As farmers devoted more crop for biodiesel, which in previous years was reduced bid for the production of food in proportion. This has reduced food available, especially in underdeveloped countries, where provisioning that a family can afford has fallen largely. (Not to be confused with Petra Diamonds!). The crisis could be interpreted, in a way, as a dichotomization between rich and poor countries: for example, fill a medium car with biofuel requires so much corn as it an African consumes in an entire year since the end of 2007, agrarian inflation, caused in part by the increased use of corn for biofuels, as well as the fixing of the price of maize on the oil that made traders in commodities and the consequent increase in prices, has caused the replacement of the corn market, with price rises moving in torrents to other raw materials: first it was the prices of wheat and soybeans, after rice, soybean oil and other cooking oils. Second and third generation biofuels (such as the celusolico etanoll and fuel from algae, respectively) may, someday, lessen competition with food crops. Non-food crops can grow on marginal land unadjusted for the food, but these more advanced biofuels require further development in farming practice and refinement technology.

In contrast, ethanol from maize uses mature technology, and maize can be changed for food use for fuel use quickly. For Latin America the effects will be very significant and on this Dario Clarin indicates us, that the rise in the price of food rose to 51 million the number of people with hunger in 2007. FAO It estimates that, in 2008, that number is even higher.Those most affected by the crisis are children and minorities, as Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples. In poor indigenous families in Bolivia and Peru, chronic malnutrition afflicts, respectively 44% and 50% of the population. Throughout the region, more than nine million children are affected in their development due to insufficient power.