Ethanol Production, Food and Forests

Abstract

This paper investigates the direct and indirect impacts of ethanol production on land use, deforestation and food production. A partial equilibrium model of a national economy with two sectors and two regions, one of which includes a residual forest, is developed. It analyses how an exogenous increase in the ethanol price affcts input allocation (land and labor) between sectors (energy crop and food). Three potential effects are identified. First, the standard and well-documented effect of direct land competition between rival uses increases deforestation and decreases food production. Second, an indirect displacement of food production across regions, provoked by a shift in the price of food, increases deforestation and reduces the total output of the food sector. Finally, labor mobility between sectors and regions tends to decrease food production but also deforestation. The overall impact of ethanol production on forest conversion is ambiguous, providing a number of interesting pointers to further, empirical research. Abstract This paper investigates the direct and indirect impacts of ethanol production on land use, deforestation and food production. A partial equilibrium model of a national economy with two sectors and two regions, one of which includes a residual forest, is developed. It analyses how an exogenous increase in the ethanol price a¤ects input allocation (land and labor) between sectors (energy crop and food). Three potential e¤ects are identi…ed. First, the standard and well-documented e¤ect of direct land competition between rival uses increases deforestation and decreases food production. Second, an indirect displacement of food production across regions, provoked by a shift in the price of food, increases deforestation and reduces the total output of the food sector. Finally, labor mobility between sectors and regions tends to decrease food production but also deforestation. The overall impact of ethanol production on forest conversion is ambiguous, providing a number of interesting pointers to further, empirical research.JEL classi…cation: Q11, Q24, Q42

Spatially complex land change: The Indirect effect of Brazil's agricultural sector on land use in Amazonia

“…To assess the extent to which displacement has led to deforestation in the Amazon, researchers have implemented both spatially explicit computational models (Lapola et al, 2010) and statistical analyses (Barona et al, 2010; Arima et al, 2011; Andrade de Sá et al, 2012). In this article we build on the recent efforts of Arima et al (2011) by modeling distal relationships in a statistical framework.…”

“…First, we conceptualize the indirect effect as a function of not only market phenomena (e.g., prices, supply elasticities), or of the mobility of people and capital (displacement), but as the effect of land appreciation driven by agricultural returns. Second, we expand our analytical and spatial scope to incorporate impacts associated with Brazil's southern agricultural states (Andrade de Sá et al, 2012; Richards, 2012b; Walker and Richards, 2013). Southern Brazil, we note, has traditionally served as a feeder region for capital and skills to the agricultural frontiers of central Brazil (Margolis, 1973; Jepson, 2006; Richards, 2012a).…”

“…If displaced individuals re-establish their operations in forest areas, and clear the forest in order to do so, then it follows that their initial displacement by the agricultural sector is, indirectly, altering production capacities in frontier regions (Meyfroidt et al, 2010; Andrade de Sá et al, 2012; Richards, 2012a; Gasparri and Polain de Waroux, 2014; Meyfroidt et al, 2014). At the micro-level, the displacement process spatially redistributes knowledge and investment capital from capital and knowledge-rich regions in core ranching or agricultural areas to Amazonian frontier regions, which are land abundant but capital-scarce (Ozorio de Almeida and Campari, 1995).…”

Advances in the Valorization of Lignocellulosic Materials by Biotechnology: An Overview

“…Currently, bio-ethanol is produced on an industrial scale from sucrose and starch-based grains (Reijnders and Huijbregts 2007;. However, to avoid direct competition between fuel ethanol and food production, the feedstocks for bio-ethanol production ideally should be derived from inedible parts of food crops (Mathews 2007;Goldemberg et al 2008;Andrade de Sá et al 2011;Gnansounou 2011).…”

Producing Biofuels in Low-Income Countries: An Integrated Environmental and Economic Assessment for Tanzania

“…In Brazil, for example, Fargione et al (2008) finds that it would take 300 years to offset the carbon released from tropical deforestation to produce soybean-biodiesel. As with economic outcomes, the net emissions from biofuel production depend on local contexts, including farming practices and the type of land cover converted to feedstock (Andrade de Sá et al 2012).…”