Ban Van Tuan's story - biofuels and food prices

08 April 2011

“We have learnt to live without meat, oil and other necessary items.  My family believes that they can never come out of poverty.”

Ban Van Tuan grows corn and rice on his small farm in Vietnam.

What he cannot grow, he buys from the local market.

But as more and more food is burned in our cars as biofuels, global food prices have soared. This has meant that Ban Van Tuan can no longer afford to buy what he needs. Everyone in the family has to skip at least one meal a day to cut costs. He worries that his daughters will have to stop going to school because the family can no longer afford it. 

photo : ©ActionAid

Fact file

Hunger kills 1 child every 10 secs. Growing biofuels has reduced the amount available to eat, pushing up food prices.

In just five African countries, 1.1 million hectares have already been given over to biofuels - an area the size of Belgium.

Current industrial biofuels policies could push hundreds of millions of extra people into hunger by 2020

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