(UN News)  Transforming pineapple skins into product packaging or using potato peels for fuel may sound far-fetched, but such innovations are gaining traction as it becomes clear that an economy based on cultivation and use of biomass …

The latest joint OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook spawned this fascinating 10 year outlook of global biofuel markets and agricultural feedstocks. This model based projection, validated through global expert consensus, includes major food commodities and biofuels driven by the …

Gerard Ostheimer and Doug Faulkner co-authored a Biofuels Digest article with some ideas that show the benefits bioenergy could bring to Africa: “Africans should strive for sustainable fuels from native feedstocks in a modern infrastructure …

by Gerard Ostheimer and Doug Faulkner (Biofuels Digest)  …  (I)n Sub-Saharan Africa a thriving indigenous bioenergy industry can play a positive and productive role in modernizing economies and improving the quality of human life.
One challenge …

(European Environment Agency)  Only a decade ago, biofuel production from plants was hailed as an ecological alternative to fossil fuels. Recently, it has come to be seen as competing with food production and not always …

by Dick Roche (Irish Examiner)  When it was enacted in 2009, the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive was seen as a progressive step towards meeting Europe’s climate change targets ….  —  The directive — which provided …

(International Renewable Energy Agency) Southeast Asia has considerable resources to produce liquid biofuels sustainably, using biomass feedstocks that would not cause carbon-dioxide emissions or interfere with food supply. Fulfilling the region’s biofuel potential would depend on …

by Sarantis Michalopoulos (EURACTIV)  Brazil demonstrates that sugar cane cultivation can supply both food and ethanol for fuel without harming the environment or pushing up food prices, a senior official from the United Nations Food …

by Emmanuel Desplechin (Politico/ePURE)  The European Commission wants to phase out the use of crop-based biofuels in Europe, even though biofuels like renewable ethanol are currently the main driver of EU transport decarbonization. They also …

(International Energy Agency)  Bioenergy is the largest source of renewable energy today, providing heat and electricity, as well as transport fuels. Yet, more so than for other low‑carbon energy technologies, the complex and multi‑faceted supply …

(Bio-Based News)  There is a clear link between bio-based economy and sustainability as well as green economy. This is not surprising as the use of biomass induces a sustainable use of carbon i.e. carbon absorbed …

by Cindy Zimmerman (Energy.AgWired.com)  A new report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) finds that food prices declined for the fifth year in a row in 2016, down 1.5 percent from 2015. …

by Dick Roche (EurActiv/Pannonia Ethanol)   A response delivered by Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete in the European Parliament last week demonstrates just how dangerously out of touch with reality the executive is on a policy that …

by Chrysa Glystra  and Sean Bartlett (Platts)  Global biodiesel production and consumption is forecast to rise by 14% from 2016 to 2020, driven by the fulfillment of current biofuel policies in the US, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia and …

by Manisha Jha and Isis Almeida (Bloomberg)  World population growth to slow to 1% a year over next decade; Food demand growth expected to slow progressively: OECD-FAO  —  Food prices will stagnate over the next decade as the …

by Keith L. Kline, Siwa Msangi, Virginia H. Dale, Jeremy Woods, Glaucia M. Souza, Patricia Osseweijer, Joy S. Clancy, Jorge A. Hilbert, Francis X. Johnson, Patrick C. McDonnell, Harriet K. Mugera (Global Change Biology: Bioenergy) …  Understanding the nexus of food security, bioenergy sustainability, and resource management …

by Fariss Samarrai (University of Virginia)  As strategies for energy security, investment opportunities and energy policies prompt ever-growing production and consumption of biofuels like bioethanol and biodiesel, land and water that could otherwise be used …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Food vs Fuel, biofuels causing corn planting to skyrocket, low oil prices killing off renewable fuels, the subsidy myth, the emissions myth, the “people won’t buy the fuels” myth, and …

(Agrimoney.com)  The United Nations highlighted a cooling in the competition by biofuels plants for crops as it revealed a return by food prices into decline, as cereals and meat values fell to five-year lows.
The UN’s …

(Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association)  … If Big Oil truly believed its product (oil) was better than ethanol, why not launch a campaign on the greatness that is oil.
Perhaps Big Oil could tell us how oil doesn’t raise …

(Food and Agriculture Organization/Ag Professional)   All countries should strive to ensure an ambitious agreement to tackle climate change, putting food security and agriculture at the centre of debates on the issue, say FAO Director General …

(Biofuels International)  The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) has released data showing that global food prices have experienced the steepest monthly drop since 2008.
According to the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA), the …

(Global Renewable Fuels Alliance)  The UN FAO has released data showing that global food prices have experience the steepest monthly drop since 2008, casting doubt upon concerns about the impact of ethanol production in food …

(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)  In July, the FAO price indices for oilseeds and meals rose by 3–4 percent compared to the previous month, gaining, respectively, 4 and 7 points. By contrast, …

by Jose Graziano DA Silva (UN Food and Agriculture Organization/AllAfrica.com)  Over the past several years, biofuels have become a bone of contention. For some, a renewable energy source produced from organic matter amounts to a …

by Jose Graziano da Silva (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization/Project Syndicate) … But this is a false dichotomy. The choice cannot be between food and fuel. We can make good use of both. Given the right conditions, biofuels …

(CNBC/Reuters)  Livestock feed will surpass biofuels as the main source of growth in global grain consumption in the next 10 years as emerging countries consume more animal protein while lower oil prices and policy changes …

(Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials)  UN FAO, Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Carbon War Room, KLM, Novozymes and the UN Foundation partner to scale up the development and deployment of sustainable bioenergy solutions …

by Bliss Baker (Global Renewable Fuels Association) The recent drop in oil prices and global food price index should finally put an end to the food vs. food debate, writes Bliss Baker of GRFA. The price …

By Hilary Landfried (Project Gaia)  … We rarely think of it here in the West, hooked up to electric and gas grids as we are, but nearly half of the world’s population still cooks on biomass fuels …

by Elmar Baumann (Association of German Biofuels Producers (VDB)/Euractiv)   While the discussion hots up, there is good news for all those in favour of biodiesel and bioethanol as more scientific work on iLUC has been published. …

(Environmental and Energy Study Institute)  In the World Resources Institute (WRI) working paper, “Avoiding Bioenergy Competition for Food Crops and Land,” the authors work off the assumption that land-use decisions are used making an “either-or” …

(Renewable Fuels Association)  Today (January 30, 2015), the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) criticized a new report by World Resources Institute (WRI) for its false data on the environmental and land use impacts of biofuels. …

by Olivia Midgley (Farmers Guardian)  Sustainable biofuel production can offer additional incomes for farmers as well as helping to achieve energy security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) chief has said.
Speaking at the …

(AgriMoney.com)  The United Nations highlighted the vulnerability of agricultural commodity values to the weakness in crude oil markets as it revealed a drop in food prices to a four-year low, led by declines in sugar …

(Renewable Fuels Association)  Today, as the first African Sustainable Transport Forum gets under way in Nairobi, Kenya, the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) called on forum attendees to adopt biofuels friendly policies and regulations that …

by Jim Lane  (Biofuels Digest)  … With great sessions at conferences, delegates are usually keen to get a hold of the powerpoint decks. But how do you get a hold of the great Q&A that follows …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A new agricultural outlook report published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations predicts that the consumption and …

(25 x ’25)  The annual Global Forum for Food and Agriculture is currently underway in Berlin and those attending are grappling with a formidable challenge: finding ways to insure food security around the world as …

by Rudy Ruitenberg  (Bloomberg)   Oil prices were found to be the main drivers of ethanol and grain prices in a statistical analysis by the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization.
Ethanol moves in line with oil …

(Global Renewable Fuels Alliance)  As the Committee on World Food Security’s (CFS) annual Plenary gets underway in Rome, the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) is demanding the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  … The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security kicked off its annual meeting on Oct. 7 in Rome. Biofuel policy is among the …

(UN Food and Agriculture Organization)  The way certification schemes for biofuels are structured makes it difficult for smallholder producers and many developing countries to participate in export markets, according to a new report from FAO.
The …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  Earlier this month, the U.N. Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has released a draft study on biofuels and food security with a public comment period until January 30, 2013. Yesterday, the Renewable Fuels Association …

by Rudy Ruitenberb  (BusinessDay/iAfrica.com)  Biofuel output from agricultural commodities has contributed to surging world food prices in the past decade, says Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.
…Mr Brabeck-Letmathe described making biofuels from food crops as “nonsense”.
The agriculture ministers …

by Robert Vierhout (ePURE/Ethanol Producer Magazine)   … Hopefully, European regulators will take note of what has happened. If they are intellectually honest, they should acknowledge that if the U.S. biofuel policy has no real …

(American Association of Swine Veterinarians)  The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization recently published a book entitled Biofuel co-products as livestock feed – Opportunities and challenges. AASV member Dr Harold Tilstra co-authored Chapter 3; ”Impact of …

by Nigel Hunt and Veronica Brown (Reuters)    * USDA report paints less severe corn crop picture than feared
* FAO says situation seems comfortable
* Analysts still wary on prices as U.S. corn harvest in early stages
The …

by Elizabeth Pineau and Sybille de La Hamaide  (Reuters) * France pushes for worldwide pause in biofuel growth
* Biofuels push joins Hollande’s call for strategic food stockpile
* France says will mobilise G20 for better farm coordination
A French plan …

by Peter Hemphill (Weekly Times Now)  …While ethanol production has become the largest use of the corn crop, it has also developed a high protein byproduct – dried distillers grains with solubles – now highly …

by  Rudy Ruitenberg (Bloomberg Business Week)  Criticism of biofuels and their impact on commodity prices by the new director general of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization is “simplistic and misinformed,” an industry lobby said.
Higher …

by Rudy Ruitenberg (Sydney Morning Herald)  The US policy to produce ethanol biofuel from corn is raising prices for the grain across the world, said Jose Graziano da Silva, the new director-general of the United …

BEFSCI is reaching out to producers to catalogue and showcase innovative approaches that have been used in sustainable bioenergy initiatives. We want to hear stories, experiences, lessons learned about what made these pioneering activities a success …

by Prabha Jagannathan  (Economic Times)  In a significant implication for the country’s biofuel policy, a specialised arm of the United Nations has warned that the developing countries should not buy blindly into the ‘jatropha for …