From the Wall Street Journal:

Agriculture ministers for the world’s richest nations are meeting in Paris this week to debate the best ways to tackle unprecedented volatility in food prices.

But while farming officials for the Group of 20 nations may agree that markets need more transparency and predictability, opinion is still split over more controversial topics, including governments’ policies on diverting food crops to create biofuels.

A report commissioned by international agencies including the World Bank and the United Nations’ food body and the International Monetary Fund urged the G20 to “remove . . . policies that subsidize or mandate biofuels production or consumption”.

But opposition from countries such as the U.S. and Brazil, two of the world’s biggest users of first-generation ethanol created from corn and sugar for transport fuel, means such recommendations are not expected to be adopted by European governments.

For more, see: Land for Biofuels or Crops? The Debate Rumbles on