Spring cultivation of an irrigated field in Pinal County, Arizona. As farmers across the nation expand cropland area to meet demand for corn and other crops, they are often forced to till and plant increasingly marginal land.
Photo: Tyler Lark
Clearing grasslands to make way for biofuels may seem counterproductive, but University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show in a study today (April 2, 2015) that crops, including the corn and soy commonly used for biofuels, expanded onto 7 million acres of new land in the U.S. over a recent four-year period, replacing millions of acres of grasslands.
The study — from UW-Madison graduate student Tyler Lark, geography Professor Holly Gibbs, and postdoctoral researcher Meghan Salmon — is published in the journal Environmental Research Letters and addresses the debate over whether the recent boom in demand for common biofuel crops has led to the carbon-emitting conversion of natural areas. It also reveals loopholes in U.S. policies that may contribute to these unintended consequences.
“We realized there was remarkably limited information about how croplands have expanded across the United States in recent years,” says Lark, the lead author of the study. “Our results are surprising because they show large-scale conversion of new landscapes, which most people didn’t expect.”
The conversion to corn and soy alone, the researchers say, could have emitted as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 34 coal-fired power plants operating for one year — the equivalent of 28 million more cars on the road.
The study is the first comprehensive analysis of land-use change across the U.S. between 2008 and 2012, in the “critical time period” following passage of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), and during a “new era” of agriculture and biofuel demand, Lark and Gibbs say. The results may aid policymakers as Congress debates whether to reform or repeal parts of the RFS, which requires blending of gasoline with biofuels that are supposed to be grown only on pre-existing cropland, in order to minimize land-use change and its associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Lark recently visited Washington, D.C., to present the findings to the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Office of Management and Budget, which share responsibility for rule-making and review of the RFS.
For instance, the study found that 3.5 million acres of corn and soy grown during this time period was produced on new, rather than pre-existing, cropland, rendering it potentially ineligible for renewable fuel production under the RFS. However, this went undetected due to limitations in current federal monitoring, which captures only national-level, aggregate land-use change rather than the high-resolution changes found in the study.
The study also showed that expanding the geographic scope of another policy, the Sodsaver provision of the 2014 Farm Bill, could better prevent widespread tilling of new soils. This policy reduces federal subsidies to farmers who grow on previously uncultivated land, but it applies in only six Northern Plains states. The researchers say the findings suggest a nationwide Sodsaver is needed to protect remaining native ecosystems, since roughly two-thirds of new cropland conversion occurred outside of these states.
Read more:Â Plowing prairies for grains: Biofuel crops replace grasslands nationwide
The Latest on: Biofuels and grasslands
via Google News
The Latest on: Biofuels and grasslands
- A biofuels proposal to slash emissions while boosting the farming sectoron May 18, 2022 at 9:00 pm
While Joe Duffy might have told The Irish Times he’s going to ignore the “Vegans and Thunbergs” and have meat for his Christmas dinner, the fact is that Irish farming is going to have to change ...
- Real Threats to Biodiversity and Humanityon May 9, 2022 at 2:29 pm
They concluded that ecosystems rely on many bee species to flourish – and “biodiversity is key to sustaining life on Earth,” especially with many species “rapidly going extinct due to climate change ...
- The good and the bad of biofuelson May 8, 2022 at 5:00 pm
A damning report came out a few years later arguing indirect land use changes tied to biofuels caused higher emissions, and that activities like clearing grassland and forests could negate any cuts in ...
- Real Threats to Biodiversity and Humanityon April 29, 2022 at 9:25 pm
Biofuels and wood pellets ... wildflower fields and grasslands. Organic farmers (and consumers) also reject synthetic fertilizers, which means more land would have to be devoted to raising ...
- Turns Out Biofuels Aren’t All They Were Cracked Up to Beon April 25, 2022 at 3:14 am
“Over millennia these grasslands have created really carbon ... The supposed benefit of biofuel is that, although it still releases carbon dioxide when it burns, that carbon was drawn down ...
- Meg Hansen: Clean Heat Standard may worsen carbon emissions and class divideon April 20, 2022 at 12:04 am
On account of new modeling that corrects these critical accounting errors, we now know that biofuels release greater greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels. When rainforests and grasslands are ...
- Meg Hansen: Clean Heat Standard increases carbon emissions, deepens class divideon April 19, 2022 at 2:15 am
On account of new modeling that corrects these critical accounting errors, we now know that biofuels release greater GHG emissions than fossil fuels. When rainforests and grasslands are cleared to ...
- VIDEO: Nationwide CRP study raises environmental concernson April 15, 2022 at 5:06 am
Incentives to purchase grassland started a decade ago when the ... A turnaround in incentives for second generation biofuel crops could be coming, but most farms won’t wait it out, he said.
- Hansen: Clean Heat Standardon April 12, 2022 at 9:04 pm
On account of new modeling that corrects these critical accounting errors, we now know that biofuels release greater GHG emissions than fossil fuels. When rainforests and grasslands are cleared to ...
- Ecological land grab: food vs fuel vs forestson August 1, 2020 at 5:54 pm
A world of narrowing options threatens to pit biofuels, forests and food production ... but planting trees in savannahs and grasslands would be damaging," Kate Parr and Caroline Lehmann from ...
via Bing News