by Anna Simet (Biomass Magazine) There is enough land available to produce more food, more feed and more biofuels, which are not the cause of global malnutrition problems, according to the World Bioenergy Association.
WBA makes this declaration in a recently released, fourth publication of a series of documents intended for media and industry use as verifiable, easily-referenced sources addressing global bioenergy usage and potential.
The latest fact sheet, Biofuels for Transport, emphasizes that while the word population is growing annually by about 70 million people—while first-generation biofuel production continues to increase—the world hunger situation is improving. “40 years ago one quarter of mankind suffered hunger, in 2012 it was less than 15 percent,” the paper says. “There is no scientific evidence that global malnutrition has increased as the production of biofuels commenced and ramped up…biofuels are not the cause for the unsolved problem of the food supply for the poor.”
…The paper also addresses the discussion of indirect land use change models, which WBA describes as “blunt tools that fail to capture the complex interactions between land use, food, feed and energy demands that form the reality we live in,” and argues that adoption of regional strategies to minimize emissions caused by land use change are a better choice than strict limitation of the demand for biofuels as is now discussed in Europe. “This will only serve to hamper the ongoing and necessary technological development of biofuel systems, increase overall greenhouse gas emissions and endanger the security of fuel supplies,” the paper says. READ MORE and MORE (World Bioenergy Association) and MORE (Report Summary)