Innovation / rural finance products and process

Paper

Organic Agriculture and the Production of Biomass for Energy Use

Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CCRS), University of Zurich, April (2007)

Modern bioenergy is seen as a promising option to curb greenhouse gas emissions. There is, however, a potential competition for land and water between bioenergy and food crops. Another question is whether biomass for energy use can be produced in a sustainable manner given the current conventional agricultural production practises. Other than the land and water competition, this question is often neglected in scenarios to meet a significant part of global energy demand with bioenergy. This article combines results from several disciplines to address this question. Organic agriculture is one sustainable alternative to avoid the negative environmental effects often caused by conventional agricultural practises. Yet, burning significant quantities of organic matter - inherent in bioenergy use - is incompatible with the principles of organic agriculture. Thus, meeting a significant part of global energy demand with biomass grown organically may not be possible. Due to the dependence of organic farms from biomass input, bioenergy based on agricultural waste may not be a sustainable option either. There may therefore be a trade-off between policies and practices to increase bioenergy and those to increase sustainability in agriculture via organic farming. This article is not a general critique of bioenergy but it points to additional potential dangers of modern bioenergy as a strategy to meet significant parts of world energy demand.

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