U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during the United Nations' climate conference in Copenhagen Tuesday that increased biofuels production doesn't have to lead to higher food prices, according to Reuters.

Any increasing competition for cropland for biofuels, he said, may be compensated by increases in farm productivity.

"Every time people start talking about food versus fuel it's always based on the fact (assumption) that where we are remains static relative to production," he said.

Critics have blamed biofuels such as ethanol for higher food prices in 2008, which led to food riots in some developing countries. Vilsack cautioned against blaming biofuels for higher food prices.

(Reuters, Dec. 15, 2009)
(http://www.forbes.com/…)

DTN: Not long after the Grocery Manufacturers Association launched an advertising campaign against ethanol in 2008, studies refuting the group came out of the woodwork disputing GMA's notion that expanded ethanol production was driving up food prices. Studies from USDA, Texas A&M University and others pointed to what were, at the time, high energy prices as the cause of higher food prices. Even after the GMA was rebuked, its members still maintain that ethanol was the cause for higher food prices. (Todd Neeley)