Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday that the current international food crisis is "temporary", according to DPA. "What is happening in the world is that you have more poor people who eat. There are more Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians who eat. And food production is not growing proportionately to demand. This crisis is temporary," Lula said. Lula has been on a campaign for several weeks to defend the production of biofuel from charges that growing crops for fuel has caused soaring prices of food for humans - an issue that has become an international crisis. But Lula also criticized the United States for insisting on the production of ethanol out of corn. Brazil produces its variant of the biofuel from more energy-efficient sugar cane. The two countries together produce over 70 per cent of the world's ethanol, and last year they signed an agreement to not only boost production of the alternative to oil and its derivatives but also promote its use worldwide.
