BIOENERGY produced from crops does not threaten food supplies, researchers funded by the U.S. Government, World Bank and others said in a report yesterday, dealing a potential blow to critics of U.S.’ biofuels program.

    There is no clear relationship between biofuels and higher prices that threaten access to food, as some prior analysis has suggested, according to the research partly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

    Environmentalists and others have long argued that the increased use of ethanol, produced from corn in the United States and sugarcane in Brazil threatens global food security, which the World Health Organization defines as “access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food.” Critics of biofuels, which are used for transportation, say they could threaten food supplies.

    “There may not be as tight a link as people think” between commodities prices and food security, Siwa Msangi, a co-author of the paper and senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, said yesterday.

    A 2012 drought in the United States that slashed corn output, for example, caused ethanol plants to shutter or reduce output but not a notable change in food prices, the report said.

    Policymakers, including U.S. Senators Pat Toomey and Dianne Feinstein, have criticized a more than decade-old biofuels program that requires increasing amounts of renewable fuels be blended with gasoline and diesel.

    (SD-Agencies)