From Ian Brown
I wonder whether seaweed had been considered as a fuel crop (25 September, p 36). It uses neither freshwater nor arable land and grows in relatively low light levels.
From Dominic Wormell
The article on biofuels implied that vast environmental destruction would be caused by their production. However, this assumes that biofuel production would have to fit in with other current land-use practices and that it would be business as usual in agriculture.
But surely many agricultural practices add greatly to the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Chief among these is the meat industry, with its massive carbon footprint and environmental impact due to its energy consumption, water use, effluent production, and so on – not to mention its frequently appalling welfare standards.
Advertisement
Meat production worldwide consumes a huge amount of energy and land, and is extremely inefficient. The amount of land turned over to producing meat or crops to feed livestock could feed another 4 billion people on the planet, a point emphasised in an article in New Scientist two years ago (13 March 2004, p 19). If the land now turned over to meat production were used for biofuels, I am sure the majority of our energy needs could be met.
Jersey, Channel Islands, UK
Ampthill, Bedfordshire, UK
