Biotech biofuels would not hit food, says ex EuropaBio head

摘要

Biofuels produced using biotechnology would not pose the same food security and environmental problems as with current products. That was the message of Johan Vanhemelrijck, who retired this week as Secretary General of the European bioindustries association EuropaBio, in an interview with EE & PL (see also p21-22). Mr Vanhemelrijck explained that "biofuels as they are produced today are artisanal biofuels. That means we squeeze out of the plant but it is a classical plant. We fragment from maize but it is classical maize. There are many, many improvements that can be done and for those improvements you will need biotechnology. Now if you want to reduce the impact of biofuels on food and feed prices you have to reduce the input necessary to have more output. Therefore you will need research, development, innovation, biotechnology."