Will 'Energy Crops' Become the Next Kudzu?

U.S. policies are subsidizing new energy crops that are likely to spread off the
farm and wreak economic and ecological havoc, a federal advisory board cautioned
yesterday.

For years, researchers have worked to develop "advanced" biofuel feeds from
unconventional crops such as grasses and algae.

The goal is to enable a switch away from corn- and soy-based biofuel to
cellulosic energy crops that don't compete on the food or feed market and have a
smaller carbon footprint. A 2007 energy law, in fact, requires a total of 160
billion gallons of the plant-based cellulosic fuels by 2022 that these crops
would produce.

As a result, researchers are now selecting, breeding and engineering species
that demand less water, fertilizer and agricultural land and grow year-round at
high yields.

But it is often exactly these traits, such as drought tolerance or pathogen
resistance, that make the fuels of the future ripe to become invasive species
and cause widespread damage. The issue highlights another potential complication
in what has been a bumpy road in the development of the biofuels industry.

"Absent strategic mitigation efforts, there is substantial risk that some
biofuel crops will escape cultivation and cause socio-economic and/or ecological
harm," the white paper, adopted by the Invasive Species Advisory Committee,
warns.

The group of outside experts advises a federal council tasked with coordinating
invasive species policies among 13 departments and agencies. It called on the
U.S. government to take major steps to combat the substantial risks from
biofuels as it promotes and funds biofuels development.

Invasive species are already costly

Every year, invasive plants cost the United States a minimum of $34 billion in
losses and control costs, according to one study the group's paper cites. The
potential scale of biofuel cultivation, at more than 150 million acres, provides
ample opportunity to add to those costs, the committee says.

Some proposed biofuel crops already are invasive species.

One of the most alarming examples is giant reed, or Arundo donax, according to
Joseph DiTomaso, the University of California, Davis, weed specialist who
drafted the paper.

The grass grows in dense clumps up to 20 feet tall and is classified a noxious
weed in California and in Texas, as well as other areas of the South. But in
Florida, researchers are looking to plant even more of it as a biofuel crop, he
said.

Proposed energy crops like miscanthus and reed canary grass also are already
invasive species in some areas of the world, he said. And jatropha and algae,
crops that could one day supplant jet fuels used in aviation, also pose high
invasion risk, according to the Global Invasive Species Programme.

Other heavily publicized biofuel crops, such as switchgrass, look to be safer
bets in the United States, DiTomaso said.

The laws of unintended consequences are well-known to anyone familiar with the
history of invasive species.

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/08/12/12climatewire-will-energy-crops-become-t\
he-next-kudzu-16525.html