This briefing paper reviews evidence of the impacts of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on food prices, with a focus on corn and soy, and presents new analysis on the impact of the RFS on U.S. livestock farmers. Studies examining the relationship between food prices and biofuel demand conclude …
The green slime that covers ponds is an efficient factory for turning sunlight into fuel, but growing it on an industrial scale will take ingenuity. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S015a.html
Shifting from corn to perennial crops in making biofuels is essential to save clean water, argues Jeremy Martin. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S017a.html
Biofuels could help poor nations modernize, but scaling up aid supported projects to commercial operations is far from easy. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S018a.html
Bioenergy could help bring food security to the world's poorest continent, say Lee R. Lynd and Jeremy Woods. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S020a.html
Biofuels have been hailed as key to reducing our fossil-fuel dependence, yet their environmental and social impacts remain uncertain. A complex task lies ahead for policy makers. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S022a.html
Thirty five years of experience has taught one of the world's leading biofuels producers several essential lessons, which other countries should heed, says Marcia Moraes. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S025a.html
Letter to Andhra Pradesh CM from the Millet Network of India on the government's decision to provide an input subsidy for maize farmers to a tune of Rs.5000 per acre.
The U.S. ethanol industry is growing up. Moves in Washington to start weaning producers off government support are not expected to stunt a sector that had often been perceived as too fragile to withstand the travails of market forces. This week's largely symbolic Senate vote to eliminate $6 billion in …
PARIS: European aerospace giant EADS on Sunday unveiled its "Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation" ( Zehst) rocket plane it hopes will be able to fly from Paris to Tokyo in 2.5 hours by around 2050. The low-pollution plane to carry between 50 and 100 passengers will take off using normal engines …
Jean Claude Gandur, a Swiss commodities trader, made a fortune during the 1990s buying oil concessions in Africa that others did not want or could not hold. Now a billionaire, he is poised to swim against the tide again with a major expansion into ethanol in Sierra Leone, the West …
CHENNAI: The Centre for Waste Management (CWM) of Sathyabama University, in association with the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), have started off a bio-diesel production centre on the campus of the University. The cooking oil waste generated at the University
FAO forecast of generally tight situation for most crops and commodities over next 18 months. Consumers are unlikely to get relief from high food prices till December 2012, despite a modest increase in global foodgrain production. High and volatile agricultural commodity prices are likely to prevail for the rest of …
Slowing deforestation and greater awareness of the value of standing trees may come too late to save the world's biggest rainforests, according to a global assessment of tropical forests published Tuesday. Tropical forests are threatened by pressures to clear land to produce food and biofuels and to plant fast-growing trees …
Milan World cereals output is expected to rise to a new record in 2011 due to more planting and improved yields but low stocks are set to keep prices high, the United Nations
Brazil's government unveiled new financing and other incentives for sugar cane ethanol production on Monday, vowing to work closely with the private sector to boost production in an industry that has struggled recently despite its immense promise. The state-run development bank BNDES announced that it would provide 30 billion to …
Scientists in Australia claim that they are developing a new and more powerful bio-fuel from feedstock - raw materials for the paper industry - which could fuel the aviation industry in the not too distant future. A team at the University of Sydney, led by Professor Thomas Maschmeyer, behind the …
Changes in developed country biofuel policy are some of the key recommendations of an intergovernmental organization report to the G20, a group of leading economies. This paper provides in-depth analysis on the relationship between biofuel policy in the US and food price volatility. In addition, it identifies options that are …
The question of whether biofuels help mitigate climate change has attracted much debate in the literature. Using a global computable general equilibrium model that explicitly represents land-use change impacts due to the expansion of biofuels, this study attempts to shed some light on this question. The study shows that if …
As the impacts of climate change escalate, efforts to develop new technologies and new approaches to reducing emissions are promoted. One proposal is to sequester carbon in soils using biochar. Biochar is essentially fine grained charcoal. Advocates claim that adding biochar to soils will store carbon safely away from the …
The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2011-2020 says that a good harvest in the coming months should push commodity prices down from the extreme levels seen earlier this year. However, the Outlook states that over the coming decade real prices for cereals could average as much as 20 percent higher and those …
