Abstract
It may be possible to say that population explosion is supported by the steady growth of global food production which started around 1950. This increase was not possible without industrially generated nitrogen fertilizer. Crop prices, having remained to be low during the steady production increase, skyrocketed around 2006. Then, however, they peaked out in fall 2008, remaining to be low until now. Biomass energy, suspected as the cause of the price rise at first, turned out to be insufficient to cause imbalance between demand and supply, because the raw materials of biomass energy are more expensive than petroleum. Other biomass energy than Brazilian ethanol made of sugarcanes is not price-competent against petroleum.
