25 percent of the world's energy needs. While the move is good for reducing greenhouse emissions, soaring oil prices have encouraged most countries to 'go green' by switching to greater use of biofuels." - Alexander Müller, Assistant Director-General of Sustainable Development at the FAO. Algaculture could potentially produce far more oil per unit area. Results from pilot algaculture projects using sterile CO2 from power plant smokestacks look promising. Genetic modifications to soybeans are already being used. Genetic modifications and breeding can increase vegetable oil yields. From 1979 to 2005 the soybean yield in bushels per acre more than doubled. A company has developed a variety of camelina sativa that yields 20% more oil than the standard variety. Environmental effects There is concern that the current growing demand for vegetable oil is causing deforestation, with old forests being replaced with oil palms. When land is cleared, it is often burned, releases large amounts of the greenhouse gas CO2. Vegetable oil production would have to increase substantially to replace gasoline and diesel. With current technology, such an increase in production would have a substantial environmental impact. Food vs fuel debate In some poor countries the rising price of vegetable oil is causing problems. There are those that say using a food crop for fuel sets up competition between food in poor countries and fuel in rich countries. Some propose that fuel only be made from non-edible vegetable oils like jatropha oil. Others argue that the problem is more fundamental. The law of supply and demand predicts that if fewer farmers are producing food the price of food will rise. It may take some time, as farmers can take some time to change which things they are growing, but increasing demand for biofuels is likely to result in price increases for many kinds of food. Some have pointed out that there are poor farmers and poor countries making more money because of the higher price of vegetable oil. With the use of non-edible vegetable oils produced by trees such as Millettia Pinnata (formerly Pongamia Pinnata) or the Moringa oleifera tree, both which grow on borderline or non-arable land, the food versus fuel debate becomes less of an either/or question. Apart from their facility of growing in non-arable and/or marginal land, these trees offer major advantages over peanut, soy-bean, sunflower, etc., in that they have long lives (up to 100 years), very low maintenance