The recently held 2008 Oxford farming conference provided a useful forum for the continuing debate about biofuels and sustainability.

Biofuel production has caused deforestation, increased food prices and displaced small-scale farmers in some parts of the world - but in many cases does not significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a Government scientist has said.

Professor Robert Watson, Defra’s chief scientific advisor, told this year’s Conference that the rapid growth in production of first-generation biofuels, such as bioethanol and biodiesel, is creating new social and environmental problems.

This has been followed by a report from the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) raising concerns about the absence of strict sustainability standards and mechanisms to prevent destruction of land such as rainforests to grow the crops that make biofuels.

To counter this Peter Kendal the National Farmers Union leader has argued that currently food crop biofuels are the “only game in town”, and to reinforce this stance EU chiefs reiterated their commitment to biofuels targets, arguing that they are the only alternative to oil until other technologies such as hydrogen become competitive.

The production of non-traditional agricultural products such as biofuels is creating public concern, Professor Watson warned, and diversification of agriculture had to be done very carefully.

MPs on the EAC called for a moratorium on targets for the use of biofuels and for Government to concentrate on sustainable biofuels such as waste vegetable oil and the development of more efficient second-generation biofuel technologies, echoing comments from Professor Robert Watson.

Describing current biofuel production, he said: “The net energy balance and level of greenhouse gas emissions varies considerably, and in many instances does not significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuel energy when the full energy balance is taken into account, for example, the use of maize in the USA.

So bring on the new technologies as quickly as possible. As has been posted elsewhere here its all about efficient use of resource, miscanthus combined with cellulose breakdown technology will show a very positive energy balance.