A strong supporter of ethanol was honored this week for his efforts to fight hunger and poverty in Brazil.

Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva was recognized with the 2011 World Food Prize for his Zero Hunger strategy, which resulted in Brazil reducing by half its proportion of hungry people (with 93 percent of children and 82 percent of adults eating three meals a day) and also reduced the percentage of Brazilians living in extreme poverty, from 12 percent in 2003 down to 4.8 percent in 2009.

At the same time he was fighting hunger, President Lula was supporting a strong biofuels policy in Brazil, making the case before the United Nations in 2008 that it was possible for a country to produce ethanol and biodiesel to “reduce dependency on fossil fuels and at the same time create jobs, regenerate degraded land and expand food production.”

Brazil is currently the second largest producer of ethanol in the world, behind the United States, and uses sugarcane as a feedstock.