Brazil at odds with UN over biofuels
BRAZIL'S President has blamed rising oil prices for the current global food crisis, saying biofuels are not the problem. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said rising oil prices were pushing up freight costs which, in turn, affected world food prices. "Ethanol production has not contributed in any way to the food price crises," Mr da Silva said yesterday in Accra, Ghana, where he was attending a three-day UN Conference on Trade and Development. "It is the oil prices that have brought about high freight charges on the transportation of food."