TOKYO, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - The increasing use of biofuels to tackle global warming is having a dramatic impact on global commodity markets, the head of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange said Thursday.

The recent surge in crude oil and wheat prices to record highs pointed to a transformation of commodity markets, said Craig Donohue, chief executive of the world's largest financial exchange.

OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Brazil's President Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva called Monday on Africa to join a biofuels 'revolution' to democratize access to energy across the continent.

'Brazil invites Burkina Faso Faso and all of Africa to join the biofuels revolution. With biofuels we can democratize access to energy in Africa,' Lula said.

The Brazilian leader spoke at an international colloquium on democracy and development during the first day of an Africa tour that also takes him to Congo, South Africa and Angola.

SALMON, Idaho, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - America's drive for alternative sources of energy is proving an expensive challenge for cattle farmers who are struggling to pay for traditional feed as the price of corn soars.

Corn has traditionally made up 40 percent of the diet of cattle at the Agri Beef Company in Idaho, but earlier this year the firm decided to cease relying on the grain after the price per bushel doubled.

The price rises have been driven by demand for homegrown corn to make ethanol, a biofuel whose synthesis has been sweetened by federal subsidies.

MANILA, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - In the Philippines, the smoke-belching 'jeepney' that has been the backbone of commuter transport for half a century is also said to be one of the biggest contributors to air pollution.

In Manila, a city of 12 million people, commuters spend hours packed like sardines inside jeepneys breathing in the toxic air.

Some 2,000 people die each year in the Philippines, most of them in Manila, due to the effects of air pollution and more than 9,000 suffer from chronic bronchitis, a 2002 World Bank study found.

MAJURO, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - The first thing you notice about a diesel engine running on coconut oil is the smell.

'It smells sweet. You can put your nose right up to the exhaust,' says Witon Barry, assistant manager of the Tobolar Copra processing plant in the Marshall Islands capital of Majuro.

Smelling just like coconut biscuits straight out of the oven, the exhaust is a big improvement on an old diesel engine belching acrid black smoke.

JAKARTA, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - Southeast Asian nations are gearing up for a palm oil boom as interest in biofuels soars, but activists warn the crop may not satisfy a global thirst for energy that is both clean and green.

They caution that oil palm plantations require massive swathes of land -- either what's left of the region's disappearing forests, denuded plots that would be better off reforested, or land critical to supporting local people.

TOKYO, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Japan will try to turn the millions of wooden chopsticks that go discarded each year into biofuel to ease the country's energy shortage, officials said Wednesday.

Biofuels are seen as an alternative clean energy resource that can reduce dependence on Middle East oil and lessen the impact of global warming. Japan has virtually no natural energy resources of its own.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - Biofuels, hailed by many as the green solution to offset a coming oil shortage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are not a cure-all solution, experts at a water conference in Stockholm warned this week.

Biofuels, which are made from crops, require huge amounts of water, a resource that is already in short supply in many parts of the world. Bioenergy could thus end up diverting water resources desperately needed for food crops.

LONDON, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - International rules to regulate the biofuel market should be devised and implemented, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a comment piece published on the Financial Times's website on Wednesday.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf called upon the European Union and United States to lower trade barriers against importing ethanol, establish environmental standards for bioenergy, and provide microcredit to farmers in developing countries so they can develop their biofuel industries.

LONDON, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - International rules to regulate the biofuel market should be devised and implemented, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a comment piece published on the Financial Times's website on Wednesday.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf called upon the European Union and United States to lower trade barriers against importing ethanol, establish environmental standards for bioenergy, and provide microcredit to farmers in developing countries so they can develop their biofuel industries.

MANILA, Aug 9, 2007 (AFP) - A global shift toward renewable energy could jack up food prices by up to 80 percent as crops and farmland are diverted to producing biofuels, an international agricultural think-tank warned Thursday.

Joachim von Braun, director-general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, said further crop yield improvements and increased efficiency of these alternative fuels were required if a global price shock were to be avoided.

TOKYO, Aug 9, 2007 (AFP) - Japan will study turning inedible crops such as straw into biofuel to run cars amid concern that the growing popularity of ethanol is inflating food prices, an official said Friday.

Biofuels are seen as alternative clean energy resource which can reduce the dependence on Middle Eastern oil and lessen the impact on global warming.

One biofuel, ethanol, is derived from sugar beets, wheat, corn or sugarcane, leading to concern that reliance on it will push up food prices.