The increasing use of biofuels is undermining food security by forcing up the price of food crops, a new report from the House of Commons International Development Committee (IDC) has found.

The ‘Global Food Security’ report calls for action to reduce food wastage in the UK and improve global food security through the expansion of the Department for International Development’s (DFID) work overseas.

Launched ahead of the G8 New Alliance summit on the global problem of undernutrition, ‘Nutrition for Growth: Beating hunger through business and science’ in London on 8 June, the report focuses on ‘tangible measures’ that could have ‘a significant impact on global food security and directly benefit UK consumers’.

Biofuels

Of particular concern to the IDC are biofuels, which it argues could be undermining food security by forcing up the price of food crops. The report cites the UK’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which requires UK road transport to contain rising levels of biofuel, as well as the European Union’s (EU) own targets, which require 10 per cent of transport energy to be drawn from renewable sources by 2020.

The EU’s targets, the report claims, could cause the price of oilseed, vegetable oil, maize and wheat to increase by 20 per cent, 36 per cent, 22 per cent and 13 per cent respectively, as crops that could be used for food are instead diverted for fuel use.

The IDC therefore calls for the UK government to revise the RTFO to specifically exclude ‘agriculturally-produced biofuels’, as well as push for similar reform of the EU’s requirements.

Commenting on the issue of biofuels, Sir Malcolm Bruce, Chair of the International Development Committee, said: "Biofuel crops not only displace food crops but are in some cases providing energy sources that are potentially more damaging to the environment than fossil fuels.

“So while we recognise that refining the RFTO will make it harder for the UK to meet current EU obligations, the relevant target does not kick-in until 2020 so there is nothing to stop the UK from revising the RTFO now to exclude agriculturally-produced biofuels."

Overcoming obstacles for smallholders

The IDC also raises concerns over the practice of large corporations buying large amounts of land (and exploiting resources) in developing nations that were previously farmed by smallholders. MPs on the committee argue that UK-domiciled corporations should be required to be transparent about land deals, and call for full implementation of the UN Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure.

The report points out that in many areas, smallholders are the main producers of food, but that they can suffer from hunger and poverty, leading to lower productivity.

Although a large number of smallholders are female, they typically face many obstacles; access to credit is more difficult to obtain for female smallholders than for men, whilst quality seeds and fertiliser can be hard to come by. The report therefore argues that the DFID should devote a greater proportion of its budget to agricultural extension services – such as training and advice – in order to overcome these burdens.

Social protection

Furthermore, the report draws attention to the rising global population, stating that population growth is expected to be greatest in those regions most at risk from food insecurity.

According to the UK government, undernutrition currently affects over 30 per cent of the world’s population, with 26 per cent of the world’s children suffering from stunted growth as a result.

As populations increase and concentrate in urban areas, issues of food transport and resource scarcity will become increasingly prevalent, the IDC argues.

In order to curb the rise in population, the IDC recommends meeting the ‘massive unmet need for birth control’. It calls on the DFID to ‘maintain the strong focus on women’s reproductive rights’ that saw donors pledge to provide access to contraceptives for 120 million additional women and girls between 2012 and 2020 at the London Family Planning Summit, held in July 2012.

Finally, the IDC questions why the DFID works bilaterally in 29 countries but only runs nutrition programmes in 16 of these, and therefore demands that it expand its coverage ‘with a particular focus on nutrition during pregnancy and early years’.

It also requests that the DFID explain why it does not fund social protection programmes in 14 of these 29 nations, even though these play ‘a vital role in protecting the food security of the poorest when shocks occur’.

Domestic actions

One of the suggestions the IDC suggests the UK could take to help ease the pressure of food production in the developing world, is eat less meat.

According to the IDC, by choosing to be vegetarian for a few days each week, the UK could help stem the surges in price for grain, increasingly used for animal feed instead of human consumption, as well as curb the rate of deforestation due to increased need for agricultural land.

Sir Bruce said: “There is no room for complacency about food security over the coming decades if UK consumers are to enjoy stable supplies and reasonable food prices.

"UK aid to help smallholders increase food production in the developing world is of direct benefit to UK consumers as rising world food prices will reduce living standards of hard-pressed UK consumers."

Another suggestion calls on government to launch a national consumer campaign to reduce domestic food waste by promoting food charity FareShare and ‘similar schemes’ for unwanted food, and set national targets to curb food within the UK food production and retail sectors, with clear sanctions for companies that fail to meet these targets.

The report concludes: ‘Our report shows that real progress is achievable. With some of the measures we propose, the impacts will by nature be gradual, becoming apparent only in the medium- to long-term. For other measures, however, the impacts will be immediate, the reform of biofuels targets being the most obvious example. All that is needed is political will.’

Read the Global Food Security report.