On a large tract of land in Thailand’s dusty northeast, Suwit Yotongyot hopes to make a fortune on jatropha, a plant with a poisonous nut that might hold the key to the nation’s energy troubles.

The octogenarian leader wrote that during a meeting earlier this week between the US president and American car manufacturers, “the sinister idea of converting food into combustibles was definitively established as the economic line of the foreign policy of the United States”.

George Monbiot argues that “we need a five-year freeze on biofuels” in order to save the planet and to prevent a food battle between people and cars, while others think differently.

Africa’s vast arable lands have the potential to rival top agricultural nations like the United States in supplying biofuels to a world seeking cleaner energy sources.

But using land reserved for food production to supply biofuel demand could squeeze food supplies in a region vulnerable to shortages. It could also hurt poor consumers if the biofuel boom continues to push food prices higher.

The quest for biofuels is causing food prices to rise worldwide, which may cause a cataclysmic series of events that could stunt growth and cause distress in the developing world.

The Harper government is expected to reveal a budget of $1.5 billion over 7 years for the promotion and production of green fuels.

Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Program states:

“What President Castro points to is something the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has also raised recently: That there is significant potential and risk for competition between food production and production for a global biofuels market,” Steiner told Reuters during a environmental meeting in Havana.

German grain trading house Toepfer International, a unit of US agribusiness Archer Daniels Midland Co. states that grain and oilseed prices will remain high due to rising grain production for biofuels.

“As simultaneously demand for food and animal feed continues to rise, above all in rapidly developing countries including China and India, all market participants, especially processing companies, must prepare themselves for a long phase of relatively high prices for agricultural commodities.”

The European Union reports that by 2020, Europe will divert 18% of its cereal crops for biofuel production.