The purpose of this research was to determine whether indirect land use occurs and if so to what extent. Indirect land use is a change from non-cropland to cropland (e.g. deforestation) that may occur in response to increasing scarcity of cropland. As farmers worldwide respond to higher crop...

We analyze the causes of food crisis in developing countries according to the global food crisis at present. Finally, we put forward some relevant policy suggestions for coping with the food crisis.

Policies aimed at conserving energy support energy independence, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and benefit consumers. In contrast, support for corn ethanol production raises world commodity prices and pressures the land and water base, as occurred in the U.S. during the plow-out of the...

This is the first article in a series meant to identify secondary effects of fuel production and consumption.The article presents, in synthesis, the main ideas and contributions of the paper “Economic effects of biofuels production and consumption in Romania”, written by the authors in 2009...

Biomass is being researched as a possible alternative to fossil sources of energy, in order to avoid externalities from fossil fuel use that affect the environment and the economy. Some biomass-based energy production systems may produce unwanted externalities in their own right, such as...

In this paper we study the effects on the food market of the introduction of biofuels as a substitute for fossil fuel in the energy market. We consider a world economy with an oil cartel and a competitive fringe of farmers producing energy in the form of biofuels. Farmers also produce food and...

This article depicts the improvement in living conditions for those families of peasants (the “landless peasants”) who have benefited from agrarian reform (termed “assentamentos” i.e. homesteads) through the creation of farming cooperatives. The farming cooperative examined herein was...

The return to land-based biofuels ignores the lessons of the past that led to the collapse of civilizations such as that of Easter Island. Even the more efficient ethanol feedstocks such as sugar cane and switchgrass can greatly worsen the environmental damage associated with agriculture because...

Indonesia faces serious energy problems; its status as an oil exporter has changed to that of a net oil importer. Additionally, a highly subsidized price of fossil fuels, combined with a high dependency on oil, burden Indonesia’s national budget. In 2006, the government enacted a Mix Energy...

A carbon tax would penalize carbon intensive fuels like gasoline and shift fuel consumption to less carbon intensive alternatives like biofuels. Since biofuel production competes for land with agriculture, a carbon tax could raise land rents, divert land towards fuel production, and raise...