Agrifood Economics

Right to food and bioenergy

Year: 2007
Author(s): FAO
Traditional bioenergy is the dominant source of energy for about half of the world’s population and it is used mainly for cooking. This in itself makes access to bioenergy a right to food issue. Increasingly though, modern bioenergy is becoming prominent with a different kind of land-use, based on cash crops and plantations and with the use of technologically advanced processing of biomass into liquid biofuels. The name agrofuels might therefore describe the issue more aptly. In recent years, agrofuels have been seen as part of the solution in combating climate change. They are a renewable source of energy and provide new employment and income opportunities for rural populations. In fact, for the first time in many decades, agricultural commodity prices are stabilizing at higher levels. In principle, this could benefit the masses of poor small-scale farmers.
Publication type: Information product