Each day, 820 million people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat1. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico to Morocco3. And the World Food Program warned last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the world's worst-off4.
How are the wealthiest countries responding? They're burning food!
Specifically, they're using more and more biofuels – alcohol made from plant products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being cleared to grow them, most biofuels today are causing more global warming emissions than they prevent, even as they push the price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for millions of people.
Not all biofuels are bad – but without tough global standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming. Join the Avaaz campaign and help build a global call for biofuels regulation:
www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60484991
