Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
And with food already a world wide problem, taking away food crop land to create biofuel land (or worse, cutting down more forests and such) is a concern I would think.
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Deforestation probably wouldn't be an issue: canola is best suited to climates such as the Canadian prairies. You won't see anyone plowing down the amazon to plant canola. Plus it produces something like 1,200 litres of oil per hectare, while the highly touted (and rightfully derided on this forum) source, corn, produces around 175 l/ha. Canola is still well behind palm and tallow oil, but by far the best of any north-american crop.
I'm not sure about the amount of energy used to produce canola, and it still may not make sense from an energy-in/energy-out process, but if the process can be improved, this is a huge opportunity for Canadian farmers. A huge increase to prices for one crop will have a trickle-down effect for the entire sector: as canola prices increase, more farmers will turn to canola operations, supply of traditional grain crops will decrease, and prices will go up. Of course, not good for consumers, but a big positive for the agriculture industry, who will then receive less subsidy from the government, which will in turn benefit taxpayers.