Wagoner hits out at UN report

Rick Wagoner, General Motors’ chairman and chief executive, has dismissed United Nations research that links biofuel production to rising food prices as “shockingly misinformed".

The blunt assessment by the head of the world’s largest car company reinvigorates intense debate about ostensible social costs and environmental benefits of biofuels, a burgeoning industry some analysts say crowds out food production.

“If you look at what’s causing higher [bio]fuel prices, the cost of corn is a very small part of that," Mr. Wagoner said at a trade show in China.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has linked biofuels production – alongside factors such as crop failures and the falling dollar – to the spike in world food prices. The agency has ordered research on the subject in advance of a summit on world food security intended to take place in Rome from June 3-5.

But Mr. Wagoner said: “Oil prices are a far bigger driver of higher food prices than ethanol." FT.com