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Environmental impacts of emerging biomass feedstock markets: energy, agriculture, and the farmer
Citation:
DODDER, R., A. Elobeid, T. JOHNSON, O. KAPLAN, L. A. Kurkalova, S. Secchi, AND S. Tokgoz. Environmental impacts of emerging biomass feedstock markets: energy, agriculture, and the farmer. FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT. Ecological Society of America, Ithaca, NY, , p. 1-12, (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
journal article
Description:
The production of biofuels in the United States and elsewhere has the potential to induce major changes in rural landscapes via a burgeoning demand for biomass resources. This includes existing agricultural commodities such as corn grain for ethanol and soybean oil for biodiesel, and emerging feed stocks, such as corn stover, other agricultural residues, and dedicated energy crops. The production of these renewable, albeit limited, resources will induce changes in land use and management practices that will affect environmental outcomes ranging from carbon sequestration to habitat changes. In order to understand these changes, it is critical to look at the field-level response of the biomass producers-the farmers-to more tightly integrated agricultural and energy markets. We argue that biofuels policies will have to struggle with balancing the agricultural-energy market drivers with non-marketed environmental impacts in order to ensure sustainable biofuels production.
