Economist calls on U.S. and EU to reconsider biofuel targets as food prices surge

Economist Jeffrey Sachs urged the United States and the European Union on Monday to reconsider a shift to biofuels that has helped increase food prices by turning agricultural land over to energy crops.

Targets to produce more fuels that release less carbon dioxide "do not make sense now in a global food scarcity condition," Sachs, a special adviser to the United Nations, told reporters before he spoke to EU lawmakers at the European Parliament.

"In the United States, as much as one-third of the maize crop this year will go to the gas tank and this is a huge blow to the world food supply, so these programs should be cut back …