Groups concerned that using grains to make biofuels threatens food security should be paying more attention to the impact of waste on the food supply, says Andrea Kent, Vice-President of Government and Public Relations at Greenfields Global.Corn and other grains bought to make biofuels have helped shore up prices for farmers during the last 15 years, she told the Senate agriculture committee. “When it comes to food security and sustainability, the problem will not be biofuels. The problem will be food waste. That is what groups like Oxfam should pivot toward because that is the real threat to global food access. It will not be biofuels production.”The money flowing to farmers from the biofuels sector has helped change farming practices so “we can grow three times more corn on the same hectare than we used to be able to,” she said. “Increased innovation and productivity by our farmers is good news. It means that we have a reduced quantity of cropland that is farmed, and it means Canadian farmers have become incredibly more productive with less land than they ever have before.”Higher farm incomes help rural Canada and “also apply to countries like Ethiopia and Kenya which have also introduced mandates for biofuels, including ethanol.”The industry is looking for ways to use products such as excess corn stover to make ethanol, she said. “Farmers with increased yields are more important than ever to forming ways that biomass can be part of the agri-innovative economy. In this regard, the kind of traditional myth of biofuels leading to an over extension of the agriculture sector remains that: an outdated myth. Farmers are asking for stronger biofuels policies for a good reason: They want that market certainty as much as producers of the renewable fuels do.”Jim Grey, Chair, Chairman of Renewable Industries Canada and President and CEO of IGPC Ethanol, said, “In the so-called food versus fuel debate, there are many sides to this argument but we have clearly indicated that, through a whole variety of studies, ethanol has not contributed to the grocery cart price tag. When oil goes up, everything goes up with it.”The biofuel industry “looking at a broad range of value-added products made by our members beyond renewable fuels,” he said. “Our industry currently generates over $3.5 billion in economic activity annually, with renewable fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and next-generation fuels such as cellulosic ethanol and renewable diesel — still at the core of what we do.“Biofuels are proven to be the cleanest and most sustainable source of liquid fuel available to the transportation sector,” he said. “Canadian-proved conventional ethanol reduces emissions by as much as 62 per cent compared to straight gasoline, cellulosic ethanol reduces emissions by 87 per cent and biodiesel reduces emissions bias much as 119 per cent compared to petroleum diesel.”IGPC is in the process of doubling production capacity to 400 million litres per year, he said. “This is a $120 million investment in our Aylmer facility that will make our plant one of the largest in Canada. In addition, the increased production will significantly reduce the volume of ethanol imported from the United States into Canada.”Other companies “are in the process of expanding ethanol production, bringing to market innovative new technologies such as the conversion of municipal waste to ethanol,” he said. “Biodiesel is also a success story. Hamilton-based BIOX Corporation recently acquired a shuttered facility in Sombra near Sarnia. The refit will see the facility equipped with roughly $5 million of upgrades before coming online with a production capacity of 50 million litres of biodiesel per year.”Kent said biofuels are an important component of any strategy to combat climate changes. A recent report from the Conference Board of Canada said, “A clean fuel standard that fails to maintain, or expand, current blend mandates for renewable fuels is not recommended. … More than 60 countries worldwide have mandates for renewable fuels. Most developed countries, and even some less-developed countries, are already well ahead of Canada in this regard.Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.