Biofuels production creates land competition for food, says US academic

A University of Virginia researcher has said that feedstock such as sugar cane should not be used for biofuel production and be used for food production to help feed people.

Paolo D’Odorico is a professor of environmental sciences at UVA and says close to 700 million people today could be fed if the biofuel agriculture went toward edible food.

Speaking about crops used for biofuel production, D’Odorico told Newsplex.com: “There is a consensus that his is not a good idea or solution to the energy problem.”

About 4% of the world’s agricultural land and 3 to 4% of its fresh water are now used for growing biofuels, according to a new study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports. About one-third of the malnourished people in the world, the findings suggest, could be fed by using these resources for food production.