From the Wall Street Journal:

Rising oil prices could be the crucial missing element in the recipe for a world food crisis next season.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s index rose to a record high in February—its eighth consecutive month of increases—which will cement worries over food-price inflation. But of more concern is how next year’s global harvest will shape up as rising oil prices make diverting grain for biofuels more appealing.

“The oil factor, which has so far not been a driving factor this season, could become an element like it was in 2008,” said the secretary of the FAO’s Intergovernmental Group on Grains Abdolreza Abbassian. “It’s very unlikely we will see a food crisis in 2010-11 but we can’t exclude such a situation in 2011-12.”

For more, see: Rising Oil Prices Will Send Food Prices Even Higher