The Effects of Biofuels on Food Security in Selected Countries

Abstract

Biofuels are produced as replacements for fossil fuels. Nevertheless, these fuels may jeopardize food security. No research has examined the relationship between the production of biofuels and food security in terms of their various dimensions. This study examined the effects of biofuels on food security in several developed and developing countries comprising oil-producing and developed countries. Dimensions of food security were including food availability, food accessibility, food utilization, and food stability. To this end, standard and neo-Malthusian theories combined with the food availability decline (FAD) theory were employed. In addition, the panel generalized method of moments (GMM) was used to estimate the relationships between variables. The results showed that food stability, population growth, and income inequality were measured by the Gini index, and unemployment was significantly higher in developing countries than in developed countries. Conversely, food security, food availability, food accessibility, food utilization, land area, total biofuel production, agricultural credit allocation, and food product prices were higher in developed countries than in developing countries. The increase in biofuel production reduced food security by 0.031%, 0.047%, and 0.064% in all countries, developing and developed countries, respectively. In developing countries, biofuels had a significant impact on food accessibility and food availability. However, biofuels had significant and positive effects on food stability and utilization. In developed countries, biofuels had negative effects on food accessibility, stability, and availability and positive effects on food utilization (0.016%). In conclusion, policies are needed to mitigate the negative effects of biofuels on food security.