Global rice experts are debating whether setting aside farmland to produce biofuels like ethanol may be partly to blame for driving up world food prices.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking on U.S. government's view on skyrocketing food prices admitted that there has been apparently some effect, unintended consequence from the alternative fuels effort.

Biofuels are touted as a way to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, held responsible for global warming, but since they are grown on land that would otherwise be used for food production, they have been increasingly blamed for soaring food prices.