Biofuels are driving food prices higher....

A biofuel is a fuel that contains energy from geologically recent carbon fixation, such as plants. These fuels are produced from living organisms. Examples of this carbon fixation occur in plants and microalgae.

This year began with record-breaking food prices that experts warn could lead to another fully fledged global food crisis. Rising food prices contributed to the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and sparked riots in several other countries. A food crisis three years ago also brought impoverished people on to the streets when they couldn't afford to buy staple foods such as rice, wheat and corn. Not surprising when poor people spend up to 80% of their income on food.

The World Bank estimates that between June and December 2010 an additional 44 million people fell below the poverty line due to rises in food prices. The bank's president, Robert Zoellick, called for the world to "put food first".

There are numerous causes to the recent price rises, but biofuels remain a significant piece of the puzzle. About 40% of US corn goes into biofuels. Today, 18% of biofuels now used in the UK are made from wheat and corn that are staple foods in the developing world. Yet just over a year ago, the UK hardly used either of these.

This demand can do nothing but drive food prices higher. And the demand is only set to grow. The EU alone is planning to more than double the amount of biofuels it uses in the next 10 years.

It's not just NGOs such as ActionAid that have raised the alarm. Recently, 10 international organisations – among them five UN agencies, the IMF, the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – warned that biofuels will exert considerable upward pressure on food prices in the future. This is unacceptable when around 1 billion people go hungry every day.

What happens at the global level impacts heavily at national and local level. TakeKenya, which is a net importer of food. Its food import bill has risen, often meaning higher national and local prices – a disastrous situation when most rural and urban poor are net buyers of food.

But the drive for more biofuels to fuel vehicles and power stations in rich countries is having another, more localised effect. Companies are scouring the globe for land to meet biofuel targets. There is simply not enough land in the rich world to cater for the new demand; where better to look than in the developing world, particularly Africa where land is supposedly abundant and cheap.