Aren’t you forcing up the price of food by using crops for biofuels?
A. Additional demand or reduced supply of any crop can put up prices. Rises in prices of cereals and oilseeds from 2005-2008 were the result of poor weather (like prolonged drought in Australia and flooding in the UK in 2007), poor harvests, and changing diets in emerging economies like China and India. Most of the UK’s cereal crop goes into animal feed where the protein provides an essential part of the diet. The Ensus refinery only uses the starch from the wheat and concentrates the protein up and sells it into the animal feed market. Ensus will sell more animal feed than biofuel. The Ensus refinery will meet food as well as fuel needs – it is wrong to suggest that crops such as wheat for biofuels are in direct competition with food; you need to consider all the products from the refining process.
