Value of Dairy Land Limits Biofuel Future
NEW ZEALAND - Biofuels have a long way to go before they are a real competitor for land use with other forms of farming, Maf boss Dr Murray Sherwin told a Waikato audience on Thursday.
14 August 2007
2 minute read
"A lot of what we are seeing in the US and Europe is sheer bloody nonsense in terms of economic and environmental value."
Dr Sherwin
Speaking at the Waikato launch of the ministry's annual Situation and Outlook for Agriculture and Forestry, Dr Sherwin said although there were "very significant shifts in land use" from pastoral farming to biofuel production globally, this did not mean it would follow in New Zealand.
"A lot of what we are seeing in the US and Europe is sheer bloody nonsense in terms of economic and environmental value."
Dr Sherwin said US corn to ethanol conversion struggled to break even in terms of energy returns, while in the heavily subsidised Brazilian biofuels industry it was only 150 per cent.
"A lot of those programmes are driven by finding another channel to throw money at farmers rather than any environmental concerns," he said.
LanzaFuels' plans to build a biofuel plant in the Waikato, producing 150 million litres of ethanol from 2010, would require 415,000 tonnes of maize. But Dr Sherwin doubted it would divert much land from dairying given Maf's prediction of at least four years of buoyant dairy payout.
Source: Waikato Times
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