U.S., Brazil clash over biofuels while Amazon rainforest dwindles

"Participants at a U.N. summit in Rome on the world's food crisis differed this week over a key issue: how much the rush for environmentally friendly biofuels is contributing to the rocketing prices that are causing hunger and unrest in much of the globe," says this Associated Press story.

"Briefing reporters on Wednesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said he doubted the summit would reach an agreement on the role of biofuels. He said the conference's final document would probably include compromise language."

'' 'It is frightening to see attempts to draw a cause-and-effect relationship between biofuels and the rise of food prices,'' the president of Brazil, whose country's sugar cane has long been used to produce ethanol that fuels cars and trucks, said Tuesday."

'' 'It offends me to see fingers pointed against clean energy from biofuels, fingers soiled with oil and coal,' President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said."

As the politicians were hurling accusations in Rome, a new Brazilian study indicates that Amazon rainforest depletion is intensifying. Read about it here. Brazil's new environment minister is blaming it on cattle ranchers.

Photo: The Santo Antonio sawmill in the Brazilian state of Para, in a May 11, 2008 photo. Federal agents later swooped into the region to shut down illegal logging. Renato Chalu / Associated Press

-- Reed Johnson in Mexico City