Bio-fuel production boosting food prices - UN

A United Nations assessment of international farming trends says a global switch from growing crops for food to growing them for bio-fuel production is boosting international prices paid for food.

The report, prepared for the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the OECD says the switch to growing fuel crops will take land out of food production and increase the price of commodities.

The change in international agriculture will increase the costs of livestock farmers in countries which rely on feeds such as maize or barley, but will also be profitable for farmers in food exporting countries, such as New Zealand.

The paper ranks New Zealand at ninth in the world's leading “agro-food exporting countries” – directly earning $11.4 billion from a 2.4 percent share in world agriculture-based food trade.

Non-governmental groups have criticised the rush to energy crops as encouraging intensive, industrial agriculture at the expense of sustainable food production.

Oscar Reyes of the Transnational Institute told the Guardian newspaper in Britain the whole agri-fuel process is going far too fast, pushed by corporations and governments before any controls are in place.