Will Farmers Own the Emerging Biofuels Sector?

Filed in archive Opinion on October 16, 2006

An oil company executive once said that the emerging biofuel industry confuses oil policy with agricultural policy. I couldn't make up my mind if they are completely right or dead wrong, even today. The development of biofuels has taken a speed and veracity that makes making sense of policies extremely difficult. Making the policies themselves prove difficult. And the fact that the policies are bridging two completely different industries, oil and agriculture, together requires more than mere written laws or emphatically made presidential speeches.

For instance, in US and Canada, sectors that are developing cellulosic ethanol now think of the policy structure for biofuels as nothing more than piecemeal. They believe that the real pace of progress for biofuel development, particularly cellulosic ethanol is inhibited. According to David Morris of the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) the missing link between the technology available and the market has been identified but remains elusive. This missing link is farmer ownership. Farmers do not know how crucial they are to the success of biofuel use in this planet. The ILSR (as do I) fear that agriculture many not grow beyond its current status to become a truly significant factor for biofuel development.

Are our policies geared leaning towards agricultural development or oil/fuel stabilization? If they are either one then the possibility of failure remains strong. But hope still exists. Read this report from ILSR entitled Putting the Pieces Together: Commercializing Ethanol to get some ideas.