Ames, Iowa
November 6, 2007
The
Council for Agricultural
Science and Technology (CAST) is releasing a new CAST
Commentary,
Biofuel Feedstocks: The Risk of Future Invasions, as
part of the joint annual meetings of the American Society of
Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil
Science Society of America in New Orleans, Louisiana.
In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, expand domestic
energy production, and maintain economic growth, public and
private investments are being used to pursue dedicated feedstock
crops for biofuel production. But several of the candidate
biofuel feedstock species being considered for commercial
production in the United States are invasive pests in other
regions where they have been introduced. Therefore, the
objectives of this Commentary are to describe the potential risk
of dedicated lignocellulose biofuel species becoming weedy or
invasive, and to provide a process to quantify and,
subsequently, minimize this risk.
Critical questions this Commentary will address include the
following:
- What similarities exist
between agronomic and invasive traits?
- How will genetic
modification affect potential invasiveness?
- How can future invasions
be mitigated?
- What are the policy
implications with regard to economic or ecological damage?
“Breeding and genetic engineering
for enhanced environmental tolerance, increased harvestable
biomass production, and enhanced energy conservation through
fermentation may have unexpected ecological consequences outside
the agronomic framework,” says Task Force Chair Dr. Joseph M.
DiTomaso, Assistant Extension Non-Crop Weed Ecologist,
University of California, Davis. “The potential societal
benefits of a biologically based energy crop supply are great,
but the introduction and development of biofuel crops should be
conducted to minimize the risk of these proposed feedstock
species escaping cultivation and causing economic or
environmental damage.”
CAST Executive Vice President John M. Bonner concludes,
“Carefully researched by an impressive group of scientists, this
latest CAST Commentary highlights critical areas in the
evaluation of biofuels. CAST is pleased to present this document
as part of the ongoing biofuels discussion.”
The full text of
Biofuel Feedstocks: The Risk of Future Invasions (CAST
Commentary QTA 2007-1) will be available online without charge
beginning November 5, 2007 at the CAST website
(www.cast-science.org), along with many of CAST’s other
scientific publications. CAST is an international consortium of
38 scientific and professional societies. It assembles,
interprets, and communicates credible science-based information
regionally, nationally, and internationally to legislators,
regulators, policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the
public. |
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