Farmers, refiners, and consumers are the same actors in the food and biofuels market. Any discussion regarding the possible contradictions between the use of crops and residues for food and fuels should not be globalized. The negative energy balance in some countries (consumers) is a problematic issue and fuel ethanol for automotive transport, for example, represents the unique stable alter­native. Additionally, environmental improvements are reached when fuel ethanol is blended with gasoline. On the other hand, other countries can find in biofuels like ethanol the beginning of economic development for rural areas. Here critical positions are related to the possibility of using rural areas for food projects instead of fuel ethanol programs.

However, the real regulator of land use for food or biofuels is the market. In order to avoid nonequilibrium development of the fuel ethanol market based on energy crops, drastic, but fair, regulations from the governments must exist. Every country has to create appropriate rules and laws for developing fuel etha­nol programs based on its specific supply and demand characteristics. One way to diminish possible impacts of fuel ethanol production on food security is the use of compensation strategies. For example, if residual biomass increases value as a raw material for producing biofuels instead of livestock food, then alterna­tive food crops must be allocated together and simultaneously with the biofuel project. In the case of commercial sugar or starchy feedstocks for bioethanol, accurate calculations and predictions of food and energy consumption should be the basis of any discussion. If sugar, for example, is going to be exported but the prices are not stable and profitable, fuel ethanol production is a sustainable alternative not competing with food. Fuel ethanol producers in some countries having enough land for food have demonstrated that internal and export prices of food are not affected. However, countries like the United States alarmed the world when subsidized corn ethanol production affected neighbors’ food security, especially Mexico.

Finally, the authors of this book consider that the main problem we have today in this important discussion is the existence of much speculative information about biofuels and food security. Most of this information is used incorrectly for political and economical purposes. In this context, technological platforms based on scientific and real information are the only way to consider exactly the influ­ence of biofuels like ethanol on the food security.