Brazil’s president has defended biofuels at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s meeting in Brasilia.

Although biofuels have been criticised for driving up food prices and not actually bringing much environmental benefit, it seems President ‘Lula’ (Luiz Inacio da Silva), is a big fan. This post is quite quote-heavy because that man really knows how to give good soundbite.

“Biofuels aren’t the villain that threatens food security,” he said (various, eg WSJ).

And to the UN’s rapporteur for the right to food, who said that biofuel production is a crime against humanity, Lula responded: “The real crime against humanity would be to just cast aside biofuels and push countries struggling with food and energy shortages towards dependency and insecurity.” (English from AFP, Portuguese from Globo).

Western subsidies are actually to blame, he said. “Don’t tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world wasn’t prepared to see millions of Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat” (Reuters).

Lula seems to think there is enough land for food and fuel. “It is important to come here and put your feet in the mud to see how the people live, the amount of land, and the potential for production we have,” he said (O Estadao de S. Paulo).

Image: Lula / Ricardo Stuckert/PR