Rajendra Pachauri, the Nobel Peace prize winner who shared the award with Al Gore, is warning the U.S. against developing biofuels at the cost of food (literally).

Pachauri is advising against the continued use of turning corn into ethanol as a means of alternative fuel could have a detrimental impact on the environment and cause higher food prices. He's also questioning whether the use of ethanol as opposed to traditional fossil fuels will even lower greenhouse gas emissions. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but what is clear is that the use of food crops in the production of biofuels has already driven up the cost of food and is the reason for deforestation in southeast Asia and Brazil.

"We should be very, very careful about coming up with biofuel solutions that have major impact on production of food grains and may have an implication for overall food security," Pachauri, chairman of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told a news conference. "Questions do arise about what is being done in North America, for instance to convert corn into sugar then into biofuels, into ethanol," he said

"Several questions have arisen on even the emissions implication of that route, and the fact that this has clearly raised prices of corn," said Pachauri, whose panel shared the Nobel prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore last year.

Researchers are still debating if the pros of producing biofuels outweigh the cons. On one hand, the production process is believed to emit comparable levels of carbon dioxide as fossil fuels. On the other hand, some scientists say that the overall emissions from biofuels are lower and they are currently only renewable alternative to fossil fuels.

» Reuters Environment