Biofuels, feed and food security.

With diminishing resources of fossil fuels (resulting in higher prices before the financial credit crisis) the search for alternative sources of energy (biofuel and biodiesel) has been directed to food/feed crops like maize and sugarcane. A rising demand of meat, milk and eggs of increasingly affluent urban populations has created a rising demand for feeds. An increasing world population needs more food. Crops, livestock and energy agricultural systems have to address a complex set of issues simultaneously to reach optimal solutions. Sofar policy makers have nationally addressed single, often geo-political issues, which unfortunately have had global effects like rising prices. Decisions on national and global land use for fuel, food and feed functions will have to adequately manage environmental impact (water, nutrients, climate change, biodiversity), food security and quality of the diet of poor (high percentage of income spend on food, low animal protein consumption) and rich consumers (overconsumption of animal proteins and energy leading to obesity, hart disease and diabetes), socio-economic equity of income of poor (subsistence farmers, risk averse, less organised and informed) and rich producers (market driven, organised, access to credit). Market distorsions can be the result of national policies not accounting for the global effects of national actions. These may appear as food price increases or loss of employment both contributing to social inequity. System comparisons will be presented to increase understanding of complex optimisations of fuel, food and feed production and their trade offs.