10th December 2009

Refining EU wheat into food and fuel reduces global deforestation pressures

Refining EU wheat to produce bioethanol and high protein animal feed can reduce pressures on the world’s threatened rainforests by reducing Europe’s growing demand for soy meal imports. This is one of the conclusions of a new Ensus study, published in the scientific journal ‘Global Change Biology – Bioenergy’. The study highlights the potential of using idle EU agricultural land to reduce the demand for cropland outside Europe.

Currently the EU meat and dairy industries use over 35 million tonnes of soy meal as a high protein ingredient in animal feeds each year. This requires nearly 20 million hectares of land, more than the total area of UK farmland. The soy meal is mostly imported from South America where it is often grown on carbon rich or deforested land.

The high protein animal feed produced by refining wheat will reduce these soy imports from South America. This, in turn, will alleviate pressures on deforestation arising from the continuing expansion of soy production in Brazil, Argentina and several other South American countries.

Ensus believes that evidence-based research and analysis, subjected to independent scientific review, is essential to the formulation of good policy that can meet the challenges of climate change, food and energy security, and sustainable economic growth.