The Fallacy of Large Scale Agro-Biofuels Production
Mario Giampietro
Kozo Mayumi
Illustrations
336 pages, 234 x 156 mm
Publisher:
Earthscan from Routledge
Faced with the twin threats of peak oil and climate change, many governments have turned for an answer to the apparent panacea of biofuels. Yet, increasingly, the progressive implementation of this solution demonstrates that the promise of biofuels as a replacement to fossil fuels is in fact a mirage that, if followed, risks leaving us short of power, short of food and doing as much damage to the climate as ever – let alone the consequent impact on biodiversity due to additional loss of habitat for agricultural production and on rural development due to the additional stress on traditional farming systems. Worse still, these risks are being ignored.
In this definitive exposé, Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi present a theoretical framework and exhaustive evidence for the case against large scale biofuel production from agricultural crops. This book will be vital, sobering reading for anyone concerned with energy or agricultural policy or bioenergy as a complex system.
"Giampietro and Mayumi are world authorities on the use of energy in the economy. This book is the product of many years of scholarly work. It gives well-argued reasons against the misguided agrofuel policies of the European Union and the United States. Agrofuels have a low EROI, increase the HANPP (human appropriation of biomass) to the detriment of other species, and increase the water footprint of our economies." Joan Martinez-Alier, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and Past-President, International Society for Ecological Economics
Mario Giampietro is an ICREAn Research Professor at the Universitat Autonoma Barcelona, Spain.
Kozo Mayumi is a Professor at the University of Tokushima, Japan.
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