Food, biofuels and the environment: Is there a virtuous path for the EU?

Alimentation, biocarburants et environnement: existe-t-il une voie vertueuse pour l'UE ?

Eva Gossiaux, Pierre-Alain Jayet () and Erica Ramirez ()
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Eva Gossiaux: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Pierre-Alain Jayet: UMR PSAE - Paris-Saclay Applied Economics - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Erica Ramirez: TECH ECO (ex-ITESE) - Institut Technico-Economie - CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Université Paris-Saclay

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Abstract: Energy and food security challenges call for reconsidering interactions within the food-feed-fuel-environment nexus. Using an agricultural supply-side model, we assess the capacity of EU-28 agriculture to jointly increase food calorie and advanced biofuel production and examine the associated environmental impacts. We characterize a two-dimensional food-biofuel production set under the economic and technical conditions of the 2010s. Biofuel potential is derived from crop residues and dedicated perennial crops and expressed as farm-gate equivalent biofuel. Considered separately, food calorie production could rise by a factor of 2.5, and the advanced biofuel potential could reach 2.5 EJ per year, about 20% of current EU road and aviation fuel demand. We identify a compatibility corridor, characterized by implicit price ratios associated with the food and biofuel constraints, along which both outputs can increase jointly, up to 2 EJ of biofuel supply, while reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving such outcomes, however, requires substantial structural and spatial changes in agricultural land allocation, particularly a marked reduction in livestock production and associated feed demand.

Keywords: Agricultural land allocation; Biofuel potential; Food-feed-fuel competition; Advanced biofuel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2027-02
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Published in Biomass and Bioenergy, 2027, 217, pp.110155. ⟨10.1016/j.biombioe.2026.110155⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05794694

DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2026.110155

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