ABSTRACT
The US Department of Energy has set goals to derive 30per cent of liquid transportation fuels and 25per cent of industrial organic chemicals from biomass by 2025. Similarly, the European Union has produced directives giving targets for the biofuel content of transport fuels. All over the world governments are setting out research agendas to exploit the potential of biomass to supply our material and fuel needs. This chapter will examine the ability of agriculture to meet those needs sustainably. There is nothing new in using plants to supply us with materials and fuel; before the advent of the Industrial Revolution the majority of our requirements were met by using the derivatives of photosynthesis and other indirect effects of the sun’s energy. The advent of the Industrial Revolution brought about a transition to fossil-based energy resources and over the past 100years there has been a dramatic increase in our reliance upon crude oil resources. Now at the beginning of the 21st century another revolution is taking place with the dawn of the bio-industrial age. This chapter examines the role of biomass production in this new revolution and tries to determine to what extent it is possible to derive energy and materials from plants sustainably and without compromising food security. The majority of this chapter is concerned with the role of agriculture to supply these needs although some aspects of forest products (mainly linked to paper production) are also touched upon. Forestry, and the role it might play, is dealt with in the penultimate chapter of this book.
