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  • From: SArjuna@aol.com
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Heinberg's biofuel suggestion
  • Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2009 14:06:50 EDT

Below is a section of Richard Heinberg's The Food and Farming Transition;
Toward a Post-Carbon Food System, which you can download from the Post Carbon
Institute.

I'd like to hear what permaculture folks think of his statement that famers
could meet fuel needs by dedicating 1/5th of their cropland to producing
biofuels. Do you think this is a sustainable practice? If we burn 1/5
of
what our land produces, can we maintain good soil?

Shivani in WI

Heinberg writes:
Recent studies suggest that U.S. farmers could
meet most on-site fuel needs by apportioning one-fifth of their cropland to
the production of biofuels.18
Many other farm operations require electricity, and this can be generated
on-site with wind
turbines, solar panels, and micro-hydro turbines. Effort first must be
devoted to making operations
more energy-efficient. Because these technologies require initial investment
and pay for themselves
slowly over time, assistance from government and from financial institutions
in the form of grants
and low-interest loans could be instrumental in helping farmers overcome
initial economic hurdles
toward energy self-sufficiency. These renewable energy grants to small
farmers should be a top
national government priority.

Eventually farmers can be not just self-sufficient in energy, but capable of
producing surplus
energy for surrounding communities. Much of this exported energy is likely to
come in the form
of biomass: agricultural and forestry waste that can be burned to produce
both electricity and hot
water for space heating. While farmers can also grow crops for the production
of liquid biofuels, the
ecological and thermodynamic limits of this energy technology require that
the scale of production
be deliberately restricted. Otherwise, society's demand for fuel could
overwhelm farmers' ability
to produce food-and food must remain their first priority. In exporting
biomass from the farm,
growers must always keep in mind the productive capacity of sustainable
agricultural systems, and
they must strictly monitor soil health and fertility.

18 A leading EROEI scholar has proposed that the minimum EROEI needed for a
fuel to make a real contribution to society is 5:1 (Charles A.S. Hall, “
Provisional Results from EROI Assessments,” The Oil Drum, published 8 April
2008 at
http://www.theoildrum. com/node/3810”). Considering that a recent University
of
Idaho / USDA study claimed the EROEI of soybean biodiesel has increased
to as high as 3.5:1 over the last decade (National Biodiesel Board, “
Biodiesel proven to have a significantly positive net energy ratio,” press
release
published 6 February 2008 at
http://nbb.grassroots.com/08Releases/EnergyBalance/), and that the EROEI of
other
biofuels, such as palm oil biodiesel, can be as high as 9:1 (Worldwatch
Institute, “Biofuels for Transportation: Global Potential and Implications
for
Sustainable Agriculture and Energy in the 21st Century,” 2006.), 5:1 EROEI
seems
both a minimum and realistic goal
for economically sustainable biofuel production. Thus, devoting one-fifth of
a farm's land to efficient biofuels production should be sufficient to supply
on-farm fuel needs.















.


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  • [permaculture] Heinberg's biofuel suggestion, SArjuna, 04/05/2009

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