Green Living: Daryl Hannah clings to bio-fuel convictions

By Nick Rosen

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah says she did not foresee the effect that bio-fuel production would have on food prices when she began campaigning for a switch to them from fossil fuels like oil and coal.

But she is still certain that bio-fuel -- solid, liquid or gas fuel made from organic materials such as corn, sugar cane or sugar beets -- is vital for the U.S. economy.

Both the International Monetary Fund and a top World Bank economist said this year that large increases in bio-fuel production in the United States and Europe are the main reason behind a steep rise in global food prices.

World Bank economist Don Mitchell concluded that bio-fuels and related low grain inventories, speculative activity, and food export bans pushed food prices up by 70-75 percent.

For two decades, spanning many of her major movies including "Wall Street," the 46-year-old Hannah lived quietly on her eco-farm in the Rocky Mountains and she still does.

She relies on renewable energy, and water from a spring to meet her daily needs. She lives there most of the year, growing her own food (she's a vegetarian), rearing and riding horses.

While her house, a former stagecoach stop, was being re-modelled, Hannah stayed in a tipi (teepee) for nearly two years.

"I still use my tipi summer and fall. They are a beautiful, perfect light impact dwelling. I lived in it year-round for years before and while I was winterising the old stagecoach stop," she said in an interview.