Despite concerns abou the rising cost of food thanks largely in part to a significant increase in biofuel demands, the European Union claims it can meet its target of transitioning one-tenth of all transfort fuel to biofuel by 2020 without harming the rainforest or adding to the food problem.

Officials from the EU have been trying to figure out a way to meet the target they set last year without adding to the problem of higher food costs, which are causing riots in poor countries like Indonesia and Haiti. Some experts say the move toward biofuels has contributed substantially to food prices going up, as corn and sugar crops are being diverted to the production of alternative fuel, however others like Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's environment minister, claim it is actually a demand for animal feed that is driving prices sky-high.

"There are other factors crucial for rising food prices. The big competition is not between the use of biomass for energy and food but between feed and food," he said.

When the EU set their biofuel targets last year, standards, also known as sustainability critieria, were set to protect the rainforests and the food supply. The European Environment Agency may now consider dropping the target, however Stavros Dimas, environment commissioner for the EU, would still like to see the targets remain the same, pointing out that the targets were set based on the condition that production remain sustainable.

"It's well-intentioned. If you have the sustainability provision I think it's perfectly alright," he told Reuters on the fringes of an informal meeting from April 11-12 of 13 EU environment ministers in Slovenia.

» Reuters Environment