December 2009

The relative contributions of changes in yield and land area to increasing crop output
Lywood W, Pinkney J, Cockerill S
DOI: 10.1111/j.1757-1707.2009.01028.x
GCB Bioenergy © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Published in the Wiley-Blackwell journal 'Global Change Biology - Bioenergy'.
The published article can be viewed here.

This paper shows that additional demand for EU cereal grains will lead to higher crop yields.  This has the potential to provide most of the extra crops that will be required to meet both the EU’s food needs as well as the EU targets for biofuels. The relative contributions of yield and area depend on the relative economics of obtaining increased output from these alternative sources. Of all the crops and regions considered, EU cereal grain yields have been the most responsive to demand signals. The paper highlights that any evaluation of the land use consequences of new demand for biofuels derived from EU biorefinery feedstock crops needs to properly account for the responsiveness of crop yields to this new demand.

November 2009

Impact of protein concentrate coproducts on net land requirement for European biofuel production
Lywood W, Pinkney J, Cockerill S
DOI: 10.1111/j.1757-1707.2009.01026.x
GCB Bioenergy © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Published in the Wiley-Blackwell journal 'Global Change Biology - Bioenergy'.
The published article can be viewed here.

This paper shows how refining EU wheat to produce bioethanol and high protein animal feed can reduce pressures on the world’s threatened rainforests. It highlights the potential of using idle EU agricultural land to reduce Europe’s growing demand for soy meal imports and so reduce the demand for cropland outside Europe. Currently the EU meat and dairy industries use over 35 million tonnes of soy meal as a high protein ingredient in animal feeds each year.  This requires nearly 20 million hectares of land, more than the total area of UK farmland. The soy meal is mostly imported from South America where it is often grown on carbon rich or deforested land.  The high protein animal feed produced by refining wheat will reduce these soy imports from South America. This, in turn, will alleviate pressures on deforestation arising from the continuing expansion of soy production in Brazil, Argentina and several other South American countries.