A report has not been published because, it is said, it would embarrass President Bush. It explains not a trivial matter though. It says that biofuels have caused world food prices to rise by 75%, whereas the US government maintains that they contributed only 3%. So keeping the President happy and in ignorance is far more important than starvation and hunger round the world.
“President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: ‘Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases.’ “ Source Guardian 4/6/2008

Biofuels have become a political tool creating a new myth about renewable energy sources. Any such dream needs to be tempered with the reality that there is an unknown and massive cost to the idea. Once in the politicians’ hands the reverse gear has gone. As Tony Blair once famously said, echoing Margaret Thatcher. “I have no reverse gear”. Problem is the vehicle is perched facing the edge of a cliff.
Not telling the President is back to the story of the Emperor’s clothes. But what of the presidential hopefuls, have they a view on this? As with global warming we seem to be on a treadmill to self-destruction. It is the poor who are already expendable, while those who hold the power to decide continue the self-delusion on a grand scale.