This book seeks to provide the evidence and arguments as to why using land to produce biofuels and other kinds of much needed energy instead of food is a bad idea. Most of the authors conclude, directly or indirectly, that using land for biofuels increases starvation and greenhouse gas emissions is energetically unfavourable, unethical and disastrous for soil and water conservation. The book will therefore be very controversial, given the large number of other published analyses, government policy statements and commercial investments into the feasibility and even suitability of using biomass for bioenergy under the right circumstances. The conclusions are based on many calculations that are laid out for others to assess and no doubt many will do just that. The book is unsuitable for policy makers but it will no doubt be a source of debate with academics.

The value of the book is that it highlights the very real problems facing the planet in terms of sustaining food supplies while conserving water, soils and greenhouse gas emissions as the population increases and fossil fuels become more expensive. But it does not propose viable alternatives for meeting energy needs for transport and food production that are fully sustainable on all criteria. Yet the world needs solutions, not just analyses that conclude we should reject using land for energy as well as food production, where appropriate. One solution is to make land so much more sustainably productive that it can serve societies’ diverse needs, including some of its transport fuel needs.