Food to win out over fuel

Food will win through over fuel in the end, according to a Taiwan academic, speaking at the Food in Health Security in the Asia-Pacific Region (FIHS) conference in Taipei last week.

Dr Yue-Wen Wang, Department of Agronomy, National Taiwan University, discussed the issue of biofuel production versus crops for food.

“We need to eat but we don’t need to drive,” Dr Wang said.
“The food security issue is the bottom line for agriculture and the biofuel production must be compromised for it.”

Dr Wang said the opportunity for both a biofuels industry and a food production industry to work in harmony is possible through using agricultural waste and residuals.

A calculation was made that if Taiwan were to convert every possible acre of farming land to sugar cane soley for energy production, it would only produce enough to power the country for seven days.

Farm Online