The new bioeconomy not without ethical quandaries

by Val Osowski, Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station - Until the Industrial Revolution, wind, water, animals and biomass – like wood for fuel – met humans’ primary energy needs. The emerging bioeconomy, led initially by the biofuel industry, will put increased demands on agriculture to produce both food and fuel.

Using land for biofuels creates pressure that has to be thought through ethically on two fronts – displacing land used for agrifood production and displacing land used for nature, according to Paul Thompson MSU philosophy researcher and W.K. Kellogg chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics.