Biofuel
This page is about edible food crops being burned for energy (not within the human body).
See also biomass waste for a page on using the inedible parts for energy.
Deforestation
It takes land to grow crops. Agriculture already uses more land than all other human activity combined. To make room for more agriculture, forests and other natural habitats would be destroyed. The environmental impacts are far worse than the small amount of fossil fuel consumption avoided.
Food loss
Biofuels shrink the global food supply, leading to higher food prices and more global hunger. The poorest of the poor are the first to suffer. Biofuels aren't currently harming the food supply as badly as food waste/loss and some types of animal farming - but they would if they were to be scaled up. One better alternative is to use biomass waste instead of edible biofuels (but the energy supply is similarly limited).
Supply
Even if we burned[i]Meaning literally burn as fuel for energy in machines. Not "burn" in the sense of exercising the human body. more food than we eat, it still wouldn't even replace 8% of fossil fuel consumption:
Last updated in 2023
- page 47: World energy balance, 2018
- - Total Energy Supply (TES), first 4 columns combined
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