Integrated Environmental Biotechnology - Environmental Biotechnology: Theory and Application - page 249

According to official figures from the Department for the Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), in 2001, UK rape seed sells for 15% less than
it costs to produce, even after taking government subsidies into account (Cur-
ran 2001). February 2001, eight months after the Royal Commission's report,
saw the European Commission publish the first review of its 1997 strategy for
renewables, entitled The Communication on the Community Strategy and Action
Plan on Renewable Energy Sources . In this document, the poor adoption of liq-
uid biofuels like biodiesel, was specifically criticised, with only Austria, France,
Germany and Italy having defined policies on usage. Even so, their combined
contribution to the total diesel fuelled transport sector only amounted to 0.3%
in 1998, the latest period for which figures were available. As is so often the
case, the report concluded that revised taxation to favour biofuels will be the key
to future expansion, coupled with the establishment of specific objectives and
greater incentives for the growing of energy crops under the common agricul-
tural policy. These were largely adopted by November of the same year, when
biofuels were prioritised in the EU as part of a strategy to reduce petroleum
product dependency for transport. At the present rate, burgeoning European oil
imports are predicted to increase to 90% by 2030, if no steps are taken. The first
phase of a planned 20% substitution by 2020 will involve legislative and fiscal
promotion of these fuels, which are to account for 2% of all fuel sold by 2004.
The carbon sink or energy crop question
As a final and more general environmental point on this topic, as was mentioned
earlier, the realisation has been growing that using biomass in a balanced way,
combining its undoubted value as a carbon sink with a progressive substitution
for fossil fuels, has certain clear advantages over the sequestration-only option.
Energy crop production is based on a sustainable cycle which brings benefits to
the soil as well as both local biodiversity and the local economy. Land bound up
in carbon sinks does not offer appreciable employment; energy-farmed biomass
crops can support jobs, both directly and indirectly within the region, which has
evident importance for rural diversification, itself a major countryside issue.
Integrated Agricultural Applications
The farming industry is almost certainly about to change dramatically and the
importance of novel production crops of the future will not, it seems, be limited
to the energy sector. As Senator Tom Harkin of the Senate Agriculture Com-
mittee pointed out in June 2001, the potential exists for anything which can be
made from a barrel of oil to be manufactured from farmed produce of one kind
or another. The realisation of this is growing on a global basis and it is, therefore,
highly likely that a considerable part of the forthcoming development of agri-
cultural biotechnology will move in this direction. For reasons which should be