Biofuel policies involve a convergence between, policies to protect ecosystems and reduce greenhouse gases and policies to support food security and agricultural income. Beginning in 1985, agricultural programs shifted dramatically from being a major cause of environmental damage to providing a strong leverage which encouraged the most environmentally beneficial practices. Biofuel programs are erasing some of those gains. Careful review of the literature indicates that biofuel incentives considerably increase both food prices and destruction of the world’s tropical ecosystems, even though funding organizations have been slow to document the latter. Attempts to frame the policy issues as a pursuit of “biofuel sustainability” apparently understate environmental and food security challenges and could undermine over 2 decades of efforts to make farm programs more equitable, market oriented and environmentally friendly.

Biofuel programs were implemented without first considering their food and environmental consequences. As the biofuel expansion occurred rapidly, many groups reacted enthusiastically to the obvious benefits to politically influential land owners and to early analyses which overestimated the benefits of conventional biofuels in reducing greenhouse gases. The biofuel boom clearly benefits the larger cropland owners in the U.S. In achieving this benefit, the boom imposes massive damage on tropical forest ecosystems and Dave 451 creates a risky and painful food scarcity situation which may last for a decade. Possible over compliance with conventional biofuel mandates, especially for corn, could add greatly to the above problems. Although biofuel programs seem to favor a switch to advanced biofuels, actual incentives favor more production of corn ethanol in the U.S. and vegetable oil (biodiesel) in Europe. Powerful incentives that support sale of flex-fuel vehicles in the U.S. could ultimately support construction of E85 pumps or pumps with 20 – 30% ethanol at gas stations and open up a Pandora’s box where the price of food will be tied to the price of oil, at a time when oil prices are volatile and frequently above historic levels. Analysis needs to consider the ecological and food price effects of likely scenarios for worldwide biofuel expansion, in an integrated manner and compare these effects with environmentally friendly alternatives.

Regards,
Angelina Matthew
Journal Coordinator

Global Journal of Agricultural Economics and Econometrics
Whatsapp No: +32 25889658