Biofuels could lead to mass hunger deaths: U.N. envoy

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Diverting sugar and maize for biofuels could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths from hunger worldwide, the United Nations' food envoy warned on Thursday.

Jean Ziegler, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, accused the European Union (EU), Japan and the United States of "total hypocrisy" for promoting biofuels to cut their own dependency on imported oil.

Fears over climate change have boosted the demand for alternative fuels in wealthy countries, but the rise of biofuel has been criticized by some who say it will put a squeeze on land needed for food.

"There is a great danger for the right to food by the development of biofuels," Ziegler told a news briefing held on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

"It (the price) will be paid perhaps by hundreds of thousands of people who will die from hunger," he added.

However, a senior official at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said recently that biofuels were getting a bad press and that rather than being a threat to the poor, they could boost food production.

Ziegler said that more and more sugar cane plantations in northern and eastern Brazil were being used for biofuels, leaving less land for subsistence farmers.

Brazil is the world's biggest producer of cane-based fuel ethanol, most of which is destined for the domestic market to meet rapidly growing demand from flex-fuel motorists.