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Kill king corn
Editorial, Nature
Biofuels need new technology, new agronomy and new politics if they are not to do more harm than good
—
Zea mays has become the very emblem of plenty, with rich golden cobs of corn (maize) overspilling from some of the most effectively farmed arable lands on the planet. Jatropha curcas, on the other hand, is an unprepossessing and indeed toxic plant, better suited to scrubland and hedges. Yet in the world of biofuels, ugly-duckling jatropha has the potential to be, if not a hero, then at least one of the good guys, and a harbinger of better things to come. The golden-headed siren corn, on the other hand, is inspiring a wrong-headed gold-rush – to a dead-end of development that is polluting the modest aspirations the world might have for biofuels in general.
The common complaints about biofuels – and they seem to become more common by the day – are that they are expensive and ineffective at reducing fossil-fuel consumption, that they intensify farming needlessly, that they dress up discredited farm subsidies in new green clothes, and that they push up the price of food. All these things are true to some extent of corn-based ethanol, America’s biofuel of choice, and many are also true of Europe’s favoured biodiesel plans.
As far as the greenhouse goes, figures from the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Global Subsidies Initiative put the cost of averting carbon dioxide emissions by using corn-based ethanol at more than $500 a tonne of carbon dioxide. What’s more, the heavy use of nitrogen fertilizer in growing corn leads to significant emissions of nitrous oxide, an even more potent greenhouse gas.
…Biofuels are unlikely ever to be more than bit-players in the great task of weaning civilization from Earth’s coal-mine and oil-well teats. But they may yet have valuable niches – including some that allow them to serve some of the world’s poor, both as fuels for their own use and as exports. Provided, that is, that someone kills king corn.
(11 October 2007)
Good editorial from a premier science journal. Double thanks for making it public access! -BA
UN rapporteur calls for biofuel moratorium
swissinfo
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food is demanding an international five-year ban on producing biofuels to combat soaring food prices.
Switzerland’s Jean Ziegler said the conversion of arable land for plants used for green fuel had led to an explosion of agricultural prices which was punishing poor countries forced to import their food at a greater cost.
“232kg of corn is needed to make 50 litres of bioethanol,” Ziegler said on Thursday. “A child could live on that amount of corn for a year.”
Using land for biofuels would result in “massacres”, he said, predicting a reduction in the amount of food aid sent to developing countries by richer ones.
“It’s a total disaster for those who are starving.”
Ziegler’s proposal for a five-year moratorium, which he plans to submit to the UN General Assembly on October 25, is aiming to ban the conversion of land for the production of biofuels.
Ziegler said he hoped that by the time the moratorium was lifted science would have made sufficient progress to be able to create “second generation” biofuels, made from agricultural waste or from non-agricultural plants such as jatropha, which grows naturally on arid ground.
(11 October 2007)
Panel Sees Problems in Ethanol Production
Cornelia Dean, New York Times
Greater cultivation of crops to produce ethanol could harm water quality and leave some regions of the country with water shortages, a panel of experts is reporting. And corn, the most widely grown fuel crop in the United States, might cause more damage per unit of energy than other plants, especially switchgrass and native grasses, the panel said.
The panel, convened by the National Research Council, said improved agricultural practices, water recycling and other steps might reduce possible problems. But it added that “fundamental knowledge gaps” made it difficult to predict what would happen as the nation’s embrace of biofuel crops expanded. Meanwhile, it said, it would be “prudent” to encourage the use of ethanol sources other than corn.
(11 October 2007)
Related from Environmental Science & Technology: Biofueling water problems
Ethanol push could threaten water supplies
Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – When it comes to solving the fossil fuel crisis, it seems like every silver lining comes accompanied by a dark cloud.
As attention turns more and more toward using corn and other products to produce ethanol for fuel, experts warn that increased production of these crops could pose a threat to the nation’s water supplies.
Both water quality and the availability of water could be threatened by sharply increasing crops such as corn, said Jerald Schnoor, professor of environmental engineering and co-director of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research at the University of Iowa.
Mr. Schnoor is chairman of a National Research Council panel that studied the potential impact of increased use of biofuels on water supplies. The committee report was released Wednesday.
(10 October 2007)
