Journal article
Land use change in a biofuels hotspot: The case of Iowa, USA
Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol.35(6), pp.2391-2400
2011
DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2010.08.047
Abstract
This study looks at the land use impact of the biofuels expansion on both the intensive and extensive margin, and its environmental consequences. We link economic, geographical and environmental models by using spatially explicit common units of analysis and use remote sensing crop cover maps and digitized soils data as inputs. Land use changes are predicted via economic analysis of crop rotation choice and tillage under alternative crop prices, and the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model is used to predict corresponding environmental impacts. The study focuses on Iowa, which is the leading biofuels hotspot in the U.S. due to intensive corn production and the high concentration of ethanol plants that comprise 28% of total U.S. production. We consider the impact of the biofuels industry both on current cropland and on land in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a land set-aside program. We find that substantial shifts in rotations favoring continuous corn rotations are likely if high corn prices are sustained. This is consistent with larger scale analyses which show a shift of the current soybean production out of the Corn Belt. We find that sediment losses increase substantially on the intensive margin, while nitrogen losses increase less. Returning CRP land into production has a vastly disproportionate environmental impact, as non-cropped land shows much higher negative marginal environmental effects when brought back to row crop production. This illustrates the importance of differentiating between the intensive and extensive margin when assessing the expansion of biofuel production.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Land use change in a biofuels hotspot: The case of Iowa, USA
- Creators
- Silvia Secchi - Department of Agribusiness Economics, Southern Illinois University, Agriculture Building – Mailcode 4410, 1205 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901, USALyubov Kurkalova - Department of Economics and Finance, Energy and Environmental Systems program, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USAPhilip W Gassman - Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University, 578 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070, USAChad Hart - Department of Economics, Iowa State University, 260 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol.35(6), pp.2391-2400
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.biombioe.2010.08.047
- ISSN
- 0961-9534
- eISSN
- 1873-2909
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2011
- Academic Unit
- University College Courses; Geographical and Sustainability Sciences; Public Policy Center (Archive)
- Record Identifier
- 9983917690802771
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