http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/worldbusiness/15food.html?ref=world

By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: April 15, 2008The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels.

But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.

In some countries, the higher prices are leading to riots, political instability and growing worries about feeding the poorest people. Food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haiti's prime minister last week, and leaders in some other countries are nervously trying to calm anxious consumers.

At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West.

...

Skeptics have long questioned the value of diverting food crops for fuel, and the grocery and live- stock industries vehemently opposed an energy bill last fall, arguing it was driving up costs.

A fifth of the nation's corn crop is now used to brew ethanol for motor fuel, and as farmers have planted more corn, they have cut acreage of other crops, particularly soybeans. That, in turn, has contributed to a global shortfall of cooking oil.

Spreading global dissatisfaction in recent months has intensified the food-versus-fuel debate. Last Friday, a European environment advisory panel urged the European Unionto suspend its goal of having 10 percent of transportation fuel made from biofuels by 2020. Europe's well-meaning rush to biofuels, the scientists concluded, had created a variety of harmful ripple effects, including deforestation in Southeast Asia and higher prices for grain.

                                                          
  For an official reader-friendly overview of the assessment, please visit                       
 www.greenfacts.org/en/agriculture-iaastd/,                                                                                   
 International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development     
                                                                      
 Washington/London/Nairobi/Delhi, 15 April 2008 - The way the world grows its food will have to
 change  radically  to  better serve the poor and hungry if the world is to cope with a growing
 population and climate change while avoiding social breakdown and environmental collapse. That
 is  the  message  from  the report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and
 Technology  for  Development  (IAASTD),  a  major  new  report by over 400 scientists which is
 launched today.                                                                               
                                                                                  
 The   assessment  was  considered  by  64  governments  at  an  intergovernmental  plenary  in
 Johannesburg last week.                                                                       
                                                                       
 The  authors'  brief  was  to  examine  hunger,  poverty, the environment and equity together.
 Professor  Robert  Watson  Director  of IAASTD said those on the margins are ill-served by the
 present  system: "The incentives for science to address the issues that matter to the poor are
 weak...  the  poorest  developing  countries  are  net  losers under most trade liberalization
 scenarios."                                                                                   
                                                                               
 Modern agriculture has brought significant increases in food production. But the benefits have
 been  spread  unevenly and have come at an increasingly intolerable price, paid by small-scale
 farmers, workers, rural communities and the environment.                                       
                                                                                    
 It  says  the  willingness of many people to tackle the basics of combining production, social
 and  environmental goals is marred by "contentious political and economic stances". One of the
 IAASTD co-chairs, Dr Hans Herren, explains: "Specifically, this refers to the many OECD member
 countries  who  are deeply opposed to any changes in trade regimes or subsidy systems. Without
 reforms here many poorer countries will have a very hard time... "                             
                                                                                     
 The  report  has  assessed  that  the  way  to  meet  the  challenges lies in putting in place
 institutional, economic and legal frameworks that combine productivity with the protection and
 conservation  of  natural resources like soils, water, forests, and biodiversity while meeting
 production needs.                                                                             
                                                                                   
 In  many  countries,  it  says, food is taken for granted, and farmers and farm workers are in
 many  cases  poorly  rewarded  for  acting  as stewards of almost a third of the Earth's land.
 Investment directed toward securing the public interest in agricultural science, education and
 training and extension to farmers has decreased at a time when it is most needed.             
                                       
 The  authors  have  assessed  evidence across a wide range of knowledge that is rarely brought
 together.  They  conclude  we  have little time to lose if we are to change course. Continuing
 with current trends would exhaust our resources and put our children's future in jeopardy.     
 

Professor  Bob  Watson, Director of IAASTD said: "To argue, as we do, that continuing to focus
 on  production alone will undermine our agricultural capital and leave us with an increasingly
 degraded  and  divided planet is to reiterate an old message. But it is a message that has not
 always  had  resonance in some parts of the world. If those with power are now willing to hear
 it,  then  we may hope for more equitable policies that do take the interests of the poor into
 account."                                                                                     

Professor Judi Wakhungu, said "We must cooperate now, because no single institution, no single
 nation, no single region, can tackle this issue alone. The time is now."                       

About the IAASTD

This international assessment addresses how to make better use of agricultural science,       
 knowledge and technology to reduce hunger and poverty, improve rural livelihoods, and foster   
 equitable and sustainable development.                                                         
 

The assessment represents a three-year effort by about 400 experts around the world, working   
 under the auspices of 30 governments and 30 representatives of civil society. The latter       
 include non-governmental organizations, producer and consumer groups and international         
 organizations.                                                                                 

The assessment was sponsored by the United Nations, the World Bank and the Global Environment 
 Facility, an independent financial organization that provides grants to developing countries. 
 Five U.N. agencies were involved: the Food and Agricultural Organization, the U.N. Development
 Program, the U.N. Environment Programme, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural         
 Organization and the World Health Organization. Additional individuals, organizations and     
 governments participated in a peer review process.                                              

For more information, see www.agassessment.org, which includes the opening statement to the   
 IAATSD meeting in Joahnnesburg last week by UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.             
                                                                                               
                                                                                               

BOSTON GLOBE

                                                                           
 THE PAPAL VISIT                                                           
                                                                    
 By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff  |  April 15, 2008                         
                                                                           
                                                                           
 WASHINGTON - As he begins his historic visit to the White House and the United Nations this week, Pope Benedict XVI is widely expected to call     
 attention to two areas in which he has been at odds with the Bush administration: The need for urgent action on global warming and the       
 humanitarian cost of unjust wars, according to Catholic leaders and people familiar with Benedict's papacy.                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
 Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's permanent observer to theUnited Nations, said in response to a Globe inquiry that in his UN speech 
 on Friday, Benedict "won't necessarily touch upon specific crises in the world: unfortunately, they are too many to be dealt with in a few minutes.
 However he will insist on the moral imperative that all, without exception, have a grave responsibility to protect the environment."

He did not say whether Iraq would be mentioned.

Despite their disagreements, President Bush has gone out of his way to welcome Benedict, with plans to greet him in person when he arrives at     
 Andrews Air Force Base this afternoon, and then to have a private  discussion in the Oval Office for 45 minutes tomorrow morning. It will be 
 only the second visit by a pope to the White House, after Pope John Paul  II met with President Carter in 1979.                                     
                                                                           
                                                                           
  ...
 Church officials and others familiar with Benedict's papacy say they       
 expect the pope to address the subject of humanitarian suffering in Iraq   
 again with Bush during his US visit. They also said that Benedict's recent
 statements on global warming and the environment lead them to believe that
 he will highlight the issue during his US visit.                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
 "He looks at the environment as a moral issue, where we look at it as a   
 partisan political issue," said Ray Flynn, former Boston mayor and former 
 US ambassador to the Vatican, who knew Benedict before he became Pope and 
 met with him recently in Rome. "He believes the environment was given to   
 us by God and it belongs to everybody, that people in political office     
 have a responsibly as caretakers in that office, they cannot vote it       
 away."                                                                     
                                                                           
                                                                           
 Global warming is another area where US foreign policy and the Vatican     
 have diverged. Throughout most of his administration, Bush has resisted UN
 efforts to mandate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, although he has
 recently softened his stance.                                             
  ...

Since Benedict became pope in 2005, the Vatican has hosted a scientific   
 conference on climate change, agreed to participate in a program that will
 plant a forest to offset its own carbon footprint, and fitted buildings in
 Vatican City with solar panels. Last month, the Vatican issued a statement
 including pollution among the list of modern sins.                         
  ... 

Walter Grazer, the former director of the Environmental Justice Program at
 the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, who now works with an interfaith   
 environmental advocacy effort, said he was surprised by how much attention
 Benedict has given the issue.