EU to limit the use of food as raw materials to process biofuels program

The EU has formulated a plan to restrict the use of food as raw materials for processing biofuels.

Ministers of the 28 EU member states today broke the deadlock over the past year and agreed to reduce the use of "first generation" bioenergy processed from corn, beetroot or rape. According to the resolution, the upper limit of biofuels using food as raw materials for transportation energy is 7% by 2020, which is lower than the 10% target set in 2009. The EU has been a leader in pushing for so-called first-generation crop-based biofuels to replace some fossil fuels such as oil in order to reduce global carbon emissions. But Brussels is facing growing criticism that the use of such biofuels is crowding out the global food supply and raising food prices in some of the world's poorest countries. Critics also say that arable land is used to grow raw crops for biofuels, especially in mangrove reserves in Southeast Asia, which is contrary to the environmental concepts peddled by the European Union. Bioenergy experts say the agreement is not enough to reduce the impact of bioenergy on the world's increasingly tight food supplies. "In a starving world, a gradual reduction in the use of food for biofuels is the only sensible thing to do". The European Parliament will consider the resolution.