The global dimension: food vs fuel
Since most biofuels are produced from food crops, there is now growing concern that the biofuel targets set within the EU and the UK might have pushed up prices for food and thus contributed to the global food crisis.
A great number of politicians and campaigners are therefore calling for an end to biofuel production.
The former UN food advisor Jean Ziegler even called biofuels “a crime against humanity”, claiming they caused millions of people around the world to go hungry.
Friends of the Earth co-ordinator for East Dorset Angela Pooley says the effects on farming and food are not only felt in developing countries.
This is why she thinks all investment into biofuels has to be stopped immediately.
The EU energy commission, however, says that biofuels don't only help stabilise food prices, but can also secure income for farmers in the third world. Anti-biofuels campaigner Kenneth Richter doesn't think that's true.
Biofuel company D1 Oils communication director Graham Prince, on the other hand, thinks the food vs fuel controversy is completely ill-informed.
He thinks the debate is in fact about something else entirely.
NFU biofuels expert Ruth Bigby warns that a moratorium would be a dead end.
Editor of online biofuels magazine Biofuelreview Giles Clark thinks we should look at the bigger picture.