In the face of skyrocketing food prices, a huge debate is raging over biofuels. A couple of related items caught my interest.

First, the European Commission is being assailed by the likes of Venezuela (an oil exporting nation, BTW) over its goals to wean its transport industries from crude-derived fuels and onto alternatives. But will they budge?

So far, they're not giving in.

You've undoubtedly have heard about how ethanol production is diverting corn in the US, raising the price on, well, just about everything since it's used for feedstock and dozens of other uses. Not a good idea, obviously. And we don't want other nations to raze air-cleaning forests to grow more corn and other resource-intensive crops.

Yup, a regular Catch-22.

But are biofuels really to blame for this so-called food crisis? Some are starting question the the role of the financial markets, particularly hedge funds. And you thought oil and mortgage backed securities were scary...