Biofuels: Fuelling Hunger
EU's biofuels policies in developing countries are pushing poor farmers off their lands.
Photo: ActionAid
Encouraged by governments, land previously used to grow food is being switched to grow plants like sugar cane and corn to produce fuel for cars.
This has restricted the supply of food crops to worldwide markets – pushing food prices up rapidly.
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To fill up a car with 25 gallons of ethanol takes 204kg of corn – enough to feed a single person for an entire year.1
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Hefty European and US subsidies have promoted a massive biofuels expansion, making up to 30 per cent of the recent rise in world food prices. 2
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30 million people have already been made hungry by biofuels, while another 260 million have been placed at risk of hunger.1
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On some estimates, European and US biofuel subsidies are worth US $15.7 – US $17.7bn a year, or four times as much as all OECD aid to agriculture in the developing world.2
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