A primary issue that has prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to initiate new rules relating to the biofuels industry, isn’t the benefit of biofuels as a clean, renewable energy source, but rather, the indirect impact and changes that may occur as a result of removing natural resources and shifting agricultural production from food to energy crops to produce biofuels. There is a growing concern about the removal of large rainforests to provide land on which to build energy crop plantations, as well as the estimated increase in starvation for millions more than there already are, due to reduced food crop farming.
Land use has been a hot topic since biofuel production began. The “cost-to-benefit ratio” of cutting down a forest or filling in wetlands can easily be measured. On the contrary, a popular estimate of approximately 30 million hungry people is generally estimated to more than quadruple as biofuel crop production increases. The number of global poor and hungry, and environmental impact, are estimated through shortages (of food, of timber, of wildlife and natural resources, etc.). The actual “cause and effect” impact is not known, and may never fully be known. Speculations based on what current data are cause for concern, however.
Should existing farmland be designated solely for energy crops? Should farms produce crops that will become oil for cooking, or oil used as an additive for diesel? Should grain crops be harvested to eat and feed livestock or distilled to make ethanol? Crop and animal wastes rejuvenate the soil to grow more. They also generate biogas that may be harnessed to produce heat and electricity. Is it feasible to grow crops together and designate by volume how much will be used as food and livestock feed and how much will be turned into clean fuel?
Improved resource utilization may be the answer. For example, grain may be used for both livestock feed and to produce ethanol. Grain carbohydrates are converted during the ethanol process, but not the protein or high-protein yeast that causes fermenting. The protein or high-protein yeast may then be supplemented with forage crops (not eaten by humans) and used as a high-quality livestock feed.
Jason Grace
on behalf of the
BascoTec Internet Limited
Technologie Park 13
33100 Paderborn
Germany
