Food Or Fuel - Should We Grow Biofuels Instead Of Food Crops?

I saw an interesting program a few months ago on this subject, if anyone else in the UK saw it please let me know what it was called. The theme was whether we should making crops into fuel or food.

In developing countries some governments are taking over land which has been used by local communities for many years. This land has provided local people with their food and livelihood, but has been turned over to biofuel producers. Obviously the local people are not happy about this, as they have no need for biofuel, and can no longer feed themselves. Many crops used in these situations cannot be eaten or even burnt by the people that surround them.

The price of food has been dropping over the past few decades, but with the advent of biofuels many food crops have increased in price due to more land being used for growing biofuel crops. This has had knock on effects - cattle feed has increased, and put meat prices up, rising corn prices has sparked riots in Mexico. In many developed nations subsidies are in place for growing biofuels. The rising price of oil has pushed up the price of biofuels. Each of these factors has encouraged farmers to transform their crops into fuel instead of food.

The grain used to make enough ethanol to fill a SUV tank could feed a person in the developing world for a year. As people in poorer countries spend a higher percent of their income on food, they are the most effected by changes in world food prices. In rich countries, the price of the cereal in the box is a small percentage of the retail price - most of the cost is used for marketing and profit. This means even if the price of wheat doubles, your weetabix still cost roughly the same.

Food or fuel in the future?

Some people are calling for a freeze on first generation biofuel production, to assess what the effects on developing countries is. It seems like there is already some clear evidence of hardship due to biofuel production though.

There may be some more progress in farming efficiency - the U.S. has doubled corn yields over the last 40 years. If all farmer around the world can have super efficient farms, perhaps there will be enough crops for food and fuel.

The first generation biofuels are made by fermenting food crops into ethanol. Some hope that second generation biofuels will solve the problem.

These fuels are made using waste biomass from food processing, or inedible plants. From this material, useful sugars are extracted which are locked in by lignin and cellulose. The sugar molecules are extracted using steam heating, enzymes, or other pre-treatments and can then be fermented in the same way as first generation fuels.

There are many production methods and fuel types under development in this area. I imagine the extra cost of extracting the sugars from 2nd generation biofuels is the reason they are not popular yet.

Published - Tue 3rd Nov 2009 11:17:48