REUTERS -Biofuels are a “tremendous job creator” for rural areas, said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack ahead of a global meeting where they were criticized as a factor in high food prices.
At a meeting in Paris last month, agriculture ministers from the Group of 20 rich nations agreed to share data on crop output and supplies as a step to calm volatile commodity markets.
Vilsack said the U.S. has doubts about creating regional food caches for emergency use – one step suggested for G20 countries’ to consider for alleviating hunger. Some 925 million people, roughly one in seven, are chronically hungry. Global food prices are at near-record highs.
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Vilsack said the U.S. is concerned about how the stockpiles would be managed and how to prevent manipulation. U.S. government-held stockpiles were accompanied by low prices for decades.
In a report, Oxfam said the G20 ought to support food reserves in developing countries and buffer stocks managed transparently. Oxfam said a global grain reserve of 105 million tonnes would have helped avoid the food price surge of 2008. The cost of the reserve would have been $1.5 billion, it said.
Biofuels, especially corn ethanol in the U.S., have been blamed for driving up food prices. Vilsack says, biofuels’ role in price spikes is small and the fuels boost farm income and spark rural growth.
“This is a tremendous job creator,” he said.
Oxfam said G20 nations should scrap “damaging” biofuel subsidies and mandates on the grounds that they add to price volatility and global warming.
Before joining his G20 colleagues, Vilsack visited the Paris Air Show to discuss biofuels for aircraft. U.S. researchers are looking at switchgrass, miscanthus and algae as sources of jet fuel and “drop-in” motor fuel.
