According to some women B’laan tribal leaders from Sarangani province in the island of Mindanao in the Philippines; Jatropha Curcas cultivation for biofuels has caused hunger in their tribe as they have been planted in areas traditionally intended for food crops.

Over 500 hectares of land had been planted to Jatropha Curcas leaving them only a few hectares to plant food crops. The land that now holds Jatropha Curcas was once planted to rice, corn, banana and other root crops (most likely Cassava).
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According to the Asian Development Bank’s latest Asia Economic Monitor, the days of cheap food are numbered as increased demand, supply problems and the upsurge of the biofuel industry will forever keep the price of food at current levels.

While also here in the Philippines there is a more heated debate on Population Control being waged between the Catholic Church and the Government. The Catholic Church only endorses Natural Family Planning Method and Artificial means are treated as a sin.
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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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The Father of the Philippine Biofuels Bill called on the biofuel sector to plant their feedstock only on marginal land and not to encroach on land being used to plant food crops. Aside from this, he also encouraged a ban on planting biofuels in arable and irrigated land. He suggested as well to plant biofuels in denuded mountain land. This he said in last week’s Biofuels World Conference held in the City of Makati.
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With the recent rice shortage affecting the Philippines today, there are calls from certain sectors to stop the implementation of the Philippine Biofuels Law that was signed into law on January 12, 2007.
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