Green Daily

The report apparently found that biofuels have increased food prices some 75 percent. This echoes the findings in the UK's Gallagher Report, released in late June.

The executive summary of that report "...concluded that there is a future for a sustainable biofuels industry but that feedstock production must avoid agricultural land that would otherwise be used for food production. This is because the displacement of existing agricultural production, due to biofuel demand, is accelerating land-use change and, if left unchecked, will reduce biodiversity and may even cause greenhouse gas emissions rather than savings. The introduction of biofuels should be significantly slowed until adequate controls to address displacement effects are implemented and are demonstrated to be effective. A slowdown will also reduce the impact of biofuels on food commodity prices, notably oil seeds, which have a detrimental effect upon the poorest people."

However, the Wall Street Journal spoke to the report's author who said it was just a working paper and does not reflect the official World Bank position.

Working paper aside, the World Bank did release a report responding to increased food prices that includes the recommendation that the "US and Europe to ease subsidies, mandates and tariffs on bio-fuels that are derived from maize and oilseeds; accelerate the development of second generation cellulosic [non-food] products."