The UN’s World Food Programme has described 2022 as “a year of unprecedented hunger”, with millions of people in dozens of countries facing famine. At the same time, significant amounts of farmland are being used to produce so-called biofuels. But could a global food crisis change that?

Biofuels are liquid fuels produced from renewable biological sources, including plants and algae. Biofuels offer a solution to one of the challenges of solar, wind, and other alternative energy sources. These energy sources have incredible potential to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and yield environmental and economic benefits. But many of these sources have a limitation: they can’t replace liquid fuels such as jet fuel, gasoline, and diesel fuel that are critical to our transportation needs. That’s where biofuels could help.