World Food Day: Climate Change and Biofuels

By Laura Lee Dooley on food

"World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy" is the theme for World Food Day this year on October 16, 2008.

The cost of food has been rising steadily since 2000. This year's skyrocketing world food prices for cereals, vegetable oils and dairy products---up almost 50% since last year---triggered riots across the developing world.

For many of the 1.1 billion people living on less than $1 a day, higher food prices seriously threaten the food security of those already living on the edge of hunger and poverty.

The world's food supply is now facing dual threats posed by climate change and the boom in biofuels ---liquids produced from plant matter that can substitute for gasoline or diesel fuel.