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If European Union decides to meet bio fuels targets by 2020, then it will push close to 100 million people from the developing countries towards hunger and poverty, thereby increasing food prices and landlessness.

ActionAid, a NGO sited EU companies have taken millions of acres of land out of food production in Africa, central America and Asia to grow biofuels for transport.

The report said the 2008 decision by EU countries to obtain 10 per cent of all transport fuels from biofuels by 2020 is proving disastrous for poor countries. Developing countries are expected to grow nearly two-thirds of the jatropha, sugar cane and palm oil crops that are mostly used for biofuels.

“To meet the EU 10 per cent target, the total land area directly required to grow industrial biofuels in developing countries could reach 17.5m hectares, over half the size of Italy. Additional land will also be required in developed nations, displacing food and animal feed crops onto land in new areas, often in developing countries,” said the report.

Biofuels are estimated by the IMF to have been responsible for 20-30% of the global food price spike in 2008 when 125m tonnes of cereals were diverted into biofuel production. The amount of biofuels in Europe’s car fuels is expected to quadruple in the next decade.

If all global biofuel government targets are met, says ActionAid, food prices could rise by up to an additional 76% by 2020 with an extra 600 million extra people going hungry – six times as much as European policies alone.

Source: Guardian

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