What are agro-fuels?
Agro-fuels are fuels which are derived from renewable vegetable and animal biomass. Biomass is organic plant material which stores solar energy in the form of chemical energy. It is produced in both, agriculture and forestry as well as in industry and households. The registered list of agro-fuels includes “bio”-diesel, “bio”-alcohols and “bio”-gas (if produced in agricultural sources). “Bio”-alcohol (like e.g. “bio”-ethanol) is made from crops such as sugar cane, corn, potatoes and cereals and is used as an alternative to traditional gasoline. “Bio”-diesel is extracted from oleiferous plants like rapeseed or nuts and is supposed to replace conventional diesel. “Bio”-gas is produced from any organic material, for example liquid manure, corn and loppings. Agro-fuels are also commonly known as “bio-fuels” however this term is misleading, because the prefix “bio” implies ecological production.

What is “bio”-diesel?
“Bio”-diesels chemical name is fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). Contrary to conventional diesel, which is produced from crude oil, “bio”-diesels are made by transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat feedstock. The vegetable oil is extracted from oleiferous plants (or their seeds) like linseed, rapeseed, oil palms or sunflowers. The pure vegetable oil is spiked with methanol (an alcohol) which induces the transesterfication process. Ester is generated from the dehydration process of the reaction between acid and alcohol. By-products of this chemical process are glycerol and for example coarse colza meal which is used as animal feed.

What is “bio”-ethanol and what is it made of?
“Bio”-ethanol denotes alcohol which is exclusively extracted from biomass. It is produced (like traditional alcohol) by fermentation of the sugar in raw vegetable material. Nowadays ethanol is extensively mass-produced from specially planted economic plants like sugarcane, potatoes, corn, cereals and sugar beet. The yeast which is devoted to the fermentation, converts the sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide. Ethanol is used in the cosmetic and food industry and to replace fossil fuels.

What is vegetable oil fuel?
Vegetable oil fuel can be extracted from different oil plants, more precisely from their seeds. These plants store oil in the form of lipids as a source of energy reserve. Vegetable oil, in difference to “bio”-diesel (vegetable oil methyl ester), can be produced without any chemical additives. It is produced by cold-pressed extraction and filtering of the oilseed.
To produce higher yields, the common way of processing vegetable oil in the industrial oil mills is by chemical extraction. In Germany predominantly rapeseed is planted for the vegetable oil extraction. The most important vegetable oils worldwide are soybean and palm oil, these plantations are highly provoking the deforestation of the rain forest.

What is “bio”-gas and what is it generated from?
“Bio”-gas is a general term for all energy salvageable gases derived from biomass. It is produced by anaerobic digestion or fermentation of organic material and is comprised primarily of methane (CH4, 2/3) and carbon-dioxide (CO2, 1/3). Methane is the molecular component of the gas which can be used. If required, unrequested elements like hydrogen sulphide can be removed before the technical recovery. The source material consists of plants (in Germany mostly corn) or fertilizer like dung and liquid manure. Besides methane the digestion produces by-products which include nutrients like phosphate, calcium and potassium that can be put back into the soil as fertilizer. In principle, the biological gasification of liquid manure on private farms is an acceptable way of generating energy but does provoke problems. Mainly the nitrogen percentage of the liquid manure from the “bio”-gas production process is higher in solubility than conventional liquid manure and for that reason has a similar effect to chemical fertilizer which has a higher risk of elutriation to the ground water. The “bio”-gas plants running on corn which are derived from monocropping and which have a long haulage distance to the digester cannot be supported from the environmental point of view.

What are alternative sources to produce “bio”-gas?
Instead of corn, the “bio”-gas plants can deploy energy from fermented municipal waste and waste products (for example organic waste, biosolids or kitchen garbage). The recovery of these products contains a high ecological exploitation value, but cannot strictly be ranked among the agro-fuels or rather agro-energy.

Where is “bio”-gas used?
“Bio”-gas plants can be connected to block heat and power plants by cogeneration of heat and power. About 30 percent of the energy can be extracted as electricity and 60 percent of the remainder as heat. For the generation of energy and for waste disposal, “bio”-gas plants are leveraged especially in sewage plants and farms. In Sweden, where generating electricity from “bio”-gas is unprofitable due to the low electricity tariff, the processing of “bio”-gas to natural gas quality dominates. This product can then be connected to the gas grid and/or used as vehicle fuel “bio”-gas. Germany is also working towards the possibility of connecting “bio”-gas production plants to the general gas grid.

What is “BtL”?
BtL derives from Biomass to Liquid. All BtL-technologies are at a very early stage of development and the data and information availability is generally modest. They are characterized by a large extent of uncertainty which leads to the fact that experts do not expect a large scale implementation within the next decades. In contrast to “bio”-diesel BtL-fuels are mostly generated from the whole plant like firewood, straw or grass cutting, all which are first gasified and then liquefied. A big problem within this process is the bad energy balance. Every step of the conversion wastes a part of the stored energy. In the end the BtL-fuel consists of only half the energy that was originally stored in the wood and straw.
Apart from the BtL-method, methods exist for the liquefaction of carbon (Coal to Liquid).

Are agro-fuels climate-neutral?
The industry claims that the use of agro-fuels is climate-neutral. The primary concern of this approach is that from the combustion of fuel from plants, the emitted quantity of CO2 is equal to the absorbed amount by the plants through their growth. These calculations blank out the modality of the production.
The total energy needed to plant, tend, harvest, transport, manufacturing pesticides and fertilizers, run agricultural machinery and to process the plants to oil, diesel or ethanol makes the equation unfavourable. Within the whole process large quantities of fossil fuels are wasted. Huge amounts of CO2 are released during the tropical deforestation and the draining of marshes for the cultivation of new oil plant monoculture plantations such as soybeans or oil palms. 80% of Brazil's greenhouse gases are derived from slash-and-burn and tropical deforestation as well as each tonne of palm oil produced on former marsh areas is responsible for the emission of 10-30 tonnes of CO2, just to name one example. The reason for the high emissions is the carbon-dioxide stored in the peat, which is released during the draining of the marsh. In Southeast Asia already 45% of all marsh land has been drained.
An international group of scientists including the Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen have noted that the use of chemical fertilizer releases large quantities of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) into the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide acts 300 times more aggressive than CO2. Fuel-crops like corn and rapeseed, which store lots of chemical fertilizer are conducive to the damaging greenhouse gas emissions.
In Europe, about 80% of the bioenergy obtained from the production process of agro-fuels was previously invested in the form of fossil energy. The energy consumption in the processing of the raw material to fuel is almost as high as the gross calorific value of the final product. A study of the consolidated ecological balance of “bio”-fuels from the Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute (EMPA) finally concluded that “bio”-diesel produced from rapeseed or soybeans, depending on the country of origin, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions in a similar magnitude as fossil fuels, and its total environmental impact exceeds the emissions of sulphur reduced gasoline or diesel.

What are the effects of agro-fuels on rain forests?
Besides the soil, forests are the main accumulator for carbon-dioxide. The tropical deforestation for energy crops monocultures sets free large amounts of greenhouse gases. The massive destruction of the rain forest in Indonesia each year contributes to more than two tonnes of carbon-dioxide and emits more CO2 than Germany, France and Britain combined. Deforestation currently causes around 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the environmental organization Greenpeace, 2.3 million hectares of rain forest were destroyed in 2006, mainly for the cultivation of feed and energy crops. In Indonesia only 25% and in Malaysia 11% of the original forests are intact. In Brazil, the Amazon rain forest is increasingly in distress for the unbridled cultivation of plants as an energy supplier. Already there are 25 million hectares of soy monocultures, by 2020 the area could grow to 70 million hectares. Sugar cane cultivation is supposed to be expanded from 6 to 30 million hectares.
Forests also are a habitat for many indigenous peoples. The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) fears that 98% of the rain forests of Sumatra and Borneo could be destroyed by 2022. Besides the rain forest, the habitat of 90 million people would also be destroyed. Rain forests are extremely fragile systems. If the destruction prevails, there might be a point when rain forests collapse completely. The Amazon rain forest plays a decisive role in the World’s climate; around 90 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide are mounted there. If released to the atmosphere, climate collapse would be inevitably and the rate of global warming would rise around 50%.

What are the consequences of energy crops to the soil?
Energy crop plantations, due to the agro-industrial farming methods, produce unilaterally elutriation of soil, resulting in a lack of nutrients which advances the process of soil erosion and onward desertification. In most cases the monocultures were planted in completely inadequate soil. In the rain forests of the Amazon basin there is no possibility for long-lasting agriculture after deforestation. The thin layer of humus is depleted after two to three years, often it is washed out or blown away. Every second 2420 tonnes of soil are washed into the oceans by erosion, 75 billion tonnes of soil every year. The main reason for this land degradation is intensive agriculture and deforestation. The soil loss inevitably leads to a reduction of available farmland and thus to food shortages.
A new approach from the agro-fuel industry is to plant oil plants, like the Jatropha, on marginal habitats or wasteland, this is another short-sighted solution. These lands and ecosystems are particularly vulnerable and for a good reason should not be used for agriculture. Monocropping plantations start to destroy the land immediately and increase soil erosion.
The cultivation of energy crops is intensely promoted in Germany through political positions; however these positions enhance the contamination of soil. They allow these energy crops to be planted on fallow fields. Fallow fields serve as a refuge for animals and plants as well as for soil regeneration. Intensive cultivation of corn or rapeseed for “bio”-gas plants or for the oil production is pure poison for the already oppressed soil, caused from decades of mismanagement.

What effect does the cultivation of energy crops have on global water resources?
The irrigation of agricultural land already claims 75% of our freshwater consumption. The cultivation of plants for agro-fuels radically increases the global demand for water. If the agro-fuel trend continues unabated, in 2050 there will be as much water used for the cultivation of energy crops as for food production. Today, already 1.5 billion people suffer from water shortages. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has calculated that the production of a single liter of sugar cane alcohol consumes around 3,500 litres of water.

What are the effects of energy crops on biodiversity?
The forests are habitat for about two-thirds of the nearly 30 million animal and plant species worldwide. Half of all species live in the tropical rain forests, a unique and complex ecosystem. If this habitat is destroyed by slashing and burning for the production of new arable land for energy crops monocultures, the living communities will be destroyed as well, which will have devastating effects on several species and its complex balance system. Since 1990 the number of orang-utans on the island of Sumatra has decreased about 91% because of the long-range transformation of rain forests to palm oil plantations. Experts give the orang-utans a slim chance of survival: it is thought that within 10 years the apes will become extinct.
The large expansion of acreage for energy crops threatens, even in this country, the diversity of species through its high pollution caused by fertilizers and pesticides. Since fallow land is used increasingly for growing energy crops, many species, especially birds, are losing places for hatchery and retreat. The German Federal Nature Conservation Agency (BfN) expects that one third of all native plants and animal species will become extinct. With the cultivation of energy crops this trend can be accelerated.

What are the objectives of the certification of agro-fuels?
The increasing awareness to the dark side of the agro-fuel boom has led to consideration for a certification system to slow down, at least in part, the negative impact of the cultivation of energy crops. The objectives of this certification system are to grow: decentralized energy crops (to avoid transportation), by intercropping, with lower energy input, within closed circuits, without chemical pesticide use, without waste of drinking water or soil and rain forest destruction. Importation should be only permitted under the condition that it will provide opportunities for peasants (small scale farmers), helping to give them a voice and freedom of choice.

Can certified agro-fuels be a solution?
The obvious negative impact of the crops cultivation has led to some certification systems that guarantee minimum standards. Many countries, especially Asia and Africa, are not able to fulfil the premises for the introduction and monitoring of such systems. In addition the social component is not included; the certification system of the EU lacks the social view for the expansion of the agro-fuel production. Aswell there is only basic knowledge about sustainable cultivation. Palm oil production, for example, is not sustainable due to its water consumption. Rapeseed and corn extract a lot of nutrients from the soil and need a huge quantity of fertilizer. Even with traditional energy crops the acreage would be insufficient to cover all of the fuel consumption. For that reason a certified and extensive utilization is unrealistic as the proceeds compared to the proceeds from industrial mass-production are marginal.

What do energy crops mean for the global food security?
Energy crop plantations are in direct competition with food crops. This inevitably leads to food shortages and price increases for food and impairs the situation for the poor population. For example, the increased demand of American corn-ethanol producers already led to a price doubling of cornmeal in Mexico ("tortilla crisis"). The 800 million people who own cars, are well-fed, and have a desire for agro-fuels compete directly with the more than 850 million poor people who starve and struggle over soaring food prices. The grain, when converted into ethanol, is necessary for one single tank filling of an upper class car, could feed one person for a whole year. The aim of the G8 to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger is not feasible, if the available productive land is reduced by energy crops. Today more and more people have to be fed from one hectare of arable land: in 1950 one hectare fed 1.7 people, in 2050 seven people will have to live from one hectare of arable land.

What effect does the cultivation of energy crops have on small scale farmers?
Contrary to all allegations made by the industry that local communities would benefit from the cultivation of energy crops as a new source of revenue, for structural reasons the actual trend has the reverse effect. In order to replace fossil fuels, energy-plants need to be grown on millions of hectares. Centralized structures under the influence of multinational corporations are an inevitable result. By changing to agro-fuels the combined financial power of investment funds, major oil corporations, agro-industry and genetic-engineering corporations are dreaming of high income returns. This superstructure is not interested in small-scale structures with intact rural communities, diverse and sustainable crop rotations, mixed farming and fair trade. One of the consequences is land displacement and acquisition by the major corporations. In many countries of the South particularly the people in the direct vicinity of the agro-fuel plantations are affected. With the arisal of more and more palm monocultures mainly the small scale farmers have to suffer from illegal expropriation. In Colombia this dirty work is taken up by rightist death squads, which operate on behalf of the agro-fuel companies. Farmers who refuse to abandon their land are simply shot. 113 killings have been documented by Colombian human rights activists. Even slavery is widespread. It is estimated that for only one Brazilian sugarcane plantation around 200,000 people work like slaves under ineffable conditions. Catholic priests in the region therefore already refer agro-fuel to "death-fuel".
According to Pro Rainforest between 1985 and 1996 only in Brazil more than 5.3 million people were banished from their properties. Despite all promises the plantations create only a few jobs: in Brazil a typical eucalyptus plantation of 100 hectares offers only one job, a soy monoculture two and a sugarcane plantation ten jobs.

Are agro-fuels subsidized?
The European Union has set a target that intends to have 10% of their oil consumption replaced by “bio”-diesel by 2010, and by 2020, 20%. To achieve this goal the EU has and will continue to pay farmers 45 euros per hectare for the cultivation of energy crops. Electricity from “bio”-gas plants is refunded with 12 to 17 cents per kilowatt-hour under the new Renewable-Energy-Law (EEG). According to a study by the Leipzig Institute for Energy and Environment, Germany’s combined heat and power stations (CHP) which generate electricity from imported palm oil are subsidised with around 200 million euros by the EEG. Until now “bio”-diesel has been completely excluded from the petroleum tax. Since August of 2008 it has been progressively taxed and in parallel fuel suppliers have been obliged to blend their conventional fuel mix. The current blending quota for diesel and petrol is 1.2%. The Global Subsidies Initiative found out that agricultural fuel subsidies in the U.S. each year reach a total of 5.5 to 7.3 billion dollars and that is an ongoing trend. In 2006 only in Brazil there was more than 9 billion U.S. dollars invested in the ethanol industry.

What is the role of large corporations in the boom of agro-fuel?
The winners and the fundamental engines of the agro-fuel boom are once again the great oil trusts and car industry, the global food trusts and grain trade companies, investment firms and hedge funds in addition to the large agrochemical companies. In the future providers of genetically modified seeds expect an increased market opportunity. Private investment is swamping to public research institutions, as evidenced by BP’s recent award of half a billion dollars to the University of Berkeley, California, to set up an entire research centre just for energy crops with emphasis on developing genetically modified plants.
The promotion of agro-fuels leads to a global merger of the already heavily concentrated transnational corporations of petrochemicals, financial capital, genetic engineering and trade in agro-products. For the car industry the boom of the agricultural fuels is the perfect distraction from the request of producing economical, fuel-saving cars.

Do agro-fuels promote the cultivation of genetically modified crops?
In 2007 11.2 million hectares (almost 10%) of all genetically modified plants had been used for the production of agro-fuels such as “bio”-diesel or ethanol. About 90% of the acreage for transgenic energy crops belongs to the United States, where 7 million hectares of corn for ethanol production, 3.4 million hectares of soybeans and 10,000 hectares of rapeseed for “bio”-diesel production have been grown. In 2007 the “bio”-diesel production in Brazil used 750,000 hectares of genetically modified soybeans and in Canada 45,000 hectares of transgenic rapeseed.
All the major genetic engineering companies are working on customized plants, especially for this use. The Monsanto Group, for example, is planning to sale particularly fast-growing seeds. Above that the patenting of plants is promoted by the agro-fuel boom as well. Now that the run of the monopoly of control over the major food and feed crops is largely completed, plants which had so far only a marginal role or have not been profitable in the past are targeted by the companies. These plants include cassava, miscanthus sinensis (Chinese silver grass) or switchgrass. Monsanto is involved in many of these developments. The Mendel Biotechnology company, for example, on which Monsanto holds shares, is experimenting with transgenic Chinese silver grass. Apart from that the company is planning to field genetically modified and herbicide-resistant sugarcane in 2009 in Brazil. Not to forget the other genetic engineering companies. The Swiss group Syngenta (sales of pesticides 2005: more than 6 billion U.S. dollars) is developing a type of corn with an implanted enzyme (alpha-amylase), that fastens the ethanol extraction. Cargill, one of the World's largest grain trade companies is working together with Monsanto on a genetic maize, which can be used as fuel and as animal feed. Dupont (seed sales in 2006 more than 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) is involved in a project on which it contributes money in more starchy genetic maize.
Another problem is the attempt to relax the safety restrictions for the cultivation of genetically modified crops as it is used for energy crops. The development of genetically modified trees, which will be used for the fuel production, is encouraged by the extension of the agro-fuel sector. In the future ethanol will be gained from "optimized" cellulose of the genetic trees.

Are energy crops grown in Germany?
The territory of Germany covers 35 million hectares (with an agricultural area of 17 million hectares and arable land of 12 million hectares). In 2007 Germany grew energy crops on 1.75 million hectares. In 2010 it ought to be 2.5 million hectares. The most important plants in Germany are rapeseed for “bio”-diesel and vegetable oil fuel, covering an area of 1.1 million hectares.

Could our fuel demand be covered through the cultivation of energy crops?
Germany has a fuel consumption of 54 million tonnes per year. Germany has a fuel income (measured in diesel-/gasoline equivalent) of approximately 1.45 tonnes of rapeseed-diesel per hectare, therefore in order to replace fuel completely with “bio”-diesel, rapeseed would have to be grown on approximately 38 million hectares to cover the total annual consumption of Germany. This is more than the total territory of Germany and more than three times that of the usable agricultural area. Therefore it is obvious that Germany cannot be self-sufficient solely relying on agro-fuel as the only fuel source.
Transferring these production and consumption rates to the rest of Europe would show that to replace just 30% of the current European fuel consumption with agro-fuel consumption, Europe’s complete agricultural area would have to be used for agro-fuel crop growth. Currently the only possible way out of the "fuel-trap" is by reducing fuel consumption. Everyone can be conducive by reducing the use of their vehicles or by choosing vehicle models with lower gasoline or diesel consumption.


Übersetzung ins Englische: Andrea Rudolf, Maggie Hanson, 2009