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  • From: "Charles de Matas" <cdematas@hotmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] The Biofuel Illusion
  • Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2006 22:20:42 +0000

Sugar cane is much better at converting sunlight into carbohydrates for ethanol production than corn or switchgrass. Some businessmen in Trinidad are constucting a plant for dehydrating ethanol. They plan to import ethanol from Brazil, purify it here, and sell the pure ethanol to the US. Some senators from corn growing states in the US have been trying to get import barriers in place to prevent this. But I don't think that in a free market world they will succeed for long against a cheaper product. Eventually the US will be importing ethanol from Brazil. A lot of environmental damage has already been done in Brazil by ethanol production from sugar cane. I think accelerated deforestation in the Amazon basin will occur when Brazil seeks land for more sugar cane production.
Having said that, let me also say that biofuels offer a great opportunity for permaculturists. Every permaculture project should consider incorporation plants for biofuel production, to make itself more self-sufficient in fuel, and as a cash crop. Permaculturists can produce biofuels in a sustainable way. If only the biofuel is exported, all the organic matter can be recycled and a closed system reached which will keep producing without much external inputs. There are many possibilities:
- Use land that has been abandoned or degraded by agriculture, mining, etc. or cannot otherwise be used for food production.
- Use inputs like sewage sludge that are prohibited by organic farming certifiers for food production.
Biodiesel production can be done on a small scale. In the tropics, oil palms produce more oil per hectare than most other oilseed plants. I'm not sure about ethanol production, I don't think it is economical on a small scale. Conventional sugar cane production is very destructive to the soil. I think there are ways to grow sugar cane organically, in rotation with legumes like pigeon peas, but I think such practices have disappeared almost completely from the tropics.
While I agree that biofuels will not provide a complete replacement for fossil fuels, I think biofuel technology should be developed as much as possible and permaculturists should develop sustainable ways to grow crops for biofuel production.

Charles.

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