Food prices are rising and the world faces a food crisis but the US Department of Agriculture estimates that a quarter of all domestically produced corn this year will be used for ethanol production. Ethanol is seen as key to ending America's dependence on foreign oil  but around the world, people are protesting about rising food prices and governments are responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports and a new politics of scarcity is emerging and  ensuring food supplies is becoming a major challenge for the 21st century.

Severe weather in producing countries and growing  demand from fast-developing nations has the world's wheat stocks  at a 30-year low. Grain prices have rose for the last  five years, ending decades of cheap food.

Drought, flooding , the falling value of the dollar, a shift of investment money into commodities and the increasing use of farm land and stapples  to produce fuel have all contributed to the food crisis. But population growth and rapid development of China and other emerging countries are likely to be more enduring factors as better off people eat more .

World population is set to hit 9 billion by 2050, and most of the extra 2.5 billion people will live in the developing world. It is in these countries that the population is demanding dairy and meat, which require more land to produce.

"This is an additional setback for the world economy, at a time when we are already going through major turbulence. But the biggest drama is the impact of higher food prices on the poor," Angel Gurria, head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, told Reuters.

Global food prices have risen 65 percent since 2002. 

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