Land, Biofuels and food security. Another "Impossible Trinity Theorem"?

The “dot.com” crash of the early 2000s introduced a radical departure from the belief that only knowledge-base economic activities should be accorded the primary role in modern economic development. The rise in energy, primary commodities and food prices revealed the possible vulnerability of economies based on some types of knowledge-based services. Today’s word is therefore facing a new important tri-lemma: to what extent is security food and energy through biofuels for an increasing growing population compatible with exploiting finite land resources? What policy responses have been proffered so far? Are not the current signals emanating from the emerging countries of Asia strong enough to stimulate a higher degree of cohesion between the EU Energy and Common Agricultural policy? Starting with a brief reference to some crucial agricultural economic laws, the chapter first raises a number of important questions by depicting the recent trends perceptible on the global agricultural markets. It then analyses the challenges brought about the development of biofuels, and it explores whether the signals sent to the European Union by the emerging economies of the world.