Biodiesel Helps Environment, Food Supply

Sept 12 , 2007 -In May of 1998, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) published the results of the Biodiesel Lifecycle Inventory Study.  It compared findings for a comprehensive "cradle to grave" inventory of materials used; energy resources consumed; and air, water and solid waste emissions generated by petroleum diesel fuels and biodiesel in order to compare the total "lifecycle" costs and benefits of each of the fuels.  This 3.5-year study followed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and private industry-approved protocols for conducting this type of research.

It found that for every unit of energy that goes into making biodiesel, 3.2 units are gained.  That’s a very high energy balance, especially compared to diesel.  For every unit of energy that goes into making diesel fuel, only .88 of a unit is gained, for a negative energy balance. 

The full text of this 312 page study may be found at: http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/reportsdatabase/reports/gen/19980501_gen-339.pdf.

In addition to the significant benefits that biodiesel offers to increase our domestic refining capacity and overall energy supply, biodiesel production actually benefits our food supply. Biodiesel does much more than just utilize ag commodities that there is a large quantity of on the market, such as soybean oil...it adds multiple layers of value to agricultural economics in a way that enhances our food supply.

There have been several comprehensive economic studies evaluating biodiesel in the last few years. All of these studies, using different economic models, had similar conclusions.  Greater use of fats and oils for biodiesel production increases the value that farmers receive for their crops, while making protein meal less expensive.  That means domestic livestock feed becomes less expensive than it otherwise would be, and more competitive in international meal markets for food and feed. Not only does this allow farmers to more profitably supply global food markets, it may have the effect of increasing ag processing in the United States.

Biodiesel enables essential protein and carbohydrate stocks to increase in supply and decrease in cost, which in turn allows essential food and feed to be more abundant at lower cost.  In other words, biodiesel production actually helps farmers feed the world in a more cost effective manner.