Title: Food vs. fuel and land use- Why we need Intern. Bioenergy trade
1Food vs. fuel and land use- Why we need Intern.
Bioenergy trade agric. revolution Intern.
Workshop Woodfuel supply chain- Sharing
experienceWarwick, 15-19 Sept/2008
- Frank Rosillo-Calle
- Research Fellow
- CEP/BEG
- Imperial College London
- f.rosillo-calle_at_imperial.ac.uk
- www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/f.rosillo-calle
2The food vs. fuel dilemma
- The agricultural and forestry sectors face huge
challenges and opportunities as a rising demand
for an increasingly diverse range of products
emerges. - Markets for the classical six "Fs" Food, Feed,
Fuel, Feedstock, Fibre and Fertiliser, is
expanding rapidly driven by a combination of
growing population, and rising per-capita demand
for non-food natural products.
3The growing concern with biofuels
- Recent studies questioning some environmental and
social benefits of biofuels have intensified the
debate e.g. see FAO (2007) Royal Society
(2008). - A common feature of many studies is that they
lack rigorous long term scientific data to back
up most of the claims. - Worse, most of the criticisms have been blown up
out of proportion by the general press and
detractors of biofuels. - Production of biofuels is complex given the key
role of agriculture, the potential impacts of
climate change, increasing demand for food and
energy, and environmental scrutiny.
4Agricultural dilemma
- What then could be the potential role of
agriculture in meeting such demand without
jeopardising its primary role of providing food? - What would be the economic, social, political,
and environmental consequences? - How is this increasingly complex situation
managed will be crucial.
5The dilemma of raising food prices
- The farmer needs higher prices so that he/she can
re-invest - But who is the real beneficiary
- The poor in particular needs to keep prices low
- Needs social safeguards
- Raw material plays a small role in prices
increases - Transport, transformation, speculation () real
culprits
61. Fact
- Rise on commodities international prices since
January 2000 - Source Institute for Applied Economic
Research (IPEA), 2008
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71. Fact
- Growth of world agricultural production
- Source FAO
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8Which course of action?
- There are not easy and single answers
- By transforming agriculture (i.e. through new
investment, education, skills, greater equity,
etc) and fair trade of agricultural products
(including biofuels) it is possible to produce
far more food and substitute 5-20 of petrol in
transportation by biofuels without affecting food
supply. - What is needed is to transform the way we
produce, transform, and distribute agricultural
products.
9How much land is available?
- There are more than 2Gha of underexploited land,
plus 700 Mha of other type of land that could be
used for non-food purposes. - Direct land competition is a myth rather than a
reality considering that merely 1 of the global
land area is currently dedicated to biofuels. - A complex web of factors e.g. lack of investment
in agriculture, short term investment objectives,
speculation poverty. - As Hazel Wood (2007) put it .., more food is
produced than needed to feed the entire world
population and at prices that have never been so
low. The fundamental hunger problem today is one
of income distribution rather than food
shortages.
102. Land use
- Area for agriculture
- Source Institute for International
Trade Negotiations (ICONE), 2008
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11Land alone isnt the issue
- India has stabilised crop land area by increasing
productivity through capitalization, RD, skills - Ravindranth (2006) has suggested that even with
modest increases in crops productivity, India
could free up one-third to one-half of Indias
current cropland for production of bioenergy. - And keeping up with food demand ()
12A problem of lack of investment, skills, capital,
market
- Agriculture has suffered from chronic under
investment in most parts of the world e.g. in the
1980s about 17 of international development aid
was for agriculture, but in 2005 this was just
3. - Modernisation of agriculture is essential as it
will lead to greater overall production. - Agriculture needs massive new investment, for
innovation and diversification which could truly
transform agriculture as we know it.
13Science-based agriculture ()
- Farming cannot be seen as a backward activity,
but as a science driven industry. - Investment on modern scientific research for
agriculture led to dramatic yield breakthroughs
in the last century - Example, in England wheat yields took nearly 1000
years to increase from 0.5 to 2 t/ha/yr, but just
40 years increased to 6 t/ha/yr (Hazel Woods,
2007).
14Give farmers the right conditions!!
- Give the farmers the right conditions and they
will be able to produce far more food, energy and
industrial products. - Think of the poor African farmer, only if he/she
could have access to the same conditions farmers
have in the industrial countries! - This requires many fundamental changes e.g. land
ownership, fair distribution, good educational
level, availability of capital, skills, finance,
marketing knowledge, and so forth.
15Promote freer biofuels trade
- It is illogic to tax biofuels while fossil fuels
do not have any trade barriers or any other
restrictions. - Walter et al (2008 www.bioenergytrade.org
studies show that international bioenergy trade
is essential to ensure the sustainability and low
cost of biofuels - Remove artificial barriers and leaving the market
to play much greater role in determining the
right and fair price rather than governments.
16Over-concern with biofuels (?)
- It is right to ask ourselves
- Will our concern with the environment,
sustainability, and biodiversity leads to the
imposition of requirements so stringent that it
will hinder (or even prevent) rather than enhance
the development of biofuels? - It is important to devise strategies that allow
for the best possible use of biomass resources on
a fair playing field.
17There is not a perfect fuel!!
- There is not any magic formula or perfect fuel
- Biofuels are being subjected to unprecedented
scrutiny - Why arent we applying the same criteria for all
fuels, particularly fossil fuels? - Think of the Canadian shale-oil exploration!
- Support not KILL biofuels!
18Main references
- FAO (2007) Stainable Bioenergy A Framework for
Decision Makers, UN-FAO - Hazel P Woods S. (2007) Drivers of Change on
Global Agriculture, Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society B. (2008) 363 495-515 - ROYAL SOCIETY (2008) Stainable Biofuels
Prospects and Challenges, Royal Society, London,
ISBN 978 0 85403 662 2 - Walter A, Rosillo-Calle, F, Dolzan P, Piacente E,
Borges da Cunha K., (2008). Perspectives on fuel
ethanol consumption and trade, Biomass and
Bioenergy (in press)
19 Freer trade fairer trade
- We need an agricultural revolution, primarily in
developing countries - Freer international bioenergy trade
- Fairer international trade
- Equal playing field for biofuels
20End