Biofuel has been a promising sustainable source when the rampant use of fossil fuels is a pressing concern. The emission of greenhouse gases (GFGs) has an immense negative impact on the environment. In fact, the exhaustion of finite reserves of fossil fuels looms large.
This is where using biofuel as a new source to replace fossil fuels can assist in overcoming these challenges. It can help in mitigating the growing dependence on fossil fuels and pollution. However, there is a catch. Manufacturing biofuel presses another concern that we cannot overlook: food security.Let us define what biofuel and food security are before we progress to understand the conflicts and strategies.
What is Food Security?
Food security refers to a state where people have access to nutritious and safe food that meets dietary requirements. It also ensures that food preferences are
preserved in a society considering all the aspects mentioned below.
- Availability: Sufficient quantities and quality of food are consistent at the national and household level.
- Access: Individuals have the economic means to access food sources via production, purchase, and assistance programs.
- Utilization: Food consumed should be safe nutritious and culturally acceptable meeting dietary concerns effectively.
- Stability: Stability implies the stability of food availability and access over time considering fluctuations and shocks in food availability in terms of prices and quantity.
Achieving food security is a prime concern of modern civilization. Here, the production of biofuel imposes certain conflicts that we need to understand before implementing the alternative fuel manufacturing processes.
What are Biofuels?
Biofuels are alternative fuels that are derived from biomass. Biomass is any derived matter from plants and animals. The best examples of biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel. These biofuel variants have become increasingly popular in the past decades as the world moves to find renewable energy sources to replace conventional fossil fuels.
In this context, ethanol is produced by fermenting biomass. Biodiesel, on the other hand, is a product of catalytic transesterification of feedstock like vegetable oil, animal fat wastes, etc.Producing 1st-gen bioethanol requires a massive production of plants that produce starch or sugar. On the other hand, 2ng-gen bioethanol can be extracted chemically from cellulose and lignin of plants. However, commercially producing a massive amount of crops for this purpose poses a threat to food security. Land occupancy and lack of food crop cultivation contribute to this insecurity.
The Conflict of Biofuel and Food Security
These conflicts between biofuel and food security impose challenges to implementing this alternative fuel as a pillar of the energy transition.
Competition for Cultivable Land
As mentioned, producing bioethanol needs arable or cultivable land. On the contrary, food crisis has always been a problem in a world riddled with population challenges. The potential impact of biofuel production on global food security cannot be denied.
Even though biofuels promise to reduce GHG emissions and reliance on exhaustible fossil fuels, this matter is a huge concern. The expansion of biofuel crops engulfs land that is traditionally used for growing food crops. Farmers looking to monetize this concept will shift from producing food crops to biomass crops which may give birth to an unnecessary stress to food security.
Biodiesel, in this aspect, uses animal fat wastes and vegetable oils as feedstock. It does not need the requirement of cultivating plant biomass for biofuel production.
Resource Competition
Biofuel crops use substantial amounts of water and nutrients. They may cause stress on the areas that already have finite resources. Thus, cultivating biofuel crops can contribute to sustainability issues and environmental degradation. Eventually, it will lead to an imbalance in the equity of biofuel production.
Here, producing biodiesel from animal fat and vegetable oil wastes can be a problem-solver. There will be no resource competition apart from procuring such waste products from sustainable sources.
Socioeconomic Implications
This debate further compounds the possible socioeconomic implications of driving food prices up. It can affect low-income households and food-stressed populations in the countries.
On the other hand, converting grasslands and forests into agricultural land for biofuel crops will lead to a loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation. It will also adversely affect the economic aspects of the local communities.
Biodiesel does not need land encroachment or forest conversion to cultivable lands. But, producing it in a huge volume might be an issue at this stage.
Environmental Concerns
The pursuit of biofuel production can lead to deforestation, habitat destruction, and loss of biodiversity. The use of land in cultivating biofuel crops can promote soil degradation due to the conversion of grasslands and forests into cultivable lands.
Strategies to Remove Conflicts between Biofuel and Food Security
The only way to balance biofuel production and food security is to design strategies to mitigate these conflicts. Our prime focus should be sustainable biofuel production without compromising arable land and food security.
Sustainable Biofuel Production
This strategy involves creating feedstock that can minimize the competition with food crops and prioritize food security. For instance, non-food crops like jatropha can be a sustainable choice as they can convert barren or degraded lands into arable ones. On the contrary, dropping options like sugarcane and corn for ethanol production is mandatory to avoid land misuse.
Biodiesel, in this context, can be the best bet for a fossil fuel alternative to reduce pressure on food resources. The conventional feedstock used for biodiesel production is cooking oil and animal fat waste.
Using agricultural waste for bioethanol production is possible but might face a sustainable challenge. Agricultural wastes like stubbles, rice husks, wheat straws, sugarcane bagasse, etc can be used methodically for the purpose. Such innovations will not negatively impact food crop production and cultivable land use.
Integrated Farming Systems
Integrated farming systems aim at introducing biofuel crops to food crops. These techniques can reduce the conflict between biofuel and food security to a considerable extent. Strategically planting good crops alongside biofuel crops will also increase environmental sustainability. In this case, we need to focus on the optimal use of land, water, and nutrients. Similarly, rotational farming can be a better idea where empty lands can be used in the off-season.
Agroforestry systems may incorporate sustainable plans where farmers can grow food crops along with trees and shrubs for biofuel biomass. It can enhance soil fertility, reduce pest invasion, and provide additional income to farmers without compromising biodiversity. Again, crop residues can be used for biofuel production and natural manure. Hence, this measure can close the nutrient loops and minimize waste.
Waste Management
As mentioned, biodiesel production can play a pivotal role in managing waste. Its common feedstock is used cooking oil, animal fat waste, vegetable oils, etc. Used cooking oil from restaurants, food processing industries, and households can be collected and processed into biodiesel. These oil and fat-based waste products often end up clogging municipal sewers and polluting rivers and seas.
Hence, biodiesel can be a great solution for the proper disposal of vegetable oils, used cooking oil, and animal fat waste. The integration of waste-to-energy technologies will pave the way for a sustainable waste management solution. It can reduce the environmental footprint of food production industries significantly.
Policy Interventions
Policy interventions should support food security and sustainable biofuel production at the same time. Adopting measures for food security while promoting sustainable feedstock options should be the prime criteria of such policies. A few of the ongoing policies adopted by the Government of India are:
National Policy of Biofuels (NPB)
This policy allows farmers to use surplus rice stocks, damaged food grains, and sugarcanes to produce bioethanol. It also promotes 2nd-gen bioethanol production by mitigating viable funding gaps. It also offers tax incentives and a better purchase price for patronizing such initiatives.
GOBAR DHAN Scheme
Other supportive schemes
Several other schemes allow direct sale of biodiesel to all bulk consumers and lower GST to 5% on blending programs.
A robust regulatory framework will incentivize sustainable practices and discourage misusing ones in the biofuel sector. The regulations will mandate fair land-use practices, emission reduction, feedstock standards, etc.
In this context, highlighting successful policy frameworks from all over the world will help us to take a step ahead. Learning from successful models of diverse agricultural practices and food security along with biofuel production will help in proceeding to the next level.
Biofuel and Food Security – Balancing the Act
These strategies are what will be the best bet for maintaining sustainable biofuel production resources without hampering food security. The complex interplay of biofuel and food security gives birth to conflicts and needs strategic resource implementation for mitigation.
A holistic approach must be designed for sustainable biofuel production to meet renewable energy goals comprising integrated farming systems, resource procurement, and supportive policy frameworks. Developing such strategies will only be fruitful when implemented at local and national levels to reduce our overwhelming dependency on fossil fuels.
Click here to see the inside of biodiesel production plant and how it works
