Biofuels: Sustainable land use instead of land consumption

Stephan Arens, Managing Director of the Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP), points out in this context that there can be no question of land consumption for biofuel production. "Rapeseed is the most important domestic oil bearing plant and it is never ‚consumed‘ exclusively for the production of biofuels. Instead of land consumption, we should rather talk about sustainable and comprehensive land use, because each of the approximately 1.2 million hectares of rapeseed currently growing on German fields not only provides oil, but to an even greater extent high-quality protein," Arens said. Every litre of rapeseed oil, regardless of its use as cooking oil or energy source, thus also contributes significantly to the nutrition of farm animals, which in turn contribute to human nutrition in the form of meat and dairy products as well as eggs. Stephan Arens explains what additional positive effects are associated with this: "In the discussion about biofuels, it is often ignored that rapeseed grown and processed in this country replaces imported soy meal to a considerable extent. As only seeds may be grown in the EU that have not been genetically modified, this also enables GMO-free milk and meat production."