The FAO's SOFA report 2008 focuses on biofuels and is entitled Biofuels: prospects, risks and opportunities. The report says that ensuring environmentally, economically and socially sustainable biofuel production requires policy action in the following broad areas: protecting the poor and food-insecure; taking advantage of opportunities for agricultural and rural development; ensuring environmental sustainability; reviewing existing biofuel policies; and making the international system supportive of sustainable biofuel development.

For a study examining the issue of agriculture for food versus agriculture for energy see Wolf J, Bindraban PS , Luijten JC and Vleeshouwers LM (2003) Exploratory study on the land area required for global food supply and the potential global production of bioenergy, Agricultural Systems, Volume 76, Issue 3, June 2003.

There is an interesting 5 page feature on the expansion of ethanol in the US in the USDA’s April 2006 issue of Amber Waves. According to the USDA, ethanol use currently accounts for 12% of maize use in the US New ethanol plants are being built across the corn belt which will increase ethanol production by around 50%

Environmental impact of cereals and oilseed rape for food and biofuels in the UK, published by the Home Grown Cereals Authority, examines the potential for using the 3 million tonnes of cereals which we currently export as a biofuel instead.

In issue 11 of the journal Energy Policy, there's a very helpful (and not too technical) overview of international biofuels policy and the possible implications both for the environment and for developing nations. The details and abstract are as follows

The EEA Scientific Committee has made public an opinion on the environmental impacts of biofuel use in Europe. The Scientific Committee recommends a new, comprehensive scientific study on the environmental risks and benefits of biofuels, and that the EU target to increase the share of biofuels used in transport to 10 % by 2020 should therefore be suspended. See here for more information.

Government support of biofuel production in OECD countries is costly, has a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security, and has a significant impact on world crop prices, according to a new study of policies to promote greater production and use of biofuel in OECD countries.

In April 2009 the Environment Agency published this report, research for which was carried out for the Environment Agency by AEA Technology. Key points as follows: 1. GHG emissions from energy generated using biomass are generally, but not always, less than from fossil fuels. 2. Land use change can negate any emission savings. 3. Energy conversion efficiency is an important factor in reducing emissions 4. Emission reductions of several million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year could be achieved by following good practice

Transport Minister Andrew Adonis has set out plans to take a more cautious approach to biofuels, as part of the Government’s response to concerns about the indirect environmental and social impacts of producing them.