At a time when food needs are increasing, does it make sense to use crops as fuel sources? The answer depends on many factors, but it’s possible to produce food and fuel, rather than having to make a choice. That’s especially true with soybeans, whose naturally high oil content makes them an ideal source for biodiesel production.
The question about food vs. fuel concerned a lot of people in 2008, when high fuel prices were accompanied by high food prices, and many people assumed food costs were increasing because crops were being diverted to alternative fuel production. However, this isn’t the case with soybeans.
Large surplus stocks of soybean oil long have been a problem for the U.S. soybean industry. The surplus results from excess oil production as a byproduct of soybean crush to meet the needs of the domestic livestock and poultry sectors and for export.
It was largely because of the need to expand demand for U.S. soybean oil that the U.S. soybean industry strongly supported the development of the U.S. biodiesel industry. Soybean oil is the main feedstock for biodiesel production in the United States. Approximately 3.245 billion pounds of soybean oil were used to make biodiesel in the 2007-08 marketing year, but demand in 2009-10 is expected to be only about 2.2 billion pounds as a result of less biodiesel production and greater use by biodiesel manufacturers of cheaper feedstocks such as animal fats and waste oils. As a result the United States continues to have large ending stocks of soybean oil. Stocks at the end of the 2008-09 marketing year totaled 2.742 billion pounds, or about 16.7 percent of consumption.
So soybeans are a good example of alternative energy that can ease potential concerns about food vs. fuel.
Sources: http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/sustainability/pdfs/Food%20and%20FuelApril162008.pdf
http://www.unitedsoybean.org/expert_advice/the_market_edge.aspx?bid=3487054546209808872
