A recent report from the Renewable Carbon Initiative shines a new light on the use of biomass for industrial purposes. While the authors in no way seek to downplay the calamitous impact of the global hunger crisis - acknowledging that according to the World Food Programme “a record 349 million people across 79 countries are facing acute food insecurity” – they argue that the current debate is flawed, subjective and not fully based on evidence. As a as a result, it distracts from what these authors cite as much more powerful causes of hunger in the world: climate change, conflict, extreme inequalities in wealth distribution, heavy dependence on food imports from industrial countries, overconsumption of meat, losses along the value chain and the impact of the COVID pandemic.
According to the Renewable Carbon Initiative, the use of biomass for industrial applications has the potential to replace fossil feedstocks, contributing to an urgently needed reduction of fossil carbon emissions into the atmosphere and helping to mitigate climate change.
Mitigating climate change and improving food security are two sides of the same coin. According to the World Food Programme “if average global temperature rises by 2°C from pre-industrial levels, an additional 189 million people are expected to be pushed into hunger. In a 4°C warmer world, this figure could rise to a staggering 1.8 billion.”
In other words, any solution directed at mitigating climate change will also be beneficial to food security, if implemented responsibly and sustainably. As such, the use of biomass as an alternative to fossil resources in chemicals and materials can help to improve food security in the medium or long run.
There are also other benefits - “wins” - to be reaped from such use as well. These have been summed up in the report as follows:
- The climate wins. There is a need to shift away from fossil feedstocks to achieve climate change mitigation. Bio-based materials are part of the solution and can thus help to mitigate one of the leading causes of hunger in the world.
- Land productivity wins. The competition between applications is not about the type of crop grown, but about land use. The overall availability of arable land, and therefore food and feed on the planet determines what is possible and what is not. Long term optimisation of food and feed crops will increase yields, while better utilisation of co-products in a variety of applications, will help make the most out of the available land.
- The environment wins due to increased resource efficiency and productivity of food and feed crops and the reduced land area, especially if agricultural practices are improved to better respect soil health and ecosystems;
- Farmers win because they have more options for selling stock to different markets (food, feed, biofuels, material industry) and therefore more economic security. This can increase investment and ultimately the availability of arable land and ensure sustainable rural development to maintain EU agriculture;
- Market stability wins due to increased global availability of food and feed crops, reducing the risk of shortages and speculation peaks. The influence of biofuels and bio- based materials on food prices is negligible;
- Feed security wins due to the high value of the protein-rich co-products of food and feed crops (which can also be used to supply protein for human nutrition);
- Food security wins due to the increased overall availability of edible crops that can be stored and flexibly distributed in times of crisis (emergency reserve), actually mitigating risks of supply-cycle triggered regional hunger events.
As the Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance points out: “The bigger picture is not the specific issue of whether food or nonfood crops are being used to produce biomaterials, but rather the integration of any feedstock for biomaterials production into a landscape and its social, environmental, and pricing effects there”. The choice of feedstock in any given case depends on many factors and is site specific. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution.
It is a complex topic that requires thoughtful and in-depth analysis. As the report points out, simplified claims do not do it justice. Not only do these distract from the real causes of global hunger, they also prevent a young and innovative industry from fulfilling its potential of contributing to climate change mitigation and offering more sustainable materials.
Read the report here.