It has not been very long that bio-fuel was hailed as the best and the cheapest alternative to fossil fuel, which has been not only depleting fast but also reaching staggering rice levels. Today those hopes look false as arrayed against biofuels are environmentalists, economists, politicians and a lot many others who thinks its use will spell more misery for the poor without bringing any environmental benefit to the warning planet.

These biofuels are not seen as a green alternative to oils they can produce more carbon dioxide emissions than they have from loss of forestlands and diversion of food crops to raw material for biofuel. Very recently the attacks on biofuels have sharpened as food prices   have raised sharply. In less than 2 months, worldwide food prices have jumped 45 percent. Not everyone may agree that biofuel is a sustainable energy alternative because it eats up natural resources. In Brazil, where most of the ethanol conies from sugarcane crops, some companies have reportedly destroyed rainforests to make way for land for producing biofuel. But blaming it as a major factor in the current global food crises seems a little unfair.

Biofuels may have at most contributed to a 30 percent increase in food prices. But there are a host of other factors that account for high food prices-government policies including export curbs, poor infrastructure, uncertain input supplies to farmers, frequent droughts in major grain producing nations, inadequate irrigation facilities, declining productivity, and speculation.

But there is little to doubt that a major factor in high food prices is the gap between the rising demand, and the dwindling supply of grain because of rising population of high earners in the developing world who have the money to eat better.

Criticism of biofuel erupted when in certain countries in the western hemisphere a staple food crop like maze-and also soybean, sugarcane and various oilseed crops-began to be used for extensive ethanol production. Corn prices have shot up in the US but its Congress has decreed that in order to end the country’s dependence on imported oil the ethanol production in the country has to go up. Brazil is the major producer of ethanol and also one of its most ardent supporters. Most of the bio-diesel in the world is produced in Europe.

Increased biofuel production has meant diversion of more land and water resources to raising crops that do not contribute to food stocks. There is no denying that crops that contribute to the food basket do get diverted to the production of biofuel. But things may not eventually look all that bad as the world gets ready for the second generation of biofuels, which do not require direct use of agricultural products. The second generation cellulosic biofuel uses non-edible biomass, agricultural waste that does not affect food production.

Cellulosic biomass is found in abundance everywhere and is cheap. Biofuels made from waste   biomass are sustainable and do not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. In the third world countries the second generation of biofuels can help improve economics. Some biofuel supporters see the possibility of individual starting producing the second-generation biofuel and sell it in the open market. But such hopeful scenario will be possible only after the cellulosic biofuel production technique has been further developed, made more efficient and made available universally.