Year: 2008
Type: book
Abstract: In the 21 th century a doubling of the global food and feed production is foreseen.This growing demand will further increase the pressure on the use of land, water and nutrients.At the same time, the political move to renewable energy sources has been accelerating the use biomass, including crop produce, commercially for biofuel and power plants.Government directives, incited by climate change, high oil prices and geo-political tensions, promote partial replacement of fossil fuel by biofuels.Prices and availability of commodities, used as staple food and feed, becoming already affected by the growing demand for bioenergy.Many implications of this additional demand for biofuel on the resource base (land, water, biodiversity), environment, rural economy, food prices and social impacts are unknown.There are gaps in our knowledge regarding the global capacity for sustainable plant-based bioenergy production, while maintaining food security.It is evident that commercial biomass production will compete with food crops for arable land and fresh water resources.A quantum leap in crop productivity and resource use efficiency is needed to meet the demands for food, feed and fuel of a global population in an environmentally sound and socio-economically beneficially way.Opportunities and constraints will be discussed.
Author: J.H.J. Spiertz
Institution: Wageningen University & Research
Language: English
Subfield: Agronomy and Crop Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1512800025