Biofuel from plants could be a solution to the looming depletion of cheap oil, but making it out of food crops poses problems that are brought into sharp resolve by the current food crisis.

One way around this problem is to use the tough inedible plants, or parts of plants, to produce fuel, but this is currently an expensive, multistage process.

That could change though, says one expert, if we produced genetically engineered fuel plants that make their own cellulose-digesting enzymes – a bit like oil that refines itself into petrol.    Read More...