Does the cultivation of agrofuels endanger food safety?

Prof. Walter Leitner from the MPI CEC in conversation with Mirja Klein from the debate platform "The Debate" from Wissenschaft im Dialog

 

Photo: Dawn McDonald | Unsplash

In Germany, 16.6 million hectares of land are used for agriculture. This corresponds to an area more than twice the size of Bavaria. More than half of this land, 10 million hectares, is used to grow feed for animals. A quarter of the agricultural land is used to grow food for human consumption. On a small part of the land, 2.4 million hectares, energy crops such as rapeseed, corn or sugar cane are grown to produce agrofuels. This distribution has been questioned for a long time and especially because of the current cereal shortage. 
(Source: The Debate)

Prof. Walter Leitner, Managing Director at MPI CEC, and Prof. Dr. Gernot Klepper, economist at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, give their take on biofuels and why they are essential for the energy supply of the future - but not at the expense of food supply - in an interview with Mirja Klein of Die Debatte. 

The full conversation can be found at the following link (only available in German): https://www.die-debatte.org/ernaehrungssicherung-biokraftstoffe/