Biofuels, Bioenergy and Food Security

Technology, Institutions and Policies

Deepayan Debnath, Suresh Chandra Babu

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780128039816
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

Biofuels, Bioenergy and Food Security: Technology, Institutions and Policies explores the popular 'Food versus Fuel' debates, discussing the complex relationship between the biofuel and agricultural markets. From the importance of bioenergy in the context of climate change, to the potentially positive environmental consequences of growing second generation biofuels crops, this book provides important insights into the impact of policy, the technical implementation and the resulting impact of biofuels. The discussion of existing issues hindering the growth of the cellulosic biofuel industry and their remedies are particularly relevant for policy makers and others associated with the biofuel industry.

Transferring information on bioenergy economy through the discussion of the current and emerging biofuel market, country specific case studies explain the existing biofuel policy and its consequences to both the energy and agricultural markets. Economic simulation models explain the future of the bioenergy markets.

Biofuels, Bioenergy and Food Security: Technology, Institutions and Policies is an invaluable resource to the students, scientific community, policy makers, and investors in the bioenergy industry. Students will benefit from a variety of perspectives on major societal questions in context of the interaction between food security and bioenergy. Its review of existing literature on the biofuel marker, investment opportunities, and energy independence provides a broad overview to allow informed decision making regarding the industry.

• Provides an integrated overview of the world biofuel market by country, including a summary of the existing biofuel policies, role of investment opportunities, and rural development potential
• Discusses the impact of biofuels on efforts by developing countries to become more energy self-sufficient
• Examines the environmental consequences of biomass-based biofuel use.

Section 1

Introduction to bioenergy

Chapter 1

Bioenergy economy, food security, and development

Suresh Chandra Babu⁎; Deepayan Debnath^{† ⁎} International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, United States
^† Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States

Abstract

The economic study of bioenergy systems as they relate to achieving food security and sustainable development is at the top of the development agenda. Yet, there has not been a systematic approach to address these issues in the context of achieving sustainable development goals. This chapter introduces the issues, constraints, and challenges facing the development of the bioeconomic systems that encompasses the use of natural resources to achieve sustainable development through policy, institutional, and technological innovations. This chapter also raises several conflicting tradeoffs between the bioenergy and food security policies that countries face in achieving sustainable development.

Keywords

Bioenergy; Bioeconomic systems; Food security; Sustainable development

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. A conceptual framework to identify the factors affecting the transformation of food systems into bioeconomic systems
• 3. Bioenergy strategies to move toward a bioeconomic system
  • 3.1 Bioenergy in the bioeconomic system
• 4. Food security, food economy, and bioeconomic systems
  • 4.1 Bioenergy production: Advantages and disadvantage for food security
• 5. Concluding remarks
• References

1 Introduction

In meeting their food, energy, and fuel needs, the economies of the world are slowly gearing up to move their policies and strategies toward a transformation from a food economy to a bioeconomy (EBCD, 2017; IEA, 2016; Von Braun, 2008; IEA, 2007). In this process of moving from a food economy to a bioeconomy, the immediate tradeoff between natural resource use, food security, renewable energy, waste management, and other biobased production and resource management goals becomes a key policy concern because these goals tend to compete for the same resources, such as land, labor, capital, water, and other investments (Arndt et al., 2012; IEA, 2015). For example, there has been a call from global policymakers that the development of bioenergy policies needs to be consistent with a country's overall energy security, food security, and climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies (HLPE, 2013).

Any transformation toward a bioeconomic system requires an appropriate harmonized set of policies and strategies, institutional architecture, and human capacities at the national level to address these tradeoffs (Hartley et al., 2018). Thus in terms of a national development strategy, for example, it is important to align the national bioenergy strategies to the strategies for food security, hunger reduction, poverty reduction, economic development, and conservation (Von Braun, 2008). Furthermore, sectoral policies focusing on energy, agricultural, forest management, natural resources, industry and technology, rural development, and other social sectors need to be considered when drafting bioenergy strategies (Debnath and Babu, 2018; Debnath et al., 2018). Yet, much of the emerging and developing economies are ill prepared to face these challenges due to lack of research-based evidence, institutional capacity, and human capacity to develop and implement such system-wide policies to address the growing need for interventions toward a bioeconomic transformation of the economies (Cherubini, 2010; Paloviita et al., 2017).

In addition, in this larger transformation process, the role of the bioenergy sector and biofuels in particular needs to be clearly identified (Hartley et al., 2018; Iqbal et al., 2016). All countries of the world face a variety of environmental, social, and economic challenges in the upcoming decades. The world's population is projected to increase to 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050, and exceed 11 billion in 2100 (United Nations, 2017). This would be a 28% increase in population since 2005. This increase in world population would further stress the current global food systems. A larger and more affluent population will increase the demand for essential natural resources used in the production of food, animal feed, fiber for clothing and housing materials, clean water, and energy (Dobermann and Nelson, 2013). Bioenergy development as part of and in the context of bioeconomic transformation may offer a partial solution. To address the increased demand for bioenergy, the International Energy Agency calls for an investment of about US$25–60 billion per year up to the year 2030, and about US$200 billion per year between 2050 and 2060 (IEA, 2016). Yet, it is not clear how the developing countries and the emerging economies will be able to effectively engage in the policy development process, institutional regulatory architecture, and human capacity needs to mobilize these resources and invest them to meet the growing demand for biobased energy products (Von Braun, 2008). Policymakers need to address these challenges and the tradeoffs in transforming their food economy into a bioeconomy with particular reference to bioenergy.

In the next section, we begin with a conceptual framework that helps us to understand the factors that could contribute to the process of transforming food systems into bioeconomic systems. We follow this conceptual framework in Section 3 to ask what role the bioenergy economy has to play in the development strategies and in particular how bioenergy strategies enhance the bioeconomic transformation of the economies. In Section 4 we address the tradeoff between the bioenergy and food security policies. The last section concludes.

2 A conceptual framework to identify the factors affecting the transformation of food systems into bioeconomic systems

In the last 10–15 years, particularly beginning with the 2007–08 food, fuel, and financial crises (commonly referred to as the “food crisis”) the world economies faced, there has been a growing interest in understanding the implications of moving toward increased reliance on bioenergy and biofuels to reduce the pressure on increasing demand from fossil fuels. Policies and strategies that countries followed after the food crisis raised several policy and operational dilemmas. Researchers continue to understand the tradeoffs in moving toward a bioenergy strategy to manage their fuel and energy needs (Hartley et al., 2018). However, such strategic approaches have to be studied in the context of the larger transformation of the food systems that seems to be happening: a transformation of food systems from food-based economies to bioeconomies. In this section, we develop a conceptual framework for understanding the factors that speed up this process of transformation from a food economic system to a bioeconomic system.

It is well accepted that many of the current ecosystems in the world are already overexploited and unsustainable. Emerging factors and global trends such as globalization and climate change could exacerbate environmental problems by adversely affecting agricultural productivity and increasing stress on natural resource use (Baul et al., 2017; Jambor and Babu, 2016). In addition, to meet the growing food and fuel needs of the current and future population, alternatives must be explored so that countries can follow a sustainable growth path. Transforming the current food system into a bioeconomy may be a potential solution to this growing problem in the long run (European Commission, 2005, 2018).

To transform the current food systems into bioeconomic systems, we must first understand various elements of a bioeconomy. According to an early definition, the bioeconomy is the sustainable, eco-efficient transformation of renewable biological resources into food, energy, and other industrial products and uses (EBCD, 2017). Later, the bioeconomy concept was taken up by the Innovation Union for the development of the economic growth model of the European Union, recognizing that the bioeconomy represents only one but a very important sector (EBCD, 2017). A bioeconomy includes a number of characteristics and can be defined as economic growth driven by the development of renewable biological resources and biotechnologies to provide sustainable products, employment, and income (HLPE, 2013).

A bioeconomy has the potential to increase the environmentally sustainable supply of food, feed, and fiber production, improve water quality, provide renewable energy, improve the health of animals and people, and help maintain biodiversity by detecting invasive species (Oliver et al., 2014). Yet this alternative approach to growth and sustainability remains underexplored. To transform a food economy into a bioeconomy we would need at the minimum technological innovation, appropriate markets and institutions, and innovative policy processes in place. Fig. 1.1 illustrates a conceptual framework that shows how a food system can be transformed into a bioeconomic system. Based on the conceptual framework presented we provide potential steps that can be taken to carry out food system transformation, from food economy to bioeconomy.

Fig. 1.1 From food economy to bioeconomy.

Drivers of development of the bioeconomic system include, among other things, the increased demand for sustainable renewal of biological resources, the need to improve the management of renewable resources, and the need to respond to global challenges such as energy and food security ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contributors
• Preface and acknowledgments
• Section 1: Introduction to bioenergy
• Section 2: Technological options
• Section 3: Sector/market integration, contributions, debates and challenges
• Section 4: Analyzing policy options
• Section 5: Institutional challenges and option
• Index