“Has no future”: Özdemir wants to ban grain biofuel

Corn that ends up in the tank instead of on the plate: this has been discussed for a long time. Federal Minister of Agriculture Özdemir is talking about an end to biofuel production from grain from 2030.

Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir wants to end the use of grain for biofuels quickly. “We need a reasonable agreement in the federal government that we will gradually phase out biofuel from food crops in order to be able to use them for human nutrition,” said the Green politician to the Funke media. “I would support it if we stopped using fuel from cultivated biomass in the transport sector by 2030.”

Cereals should “primarily be used for human nutrition,” emphasized Özdemir. “The production of biofuel from food crops has no future – especially not if we take the issue of food security and affordable food seriously.”

Increasing criticism of biofuel

The use of biofuels, i.e. fuels made from biomass, has been controversial for some time. Originally promoted as a building block in the fight against climate change, in times of increasingly scarce cultivation areas and their competition with food production, they are criticized. Last spring, Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) announced a legislative initiative intended to limit the use of biofuel from cultivated plants.

Biofuels are obtained, for example, from oil plants, grain, sugar beet or wood and are mixed with other fuels.