According to a leaked World Bank report, biofuels has been the primary cause of food prices going up. Grains which were earmarked for food and got diverted to producing biofuel has been the primary culprit. Plus grain speculators jumped on the bandwagon to further drive the price of grain up. The other is the increasing demand for this feedstock by the European Union and the United States for their biofuel industries so as to ween themselves off of oil.

The report, originally finished in April this year was not released so as not to embarrass the US president who recently said that biofuels caused only a 3% increase in food prices.
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PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC) President and CEO, Peter Anthony Abaya, announced the acquisition of equipment to aid in the research, development and adoption of Jatropha Curcas as an alternative fuel source in the Philippines. He also added that due to the high price of oil in the world market there is an urgent need to fast track biofuel projects in the country.

The equipment purchase was co funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). A list of the purchase equipment:
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I decided to do a rehash of an old post showing Biofuel Data on Google Trends. Google Trends is a nifty tool to see what the in-demand search queries are as well as the volume of a particular keyword that is being searched. Yep, the ultimate strategic planning tool for the sales, marketing and long range planning folks.

With the recent spike in oil prices it was logical to assume that there would be once again a lot of search queries on alternative energy. I wanted to set a base line so I did this by checking the performance of the keyword “oil price” [click on image] since if you’re planning to study the feasibility of alternative energy products you would most likely check what the price of oil is for comparison.
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Senator Migs Zubiri wants to appeal the ban on conversion of rice lands to biofuel producing areas.

Right now, we are hitting a certain snag because of a moratorium of conversion of lands in all agricultural areas. Several investors want to put up biofuel plants but they are facing difficulties in land conversion.[source]

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Well the father of the Man that Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri narrowly defeated in last years elections seems to think so.

That father is of course Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. After his son’s application for a TRO on the proclamation of Senator Zubiri as the winner of the closely contested last slot in the Senate was denied by the Supreme Court, Koko Pimentel filed a complaint at Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) asking for a recount of some precincts in Mindanao where he believes that he had rightfully won.
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Indo Digital Base Energy Solution, based in Indonesia, is looking for a JV partner from the Philippine side. They will supply the land (50,000 - 200,000 hectares worth) while the Philippine partner will supply the funding for the farm and the biofuel processing plant (Ethanol and Biodiesel). They are planning to use Jatropha and Cassava as their feedstock for the production of biodiesel and bioethanol.
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