By Robin Pomeroy
ROME (Reuters) - World leaders open a conference on theglobal food crisis on Tuesday, with human rights activists andthe World Bank demanding action to curb soaring prices that arepushing an estimated 100 million people into hunger.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)initially called the summit at the end of last year to discussthe risks posed to food security by climate change.
But soaring food prices have shifted the focus of the Romesummit.
The cost of major food commodities has doubled over thelast couple of years, with rice, corn and wheat at recordhighs. Some prices have hit their highest levels in 30 years inreal terms -- provoking protests and riots in some developingcountries, where people may spend more than half their incomeon food.
Delegates will discuss a range of issues such as aid, tradeand technology to improve farm yields, but hunger campaignershave singled out biofuels -- often made by converting foodcrops into fuel -- as a prime culprit.
"Countries are justifying the pursuit of biofuels on thegrounds that they offer a means to reduce emissions fromtransport and improve energy security," the campaign groupOxfam said in a report issued on Tuesday.
"But there is mounting scientific evidence that biofuelmandates (policy support) are actually accelerating climatechange by driving the expansion of agriculture into criticalhabitats such as forests and wetlands."
Even though the United States is channelling about aquarter of its maize crop into ethanol production by 2022, andthe European Unions plans to get 10 percent of auto fuel frombio-energy by 2020, biofuel supporters say the effect on globalfood prices is small.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer said biofuelsaccounted for only around 3 percent of the total food pricerise. Oxfam says the real impact is about 30 percent.
World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said the issue should notbe allowed to dominate the summit, although biofuels clearlycompeted with food production. However, he said Africa couldbenefit from sugar-based biofuel production, as Brazil has.
The World Bank estimates that higher food prices arepushing 30 million Africans into poverty. Zoellick said Africanleaders wanted action, not words.
"It would be unfortunate if (bio-energy) becomes the solepoint of debate, because then we would not meet what poorcountries tell me they want, which is resources for safety netprogrammes, seeds and fertilisers, and export bans lifted," hetold Reuters.
Brazil, a pioneer in sugar-cane based biofuels, is set todefend them at the summit. Its foreign minister, Celso Amorim,said fair trade and the abolition of rich countries' subsidiesto farmers were crucial issues for the summit.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by JonBoyle)
