BioWatt wholeheartedly supports and advocates the best practice guidelines for Energy Crops as an important step to creating credibility with policy makers and regulators that biogas, when done sensitively and in sympathy with the local context, is in no way detrimental to farms, farming or the environment!

Voluntary guidelines on best practice for energy crops and agricultural feedstocks in anaerobic digestion (AD) have been published this week.

The voluntary guidelines on Best Practice for Energy Crops Feedstocks and their use in anaerobic digestion, prepared and supported by ADBA, NFU, CLA, REA and NNFCC, was officially launched today following considerable collaborative efforts between AD and farming industries in consultation with government and other key stakeholders.

The Food Vs Fuel debate has led the biogas industry to clarify the sensitive and sympathetic ways in which energy crops can not only increase soil fertility, control weeds and diseases but at the same time make farmland more economically viable and filling a gap in farm finances at a time when consumer pricing is leading farmers to sell products such  as vegetables and grains at less than the cost of production.

The choice of energy crops and the farming practices used can affect soil quality and structure, nutrient retention and leaching, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity among many other things.  The guidelines, which draw on existing regulations and standards, aim to show the wide benefits of crop-based AD to sustainable farming and how good practice can be used to bring positive environmental outcomes and avoid risks, in particular by integrating crops for AD into the whole farm system.

BioWatt CEO, James Lloyd, view is “that when it comes to Biogas and Food Vs Fuel, there is no debate – it should be Food and Fuel, energy crops, whether taking advantage of existing catch, cover and break cropping, only add to the economic viability of farming in the UK at a time when farmers need to fill a financial gap between the price paid for and the cost of growing crops for food!”