Reconciling food security and bioenergy

Reconciling food security and bioenergy: Priorities for action

Kline, Keith L. (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Msangi, Siwa (International Food Policy Research Institute)
Dale, Virginia H. (Center for BioEnergy and Sustainability)
Woods, Jeremy (Imperial College London)
Souza, Glaucia m. (Universidade de São Paulo)
Osseweijer, P. (TU Delft BT/Biotechnology and Society)
Clancy, Joy S. (University of Twente)
Hilbert, Jorge A. (Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria Buenos Aires)
Johnson, Francis X. (Stockholm Environment Institute Africa Centre)
Mcdonnell, Patrick C. (BEE Energy)
Mugera, Harriet K. (The World Bank)

2017-03

Understanding the complex interactions among food security, bioenergy sustainability, and resource management requires a focus on specific contextual problems and opportunities. The United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals place a high priority on food and energy security; bioenergy plays an important role in achieving both goals. Effective food security programs begin by clearly defining the problem and asking, 'What can be done to assist people at high risk?' Simplistic global analyses, headlines, and cartoons that blame biofuels for food insecurity may reflect good intentions but mislead the public and policymakers because they obscure the main drivers of local food insecurity and ignore opportunities for bioenergy to contribute to solutions. Applying sustainability guidelines to bioenergy will help achieve near- and long-term goals to eradicate hunger. Priorities for achieving successful synergies between bioenergy and food security include the following: (1) clarifying communications with clear and consistent terms, (2) recognizing that food and bioenergy need not compete for land and, instead, should be integrated to improve resource management, (3) investing in technology, rural extension, and innovations to build capacity and infrastructure, (4) promoting stable prices that incentivize local production, (5) adopting flex crops that can provide food along with other products and services to society, and (6) engaging stakeholders to identify and assess specific opportunities for biofuels to improve food security. Systematic monitoring and analysis to support adaptive management and continual improvement are essential elements to build synergies and help society equitably meet growing demands for both food and energy.

Bioenergy
Biofuels
Energy
Flex crops
Food insecurity
Food security and nutrition
Natural resource management
Poverty reduction
Sustainable development goals

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e034fcf6-4051-4dd2-9fce-a1ab9bb57ba2

https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12366

1757-1707

GCB Bioenergy, 9 (3), 557-576

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 Keith L. Kline, Siwa Msangi, Virginia H. Dale, Jeremy Woods, Glaucia m. Souza, P. Osseweijer, Joy S. Clancy, Jorge A. Hilbert, Francis X. Johnson, Patrick C. Mcdonnell, Harriet K. Mugera