It being 4:15am here I'm not sure how coherent this will be - but I have concerns that there could be quite a negative impact in some situations where the value of land increases, and growing for biofuels results in the loss of land previously rented by subsistence farmers, who are pushed onto ever more marginal land.

A second scenario is that land could be turned over to bio fuels to such an extent that there will be a need for fuel to transport food and other items which the growers of bio fuels will be able to afford to buy, due to the high value of the crop.

Management of land and the development of crops suitable for use as bio fuels would seem to be required if biofuels are not to have a negative impact on people, their environment and local economies.

I conjecture that the development of biofuels both from the waste parts of food crops grown on good land and also from plants which can survive on land too poor to be used for anything else would bring the maximum benefit, possibly resulting in the reduction of the expansion of deserts, stabilisation of dunes, perhaps the reclaimation of land from the sea or saltmarsh where that would have other benefits.

Biofuels seem to hold out hope of improvements in the environment, but where there is so much money to be made from them the poor and the powerless could be further disadvantaged by their introduction, and those who do benefit financially could then negate any benefits as they use their new wealth to raise their standard of living.

I can only hope that the nations where the reserch is done, and those institutes and individuals responsible for the development and breeding of biofuel crops are sensitive to the needs of those countries, areas and people who will be growing the plants.

This is perhaps a more political slant on the situation, but it is a sad fact that cash crops distort food supplies.