The Europe 2020 strategy's promotion of resource-efficient technologies and market incentives as the solution for sustainable agriculture is contradicted by experience where techno-fixes and market pressures have increased overall demand on resources.
Leading academics discuss key issues regarding 'the global land grab' and how this is linked critically to official policies, like 'Responsible Agricultural Investment' (RAI), considering how small farmers are being dispossessed and incorporated into the agro-food-feed-fuel complex.
EU biofuels policy is based on the assumption that it will lead to greenhouse gas savings, energy security and rural development, however in-depth research in Germany, Brazil and Mozambique reveals fundamental contradictions between EU policy assumptions and practices in the real world.
In recent years, there has been renewed interest in developing agrofuels on a large scale as an alternative to fossil fuel. EU biofuels policy, in particular, assumes that the environmental impacts associated with agrofuels production will be largely beneficial. This study questions such optimistic assumptions.