Financial crisis no cause for protectionism, WTO says

The financial crisis should not undermine efforts to open up the global economy, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said Sept. 24. WTO director-general Pascal Lamy said the lesson from the Great Depression that followed the 1929 Wall Street crash was that protectionism made things worse for economies. “The current hurricane that has

Developing world leaders urge action on food

Developing world leaders said Sept. 23 that escalating food costs were exacting a heavy toll on the poor and called for global action to reverse the trend, which threatens to undermine economic growth. The impact of higher global food prices was raised by leaders in speeches to the annual United Nations General Assembly gathering, where


Corn ethanol falls out of favour

Corn-based ethanol is yesterday’s news for venture capitalists who, these days, are betting on everything from wood chips and algae to turkey guts and trash as potential sources of next-generation biofuels. Corn ethanol caught the imagination of U. S. policy-makers as a way to fix multiple problems: rising oil prices, dependence on foreign oil and

FAO urges world to rethink biofuel use

Growing demand for biofuels will boost prices of agricultural commodities in the next 10 years. The western world needs to rethink its rush to biofuels, which has done more harm pushing up food prices than it has good by reducing greenhouse gases, a United Nations report said Oct. 7. The UN Food and Agr icul