By Prensa Latina
United Nations : The UN Food and Agriculture Organization announced a new tool Friday to assess the impact of the bio-energy industry on food security.
An FAO note said the analytical framework was designed by a team of FAO economists, the Copernicus Institute of Utrecht University, and the Oeko-Institut in Darmstadt.
The instrument will help countries quickly expand their bio-energy industry without endangering their food security.
This tool, financed by Germany, was analyzed in a two-day meeting of the FAO Bio-Energy and Food Security Project.
“The analytical framework allows the governments interested in entering the bio-energy sector to calculate the effect of such decisions on their populations” food security policies,” the FAO said.
The authority said bio-energy could affect the price of food and the rural population”s income, thus it has important consequences, negative as well as positive, for food security.