biofuels

The meltdown that swept through the world’s financial markets in late 2008 was simply the latest setback to hit the beleaguered Canadian forestry industry.

As we negotiate yet another pothole, Mrs. Atego laughs. First at how badly I’m driving along the pitted road outside Nairobi, and second at the fact that I want to visit her farm at all. “Why do you want to see my jatropha?” she asks. “You’re going to see the worst.” When we finally arrive, I gaze over a field dotted with stunted seedlings. They only grew a few inches in their first year, she explains. It is a far cry from the promise of a harvestable crop after nine months. Like other Kenyan farmers, Mrs. Atego has experienced both optimism and disappointment over this biofuel crop. ...

In recent years, Canada has pumped billions of dollars into its biofuel industry. Most notable have been incentives paid to farmers to grow corn for ethanol production. While Canada now has a nascent biofuel industry with more and more plants opening across the country, little thought has been given to the ecological consequences of a shift from petroleum to bioenergy fuels. Instead, the discussion has centred on food-versus-fuel and climate change. While these issues are important, by focusing on them too closely, one risks missing the proverbial forest.

The debate about biofuels has become, in large part, one of food-versus-fuel. Framing the discussion in this way distorts the issue, in that only a modest portion of biofuel is produced from crops that are raised for direct human consumption. Moreover, the environmental implications associated with different biofuels and their feedstocks vary. Above all, the discussion has failed to consider the raft of issues pertaining to the future sustainability of both energy and food systems, which are indeed closely linked. Production and use patterns related to energy, transportation, food and agriculture must change as a result of environmental problems, resource limits, and economic and socio-political stresses. ...