Creating a monoculture of corn to produce biofuel lowers landscape diversity and reduces the ability of beneficial insects to control pests, according to researchers from Michigan State University.
Document Title: Increasing corn for biofuel production reduces biocontrol services in agricultural landscapes
Author(s): Douglas A. Landis, Mary M. Gardiner, Wopke van der Werf, and Scott M. Swinton
Organization: Michigan State University
Summary: Abstract:
Increased demand for corn grain as an ethanol feedstock is altering U.S. agricultural landscapes and the ecosystem services they provide. From 2006…
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This is proof that biofuels have reached the level of mania. Like coals to New Castle, we’re now importing vegetable oil to the Middle East to make biodiesel
United Arab Emirates to Host Region’s First Biodiesel Plant
Dubai: The first UAE-based biodiesel plant in the GCC region will produce 3 million gallons annually of environmentally-friendlier diesel to power vehicles, drastically reducing greenhouse gas emission due to its less toxic content, by next year.
Biodiesel is made from a variety of organic sources…
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by GasMan
July 21, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
Using crop residue as “cellulosic” ethanol feedstock is going to save the world from hunger some of our ethanolic friends try to tell us, …
Even George W Bush has hinted so much. But research from his US Dept of Ag doesn’t point to that.
Here’s what a researcher had to say:
You could remove the extra residue,” she said, “but it still provides surface cover and will eventually become organic matter; this residue layer is especially important if you rotate with low-residue…
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by Marlow Lewis
July 16, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
Biofuel policies criticised by OECD
Agra Europe Weekly
Wednesday July 16 2008
A new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development argues that existing policies for biofuels in OECD countries are costly, and that their impact on decreasing greenhouse gas emissions is limited, writes Dr Alan Bullion, deputy editor of F.O. Licht’s ‘World Biofuels Report’.
Futhermore, the report fuels the debate over food prices by suggesting that existing support mechanisms are having a significant impact on global commodity prices, although concluding that this…
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by Marlow Lewis
June 16, 2008 @ 10:47 am
“Some of the most commonly recommended species for biofuels production are also major invasive alien species,” the paper says, adding that these crops should be studied more thoroughly before being cultivated in new areas.
A friend of mine jokes that green lobbying groups love any and every form of energy–as long as there is no market for it. As soon as a market develops–even a government-contrived market–the greens decry the environmental impacts and organize opposition. For example, Rober Kennedy, Jr. professes to love…
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by Marlow Lewis
June 16, 2008 @ 10:02 am
The planned $12.5 billion in new outlays on bio-refineries seemed to make sense when crude-oil prices began rocketing last year. But the price of palm oil - produced widely in Southeast Asia - has climbed even more steeply, making biodiesel plants that use the commodity commercially unviable.
Costlier Palm Oil, Europe Oversupply Cast Cloudy Outlook
By TOM WRIGHT
April 30, 2008
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Plans to invest billions of dollars in biodiesel refineries across Southeast Asia have been put on hold as the prices…
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by Marlow Lewis
April 22, 2008 @ 12:37 pm
“Taking these together — the environmental damage, the human pain of food price inflation, the failure to reduce our dependence on oil — it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that food-to-fuel mandates have failed.” - Lester Brown and Jonathan Lewis
Ethanol’s Failed Promise
By Lester Brown and Jonathan Lewis
Washington Post, Tuesday, April 22, 2008; A19
The willingness to try, fail and try again is the essence of scientific progress. The same sometimes holds true for public policy. It is in this spirit…
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by Marlow Lewis
April 15, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
by Marlow Lewis
April 15, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Adrian Bebb, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said: “[EU Commission President José Manuel] Barroso is looking increasingly isolated in holding this view [that biofuel programs don't aggravate world hunger]. He is living in a different world if he thinks that he knows better than all of the experts on food policy. The 10 percent target is untenable.”
ENVIRONMENT: Scientists Ask EU to Drop Biofuel Targets
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Apr 12 (IPS) - Scientists tasked with advising the European Union’s policy-makers…
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by Marlow Lewis
April 15, 2008 @ 12:02 pm
International Herald Tribune
Business of Green: An appeal to slow down on biofuel
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
ROME: Last Friday an advisory panel to the European Environment Agency issued an extraordinary scientific opinion: The European Union should suspend its goal of having 10 percent of transportation fuel made from biofuel by 2020.
The European Union’s biofuel targets were increased and extended from 5.75 percent by 2010 to 10 percent by 2020 just last year. Still, Europe’s well-meaning rush to biofuels, the scientists…
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