Food and Fuel: Integrating Biomass Crops with Conventional Agriculture

There is an ongoing debate about the potential conflicts between food production and biofuel production on agricultural land. Often overlooked in these discussions are the potential synergies between fuel and food production in sustainable agroecosystems. This study demonstrates innovative cropping systems that can continue to provide substantial food and animal feed production, while also providing biomass feedstocks from cover crops, crop residues and co-products, and dedicated energy crops in multi-year crop rotations. Reductions in system level greenhouse gas emissions and increased energy production from several systems will be presented. Other important advantages of these systems are the enhancement of ecosystem services, including reduced erosion and nutrient runoff, increased soil quality, and reduced pesticide requirements through increased diversity and use of perennial crops.