency of biofuels and assert that ethanol production is usurping arable land that should be used for foods or left as oxygen-enhancing forests, wetlands and natural habitats.