Entries from The Big Biofuels Blog tagged with 'crops'
Will water be the limiting factor in biofuel production?
I have blogged in the past about the relationship between water and biofuels. There can't be conventional grain-based biofuels without water. But there was an interesting post on EurActive a little earlier today in response to the annual Davos meeting....
The good, the bad, the ugly 2008/2009
The best piece of work on Biofuels 2008? For me that was the The Gallagher Review of the indirect effects of biofuels production. If you're a serious player in this market, you should read that report. Worst technology to...
Biofuels: is the cure worse than the disease?
Biofuels: is the cure worse than the disease? That is the question posed by Ron Steenblick, and Richard Doornbosch in a recent online publication....
Webinar on US grain outlook
Part of CBOT is offering a free webinar on the outlook for the US grain harvest this year today at 2-3pm central US time. That's two days before the US Department of Agriculture is due to release USDA Crop Production...
US on track to deliver second biggest ever corn crop
The US is on track to deliver the country's second biggest ever corn crop, according to numbers from the US department of agriculture and reported on ICIS news.(Disclosure: I work for ICIS: About ICIS)My pal William Lemos' report says:The USDA...
A biofuels polemic from Huffington Post
If you are interested in the environmental impact of biofuels in the US check this polemic on the Huffington Post. Makes some good points about the end to end efficiency of biofuels in the automotive sector. You can't comment on...
World Bank blames biofuels for rising food prices
The World Bank's Development Prospects Group blames biofuels for rising food prices. For me the key passages in the 21page pdf are these.The United States is the largest producer of ethanol from maize and is expected to useabout 81 million...
Louisana signs advanced biofuels law into being
Lousiana has signed the HB1270 Advanced Biofuel Industry Development Initiative into law. It features the use of hydrous and anhydrous ethanol as a fuel blend stock that will be derived from plants grown in Lousiana (but not corn) and capable...
The high cost of corn in the US is choking off demand from ethanol producers
The high cost of corn in the US is choking off demand from ethanol producers, according to a report in the Des Moines Register. The report goes on to add that around 1.6bn bushels of corn will be left from...
Biofuels drive up food prices: Bodman and Scafer
There's been a definitive piece of work on biofuels and food prices presented to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on 11 June chaired by Jeff Bingaman. Two secretaries of state Samuel W. Bodman (energy) and Edward T....
Record rains dampen crops in US midwest
Record rains are dampening hopes for the harvest in the US midwest, according to my colleague David Rosen on ICIS news.(Disclosure: I work for ICIS: About ICIS)The piece is written for two big issues: fertilizers and food. It misses a...
Is US biofuel policy about soaking tax payers and starving the world
Is US biofuel policy about soaking tax payers and starving the world? The Richmond Times Despatch thinks so in its InRich Blog. Barton Hinkle's piece makes the link between food aid, the ability of biofuel to lift the rural poor...
How much land will we need for biofuels in the UK
There's a useful exchange in Hansard, the UK's parliamentary record this week on biofuels. In a written answer. Ian Pearson (MP for Dudley South and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) says that to meet the...
Food prices and food aid
Food prices are rising and this is putting increasing pressure on food aid, according to the United Nations, and reported in yesterday's Guardian. That report, which has a list of food hotspots, says: "We will have a problem in coming...
Now hops are short
One of the unintended consequences of the rush to ethanol in the US is that now hops are in short supply. Hop growers have moved into more profitable corn in the Pacific North West, according to Dethroner (where every man...
China to offer support for non-food biofuels
China is going to support growers of non-food derived biofuels. The Ministry of Finance will pay farmers a 3,000 yuan (about $405) subsidy for each hectare of forest products for biofuels, such as ethanol and bio-diesel, and 2,700 yuan for...
More on biofuels and food
There's more on biofuels and food in this interesting piece by John Vidal in the Guardian last Wednesday. Amongst other things he says In the US, where nearly 40 million people are below the official poverty line, the Department of...
Biofuels may help poor farmers: World Watch
Biofuels may help poor farmers, according to a book out today "Biofuels for Transport: Global Potential and Implications for Energy and Agriculture," authored by the Worldwatch Institute and published by Earthscan. The authors say: In addition, growth in biofuels production...
Water and biofuels
The threat to world water supplies posed by biofuels has come to the surface following a water conference in Copenhagen earlier this week. It is worth reading Adam Cox's feature on Planet Ark for an interesting analysis of some of...
Who's growing what where (almost)
I'm a sucker for maps and Purdue University has a state by state and county by county map of crops, and yield by US county. They don't name the farms or the farmers but its pretty close to who's growing...
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