In the news this weekend a United Nations expert condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity. Jean Ziegler, said he feared biofuels would bring more hunger.
The growth in the production of biofuels has helped to push the price of some crops to record levels.
It was, he said, a crime against humanity to divert arable land to the production of crops which are then burned for fuel.
The growth in the production of biofuels has been driven, in part, by the desire to find less environmentally-damaging alternatives to oil.
Many MEDC's are also keen to reduce their reliance on oil imported from politically unstable regions.
But the trend has contributed to a sharp rise in food prices as farmers, particularly in the US, switch production from wheat and soya to corn, which is then turned into ethanol.
This increasing global reliance on grain as a source of fuel could have serious implications for the world's poor.
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