The Ripple Effect: Biofuels, Food Security, and the Environment

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2017

The post-2015 sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim to strengthen the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There are 17 SDGs, the first two tackle ending poverty and hunger as well as food insecurity, under nutrition and sustainable agriculture. To address these goals requires eradicating chronic hunger. This paper examines challenges associated with biofuel production and how they relate to SDGs and their targets. We mainly focus on challenges associated with biofuel production not adequately addressed in the SDGs. It draws from a range of peer reviewed and grey literature to advance the understanding of how biofuel production will impact the post-2015 development agenda. The findings suggest that increasing use of food crops to produce biofuels in the United States, European Union, Japan and Brazil has been one important element in explaining the steady rise in staple food prices since 2000. While this is a potential threat to food and nutrition security in low and middle-income countries, biofuel production also offers significant opportunities in low income countries. There are several challenges to the development and harnessing of biofuels, these include 1) the interaction between biofuel production and climate change; 2) biofuel production and foreignisation of land; 3) food wastage; 4) poor governance and limited production capacity; 5) biofuel production within a weak and fragmented policy framework; 6) biofuel production, land tenure, and socioeconomic impacts; 7) biofuel production and conflicts; and 8) biofuel production and deforestation. For the post-2015 sustainable development agenda to have an impact, strong actions are required to protect rural communities as well as nurture the biofuels industry. This should be matched by commensurate investments in food and nutrition security, and transparent public-private partnerships. This calls for strong and pro-poor policies on feedstock farming, processing and trading. Such policies must address the rhetoric of stakeholder participation in land use management.

Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, 2007

The production of ethanol and biodiesel has been growing rapidly in Brazil, the USA and the EU. Although the current share of overall fuel consumption is quite small, if biofuels become a global mainstream energy source, their production will eventually affect the traditional food and feedstock market. This may cause further problems in already food-insecure nations (mainly developing countries) owing to food price increases. This perspective discusses possible responses to supply variability that developing countries may make to mitigate the odds against them and take advantage of the opportunities offered by price increases through effi cient marketing systems, investing in agricultural research, improving agricultural practices, and developing an extension system focusing on the sustainable use of limited land and renewable resources. Developing technology that can convert cellulosic materials to biofuels effi ciently will also help defuse the demand stress on traditional food supplies worldwide.

Food Policy, 2012

This study seeks to assess the future impacts of biofuel production on regional agricultural and related sectors over the next decade with a specific focus on the vulnerable regions of developing nations. Using a modification of the GTAP modeling platform to account for the global interactions of regional biofuel and food markets, the analysis shows that biofuel production levels depend on the assumption about the future price of energy and the nature of the substitutability between biofuels and petroleum-based transport fuels. Low energy prices reduce the demand for biofuels and thus require greater government support to meet the desired production targets. At the other extreme, when prices are high and there is scope for substituting biofuels for petroleum-based fuels, the volume of biofuels produced will exceed the mandates. Even when biofuels are being mainly produced in developed countries, our results indicate that there are impact pathways that extend far beyond the borders of the US, Brazil and the EU. Prices of feedstock and non-feedstock commodities rise in developing countries. There is also a rise in value added from the agricultural sector-a gain that is enjoyed by the owners of land and labor, including unskilled. Hence, to the extent that agriculture is a key sector in getting growth started and addressing poverty needs, the emergence of biofuels can (in this way at least) be a positive force.

Policy Research Working Papers, 2012

Agricultural Economics, 2012

Evidence from Developing Nations, 2012

Biofuels are currently in the middle of a heated academic and public policy debate. Biofuel production has increased fivefold in the past decade and is expected to double by 2020. Most of this expansion will happen in developing nations. This book is the first of its kind, providing a comprehensive overview of the biofuel debate in developing countries. The chapters are written by a multidisciplinary team of experts who expose the key drivers and impacts of biofuel production and use. The book covers impacts as diverse as air pollution, biodiversity loss, deforestation, energy security, food security, greenhouse gas emissions, land use change, rural development, water consumption, and other socioeconomic issues. It has a wide geographical focus accommodating examples from countries in Africa, America, and Asia. As such, this book will become an indispensable companion to academics, practitioners, and policy makers who wish to know more about biofuel issues in the developing world.

2016

The long-running "food versus fuel" debate has focussed on the impact of biofuels on food security, and, therefore, the justification of government policies to encourage biofuel production. There has been particular criticism of the impact of US and EU biofuel policies on food availability and food prices, with many reports suggesting that rising biofuel production has been largely responsible for reduced global food supplies and higher food prices. hunger. Indeed, there is an overriding need to better understand the dynamics and impacts of increased food prices on rural households in least developed countries.

Environmental Science & Policy, 2009

Review of Agricultural Economics, 2008

In recent years, bioenergy has drawn attention as a sustainable energy source that may help cope with rising energy prices, but also maybe provide income to poor farmers and rural communities around the globe. Rising fuel prices, growing energy demand, concerns over global warming from GHG emissions and increased openness to renewable energy resources, domestic energy security, and the push for expansion into new markets for crops in the face of world trade outlooks are all factors driving interest in expanding bioenergy use. Despite keen interest in this sector, there are currently few players in this field: In 2005, Brazil and the United States together accounted for 99 percent of global ethanol production, whereas Germany and France accounted for 69 percent of global biodiesel production. However, developing countries with tropical climates may have a comparative advantage in growing energyrich biomass; and second generation technologies could enable expansion of the range of feedstock used from the traditional sugarcane, maize, and rapeseed to grasses and trees that can thrive in less fertile and more droughtprone regions. Potentially adverse impacts from a rapid bioenergy expansion include upward pressure on international food prices, making staple crops less affordable for poor consumers; potentially significant adverse impacts on both land (soil quality and fertility) and water resources; and on biodiversity and ecosystems, in general. Given the numerous and high level of uncertainties regarding future biofuel supply, demand, and technologies, the paper examines three alternative scenarios: a conventional scenario, which focuses on rapid global growth in biofuel production under conventional conversion technologies; a second generation scenario, which incorporates a 'softening' of demand on food crops due to 2nd generation, lignocellulosic technologies coming online; and a 'second generation plus scenario', which adds crop productivity improvements to the second generation scenario, which essentially further reduce potentially adverse impacts from expansion of biofuels. Results from the analysis show a potential food and waterversusfuel tradeoff if innovations and technology investments in crop productivity are slow, and if reliance is placed solely on conventional feedstock conversion technologies to meet future blending requirements of fossil fuels with biofuels. This situation changes considerably with increased investments in biofuel conversion and crop productivity improvements. To mitigate potentially adverse impacts from aggressive increases in biofuel production therefore requires a renewed focus of crop breeding for productivity improvement in wheat, maize and even sugar crops. While some crops may be more favorable from the perspective of profitability, they may encounter binding environmental constraints, in particular water, for example, for sugarcane in India, and wheat or maize in Northern China. And even where water might be available, other natural resource constraints, such as land availability can constrain expansion, such as in Southern China. Impacts of global biofuel development and growth on rural poor can be both positive and negative. Biofuel crops do not necessarily crowd out food crops, at least not under the alternative scenarios examined here. Instead there is room for complementarities and synergy and rural agricultural development and socioeconomic growth can go handinhand with enhancement of bioenergy production capacity.

International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, 2017

The global interest in biofuels production is agued to have substantial impacts on food security. A slew of studies have identified a nexus between biofuel production intensification and food price hikes in the international market. Regardless of the results of these studies, global biofuels production keeps increasing and it is projected to escalate even further within the next decade. A major concern is that some sub-Saharan African countries with food security worries have policies to enhance the production and use of first generation biofuels. In view of that, this paper examines the potential consequences of diverting food and agricultural lands for biofuels production with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. It reviews the current and projected trends in the production of biofuels and trade of feedstocks, analyses the potential of “food gap”, land use change and associated carbon emissions and the effects on biodiversity and water resources within the region. In conclusion, the stu...