A new report out today on the worldwide food shortage castigates the west and especially the United States for their biofuels policies which the report says has exacerbated the crisis without much of a savings in crude oil:"The energy security, environmental and economic benefits of biofuels production based on agricultural commodity feed stocks are at best modest, and sometimes even negative," says the report, prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. "Alternative approaches may be considered that offer potentially greater benefits with less of the unintended market impact."The Agriculture Department's own longtime chief economist, Keith Collins, who retired in January, said that ethanol was the "foot on the accelerator" of corn demand - an essential feed for animals, as well as a part of many diets - and merited renewed debate. He said Congressional mandates for...(Read Full Post)