Japan: Testing biofuel production from rice

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture has just announced a project to produce biofuels from inedible components of rice to avoid price increases.

"We have the technology to produce ethanol fuel from rice straw, but only in the laboratory , " said Elichiro Kitamura in charge of the project. The Ministry of Agriculture will submit a budget application to test the production and use of this biofuel.

Currently, ethanol fuel is mainly produced from sugar plants such as sugarcane, corn or sugar beet. Biofuels protesters claim that it raises the price of basic foods, making poverty in the poorer countries even worse.

"If biofuels can be produced from inedible components in crops, the biofuels and food markets will not compete with each other," explained Kitamura.

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