Striking a Balance Between Food Production and Bioenergy Needs

Global demand for our four major food and feed crops is beginning to out-strip supply, at a time when year-on-year yield per unit area increases are stagnating and while emerging climate trends may further threaten supply.  In this context it seems unlikely that in the medium term the continued use of land suited to food and feed production for bioenergy will be either socially acceptable or economically viable.  It will be argued that the use of food crops, which have been developed to meet nutritional needs, for bioenergy is environmentally flawed and sub-optimal with respect to net GHGe.  It will be shown that using Miscanthus, canes, agave and poplars as examples, there are many opportunities, some partially realized, to achieve very substantial quantities of bioenergy on abandoned or non-agricultural land, globally, with positive GHGe benefits and without unsustainable impacts on food production.  Achieving all three goals will depend on new policies based on a holistic view of these demands on land rather than the disaggregated policy development based on single issues, which has characterised this arena in recent years.