NEW YORK, N.Y. — As the biofuels industry continues its expansion in the Midwest, a United Nations expert called for a five-year moratorium on fuels such as soybean-based biodiesel and corn-based ethanol.

An independent United Nations human rights expert called for a five-year moratorium on biofuels on Oct. 26.

On Oct. 26, Jean Ziegler, a UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said converting crops like corn, wheat and sugar into fuels are driving up food, land and water prices. Noting that the price of wheat has doubled in one year, Ziegler warned that if this increase continues, the poorest countries in the world will not be able to import enough food for their people.

Many American farm groups replied quickly and strongly to Ziegler’s views. Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, questions the facts offered by Ziegler.

“Jean Ziegler’s comments about biofuels are most unfortunate in that they are factually incorrect. He starts by noting that wheat prices have doubled in one year which is correct but has virtually nothing to do with biofuels since wheat is not a significant feed stock for either ethanol or biodiesel,” Stallman explained.

“World wheat consumption has exceeded production for several years, a situation that has been exacerbated the past two years by inclement weather throughout several of the world’s major wheat producing areas. Consequently, carryover stocks which are the primary factor in determining prices have declined to record low levels, hence the increase in prices.”

Ziegler argued that biofuels will lead to more hunger. He estimated 854 million people – 1 out of 6 – already suffer from hunger. “It is a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into soil which produces food stuff that will be burned into biofuel,” Ziegler said.

National Corn Growers Assoc. CEO Rick Tolman said Ziegler is calling for the moratorium as the price of oil nears $94 per barrel. “Genocide is crime against humanity. War crimes are a crime against humanity,” Tolman said. “Any act of persecution to a large scale of people is a crime against humanity. Finding solutions to a global energy problem while continuing to provide food to the world is not a crime against humanity.”

Tolman said the United States is harvesting 13.3 billion bushels of corn — more than enough to help meet the needs of global hunger, offset petroleum use, provide a nutritious livestock feed and have more than an adequate corn supply on hand.

“It is a travesty when an official makes public statements that are so irresponsible, so inaccurate and so inappropriately damning,” Tolman added. “The statements ‘crime against humanity’ and ‘catastrophe of the massacre (by) hunger in the world’ are not to be used lightly or in such an irresponsible manner. If this is an example of how Mr. Ziegler carries out his responsibilities, he should resign his post immediately. Hunger is not something to trifle with and those in positions of responsibility need to be accountable in their statements.”

Ziegler called on the UN Human Rights Council “to declare a new human right” to protect those who flee from hunger.

The right to food is defined as “the right to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free of fear,” Ziegler explained.

Others claim that those who control the world’s oil, also can control food.

“A United Nations food expert recently called the conversion of renewable food crops into biofuels ‘a crime against humanity.’ It’s hard to understand why a bureaucracy such as the UN, who is responsible for keeping peace in the world, is focusing their attention on biofuels when it is the world’s dependence on fossil fuel that enables a handful of dictators and tyrants to threaten the balance of peace,” said Ethanol Promotion and Information Council Executive Director Tom Slunecka.