Nations that are somewhat succsessful with bio-fuels, Brazil as an example, don't use food to make the bio-fuel
Our midwestern infrastructure is built on corn and soy... so rather than invest in equipment that would harvest something more effective, we make food into fuel.
I'm no scientist but I believe the petroleum and coal are not considered "biofuel" because they are from what was once alive, dinosuars and such. Also it is, in theory renewable, if you have a few hundred million years to wait around for it.
If the price of food skyrockets then it's not the farmer getting the extra "bling". My friend does soy and corn and he said it has not done anything for his bottom line but as you may have noticed biodiesel and gas cost more at the pump, sooooo, somebody is making the extra money!
They are working on fuel from algae, think they still have a ways to go though. They've been working on this stuff for years now however, been talking about it since about 2006 with the biofuels, corn, soy and so on. The problems are still there however, biodiesel in cold weather with gel at higher temps than regular diesel. I quit using it around October. The ethanol in the gasoline tends to damage o-rings and things in older vehicles but I don't know how true this is as I've got a '94 saturn, '95 ford and no issues from them and no problems from my '91 Sa250.