These days, a dialogue about global food has to include biofuels – the two have become inseparable in recent years. At the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium this week in Des Moines many speakers are addressing how biofuels fit in the global food outlook.
The keynote speaker for the symposium kickoff Wednesday was Sir Gordon Conway, who is chief scientific adviser for the UK. He talked about the spike in food prices over the past year and listed at least ten underlying causes, demand for biofuels being only one and he did not single it out as being a major culprit. He also pointed out the increasing global population, higher per capita income, increased demand for meat, higher prices for energy and fertilizer, and a shortage of arable land as some of the other factors.
Conway stressed the need to address why we want to produce biofuels and the urgency to move quickly into second and even third generation biofuels – such as cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass and biodiesel from algae. “Maybe we should have a new World Food Prize on this,” Conway said. “In which we transform the world from one dependent on fossil fuels for energy and production of chemicals, into one that depends on plants as a basic source of our economy.”
Listen to Conway’s comments here:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-08-conway-biofuels.mp3]
The World Food Prize was established in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug to honor the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. This year’s winners are former U.S. Senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, who are being honored for their work in establishing the McGovern-Dole international school-feeding program which has provided meals to feed more than 22 million children in 41 countries.
See photos of the World Food Prize event here.
You don’t have to agree to come up with agreeable solutions… that seems to be the theme for the latest Farm Foundation Transition to a Bioeconomy Conference.
President of Farm Foundation, Neil Conklin, says bringing together a diverse group of government, academic and industry leaders, who might not agree on everything, is key to the success of these forums.
How we develop rural jobs as the country moves to a bioeconomy was the latest subject tackled today at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis.
One of the key speakers during this session was USDA’s Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr, who talked about how we need to move forward and be aggressive… even in light of the recent stock market turbulence.
How do we meet carbon reduction goals?
One of the presenters, John Reilly from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says we must be careful we’re not expanding one environmentally-friendly source just to infringe on another area of the environment.
A fascinating discussion this morning at the opening session of the Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts conference here in St. Louis.
Kitty Smith with the USDA’s Economic Research Service and chair of the “The Bioeconomy & the Environment” session says biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are a much better alternative to non-renewable fossil fuels.
The latest in a series of Farm Foundation-sponsored meetings on how to transition the country to a bioeconomy is about to get underway this morning in St. Louis, Mo.
New specifications for biodiesel have been published by one of the most highly regarded standard development organizations in the world.
The move is seen as a benefit to biodiesel makers, consumers, as well as engine and vehicle manufacturers. It received praise in