2011-01-21 11:27

HAVANA - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro urged the international community on Thursday to increase the production of food instead of bio-fuels.

Castro said this would be the only way to ensure food supply for the increasing world population while preventing the price rise and avoiding the threat of a food crisis.

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"The first issue to be resolved by the world community would be to choose between food and bio-fuels," Castro wrote in his new "Reflections" published here on Thursday.

"If the millions of tons of soybeans and corn to be invested in bio-fuels are intended for food production, the unprecedented rise in prices would stop," he said.

Castro quoted news reports on food shortage and a sharp increase in prices in more than 80 countries and regions due to flooding, climate change, bio-fuels and speculation, saying that the "humanity is facing serious and unprecedented problems."

"The worst thing is that the solutions largely depend on the wealthiest and most developed countries, who will come to a situation that really will be not able to manage without the collapse of the world they have been trying to shape to satisfy their selfish interests, and that inevitably will lead them to the disaster," he said.