A radical solution to tackle climate change by reducing harmful gases from car exhausts, while sheltering motorists from soaring petrol prices is to be cut back or even scrapped.

With prices of essential food such as Cheese, Butter and white bread rising by an average of 35.6% in the last year alone, I ask the question, is this down to the government’s lack of planning and foresight on how Bio fuels would really help?

Reports from last week say, 2.5% of the petrol and diesel sold at the pumps in Britain is bio ethanol or biodiesel. Under European Union targets, this is due to increase to 5% by 2010, and 10% by 2020.

Now questions about the wider environmental impact caused by converting farmers' fields to grow crops for bio fuels have prompted a major government rethink. With the figures published and the demands from the EU, by 2010 the UK could lose up to 60% of farmers’ crops to bio fuels.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said this week “The UK would reconsider how far
it was prepared to sign up to proposals for a tenfold increase in the use of bio fuels by 2020”, in response to fears this was causing a "world crisis" in the cost of food.

Prices of essential foods like rice have caused riots in Egypt and Haiti over the last week which led the World Bank to give a stark warning on how many people could be pushed below the poverty line.
Robert Zoellick, the Bank's president, said that while consumers in rich countries were worried about the cost of filling the fuel tanks in their cars, people in poor countries were "struggling to fill their stomachs”. And it's getting more and more difficult every day."

Zoellick said the price of wheat has risen by 120% in the past year, more than doubling the cost of a loaf of bread. Rice prices were up by 75%.

"In Bangladesh a two kilogram bag of rice now consumes almost half of the daily income of a poor family. With little margin for survival, rising prices too often means fewer meals."

This begs the question; are bio fuels doing more harm than good to human life and the environment?

By John Ainsworth