Food Production and Agriculture

Biofuels Production and Food Production

Biofuels and bio-products have emerged as important and positive elements for the environment with regards to lessening greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing the usage of fossil energy. In the past few years, the modern world has been characterized by increased biofuel development, which is primarily fueled by subsidies, mandates, and policies of exports and imports across various countries. While biofuels have helped in dealing with the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, it has also contributed to significant impacts on food production. The effect of biofuel production on food production has been evident in the increase in food prices throughout the globe. This major impact has emerged from the increased use and diversion of food crops to production of biofuels, which in turn significantly increases food prices across the globe.

Despite being produced in other countries, biofuels are mostly produced in Brazil, the European Union and North America ("Effects of Biofuels," 2011). The production of biofuels in these regions is attributed to various factors including the quality of the environment, rural economic development, and decreased dependence on imported petroleum products. Currently, the production of bioproducts throughout the globe is more than $2billion, which is accompanied by a huge potential for growth.

Areas where lands have been converted from food production to biofuels production have experienced hunger and even conflicts such as Haiti and Canada. Biofuels production contributes to world hunger through resulting in significant shifts in crop acreages, which leads to lack of local food production. In essence, the shifts in crop acreages due to biofuels production lead to world hunger by affecting local food production, which in turn generates global increase in food prices that makes food unaffordable to many people in poor countries.

Differences between Subsistence and Commercial Agriculture

Subsistence and commercial agriculture are two basic agricultural techniques that are practiced in different regions across the globe depending on the specific factors related to that region and its people. Subsistence agriculture can be described as a situation where a farmer lives on a relatively small piece of land and produces enough food for his/her family as well as small cash crop. In contrast, commercial agriculture is an agricultural method where a farmer produces large amounts of crops and livestock for the goal of sale. As evident in this definition, subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture have considerable differences between them with…