Food vs Fuel? 1st vs 2nd Generation Biofuels.

When discussing biofuels, it would be better to educate on the difference between current "first generation" biofuels (corn/sugar ethanol and soy/rape biodiesel) and future "second generation" biofuels (cellulosic/crude biomass ethanol and BTL(biomass-to-liquid)/crude biomass biodiesel). Current first generation biofuels are indeed rather unsustainable in large production but do provide an entryway and market demand for the higher-overhead and R&D needed second generation fuels.

Second generation fuels are going to be orders of magnitude more efficient and sustainable, deriving their biomass from non-food farming and management of un-cultivatable lands. Some technology still needs R&D (cellulosic ethanol is probably 5 years from mass production, algae biodiesel is in R&D stages) and other seed money. F-T (Fischer Trop)biomass-to-biodiesel technology is older and tested but requires a large overhead and scale to make profitable. The German government has provided overhead and there is a F-T based BTL pilot plant making biodiesel from crude (non-food) biomass: http://www.choren.com/en/ So, while these first generation biofuels are temporarily linked to the larger food problem, they are also opening up the route to more efficient biofuels that will decouple them from food issues yet bring the benefits of energy independence and lowering environmental impact.