Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reports that Sapporo Breweries Ltd. has announced it will introduce a label on one of its beer products next year stating how much carbon dioxide is emitted per can during the entire production and disposal process. The label will be printed on 350ml cans of Black Label draft beer.

This is a interesting paper from the perspectives both of the food vs biofuel debate and biofuels vs livestock. The paper finds that it is much more energy-efficient to grow grain for human food than for ethanol, which is best produced with grasses.

The rush towards biofuels is threatening world food production and the lives of billions of people, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser said a conference on sustainability in London on 9 March 2008. He added, "It's very hard to imagine how we can see the world growing enough crops to produce renewable energy and at the same time meet the enormous demand for food."

This report from Christian Aid argues that the debate on biofuels needs to focus not on whether some biofuels can deliver or are better than others, but instead on the policy model that is pushing biofuels, which it argues is fundamentally flawed.

In June 2007 the Government published a consultation on the carbon and sustainability reporting requirements for biofuels. This consulation forms part of the work on the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which means that by 2010, 5% of all the fuel sold on UK forecourts should come from biofuels. The government expects this to save 1 million tones of carbon a year, the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road.

A study by Iowa State University's Center for Agriculture and Rural Development has been published. Emerging Biofuels: Outlook of Effects on US Grain, Oilseed, and Livestock Markets argues that greater US ethanol production will mean more competition for land and grain, and will subsequently cause long-run crop price increases. It says that the expanding US ethanol market has already driven US retail food prices up by $14 billion over the last year.

F&C Management, a European investment firm with € 141.0 billion euro under management (as at 31.12.07) has published a research note on biofuels, Biofuels and sustainability - an investor perspective. F&C warns that if companies do not convince the public that they will move towards sustainable business models, they may find that governments turn back on the targets and subsidies that are driving their industry's growth. F&C calls for four actions in 2008 for the biofuels industry to rebuild public confidence and to deliver sustainable investment returns:

This report by the European Environment Agency, published in January 2008, confirms that there is a large potential for bioenergy production from agricultural biomass in Europe. However, the increasing demand for biofuels raises concerns about additional pressure on Europe’s environment and farmland biodiversity. The report analyses the ’environmentally compatible’ potential of biomass production in 25 EU Member States and warns that Europe’s biodiversity, waters and soils could be threatened unless significant protective measures are put in place.