Impacts of Biofuels on Food Security in Colombia: a System Thinking Approach

Published

2014-07-01

Efectos de los Biocombustibles en la Seguridad Alimentaria en Colombia: Una Aproximación Sistémica

Keywords:

Política agraria, biomasa, energía sostenible, sistemas dinámicos. (es)
Agricultural policies, biomass, sustainable energy, system dynamics. (en)

Downloads

Authors

Diana Patricia Giraldo Ramírez Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana - Facultad de Ingeniería Agroindustrial
Santiago Arango Aramburo Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín – Facultad de Minas – Escuela de Sistemas
Juan Esteban Martínez Jaramillo Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellín - Facultad de Minas

Abstract (es)
Abstract (en)

Los biocombustibles se están tornando en una alternativa cada vez más importante para los países, tanto en política agraria como para diversificar su portafolio energético. Debido a su naturaleza y a su interrelación con factores críticos como la tierra y el agua, nace la necesidad de estudiar y entender cómo las políticas públicas y el desarrollo de los mercados de biomasa pueden afectar la Seguridad Alimentaria. Se tomó a Colombia como caso debido a su contexto, en el que existen incentivos para el biodiesel y el bioetanol, tanto en la regulación de precios como en ayudas financieras para los productores. Se realiza una mirada sistémica sobre las relaciones entre los biocombustibles y la Seguridad Alimentaria. Esto se hace a través de un modelo causal en el que se plantean las relaciones de interdependencia entre las variables principales de estos sistemas. El análisis muestra cómo al incentivar la producción de biocombustibles se puede generar un decrecimiento en la producción de alimentos y poner en riesgo la Seguridad Alimentaria. Se plantea la necesidad de la construcción de modelos de simulación para cuantificar los efectos y evaluar las políticas actuales en el tiempo.

Biofuels are turning an increasingly important alternative for countries, both for agricultural policies and diversification of its energy portfolio. Due to its nature and interrelationship with critical factors such as land and water, there is a need to study and understand how public policies and development of biomass markets can affect Food Security. This paper takes a systemic view on the relationships between biofuels and Food Security. The selected case study is Colombia, because of its current incentives for biodiesel and bioethanol, regulation on prices and subsidies to producers. The study was done through causal models that propose the relationships of interdependence between the main variables of these systems. The analysis shows how the incentives to biofuel production can generate a decrease in food production, threatening Food Security. The analysis leads to the need to build simulation models to quantify and evaluate the effects of current policies over time.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Acosta, O. y A. Chaparro. 2009. Biocombustibles, seguridad alimentaria y cultivos transgénicos. Revista Salud Pública 11(2): 290-300.

Arango, S. 2006. Essays on commodity cycles based on expanded Cobweb experiments of electricity markets. Doctoral Thesis. Social Science Faculty. The University of Bergen, Norway. 16 p.

Arango, S. and A. Torres. 2008. Economic incidences of ethanol as biofuel in Colombia over the sugar cane products: a system dynamics approach. Revista Avances en Sistemas e Infórmatica 5(2): 69-75.

Berrío, A.M. 2011. Modelo regional de producción y transporte de biocombustibles en Colombia. Tesis Magister en Ingeniería de Sistemas. Facultad de Minas - Escuela de Sistemas. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín. 132 p.

Borras, S.M. 2010. The politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change: editors' introduction. The Journal of Peasant Studies 37(4): 575-92.

Carr, E. 2006. Postmodern conceptualizations, modernist applications: Rethinking the role of society in food security. Food Policy 31: 14-29.

CORPOICA, IICA, y PROCIANDINO. 2010. La agroenergía en la Región Andina: situación actual y perspectiva. Alprigrama Ltda, Bogotá. 75 p.

De Geus, A. 1988. Planning as learning. Harvard Business Review 66(2):70-74.

De Gorter, H., D. Drabik and D.R. Just. 2013. How biofuels policies affect the level of grains and oilseed prices: theory, models and evidence. Global Food Security 2(2): 82-88.

Demirbas, A. 2008. Biofuels sources, biofuel policy, biofuel economy and global biofuel projections. Energy Conversion and Management 49(8): 2106-2116.

Demirbas, A. 2009. Political, economic and environmental impacts of biofuels: a review. Applied Energy 86 Supplement 1: S108-S117.

Ericksen, P.J., J.S. Ingram and D.M. Liverman. 2009. Food security and global environmental change: emerging challenges. Environmental Science and Policy 12(4): 373-377.

Escobar, J.C., E.S. Lora, O.J. Venturini, E.E. Yáñez, E.F. Castillo and O. Almazan. 2009. Biofuels: environment, technology and food security. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13(6-7): 1275-1287.

Ewing, M. and S. Msangi. 2009. Biofuels production in developing countries: assessing tradeoffs in welfare and food security. Environmental Science and Policy 12(4): 520-528.

Falcon, W.P. and R.L. Naylor. 2005. Rethinking food security for the twenty-first century. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 87(5): 1113-1127.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 2003. World agriculture: towards 2015/2030. An FAO perspective. Edited by J. Bruinsma. Earthscan Publications, London. 432 p.

Fedebiocombustibles. 2011. Mitos y realidades de los biocombustibles en Colombia, http://www.fedebiocombustibles.com/files/RevistaMitosyRealidades(2).pdf. 26 p.; consulta: Julio 2012.

Fedebiocombustibles. 2012. Cifras Informativas del Sector Biocombustibles. http://www.fedebiocombustibles.com/v3/nota-web-id-488.htm. consulta: Marzo 2013.

Forrester, J.W. 1971. Counterintuitive behavior of social systems. Theory and Decision 2(2): 109-140.

Garzón, S.C. y C. Hernández. 2009. Estudio comparativo para la producción de etanol entre Saccharomyces cerevisiae silvestre, Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 9763 y Candida utilis ATCC 9950. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, http://recursosbiblioteca.utp.edu.co/tesisdigitales/texto/66182G245.pdf; 132 p. consulta: Julio 2012.

Gerbens-Leenes, P., S. Nonhebel and M. Krol. 2010. Food consumption patterns and economic growth. Increasing affluence and the use of natural resources. Appetite 55(3): 597-608.

Giraldo, D.P. 2013. Análisis de la dinámica de la seguridad alimentaria en un país en desarrollo -caso colombiano-. Tesis Doctoral. Escuela de Ingeniería. Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín. 208 p.

Godfray, H.C.J., J.R. Beddington, I.R. Crute, L. Haddad, D. Lawrence, J.F. Muir, J. Pretty, S. Robinson, S.M. Thomas and C. Toulmin. 2010. Food security: the challenge of feeding 9 billion people. Science 327(5967): 812-818.

Hertel, T.W. and W.E. Tyner. 2013. Market-mediated environmental impacts of biofuels. Global Food Security 2(2): 131-137.

Hoekstra, A. and A.K. Chapagain. 2007. Water footprints of nations. Water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern. Water Resource Management 21(1): 35-48.

Horta, L.A. and R. Silva. 2013. Biofuels in Brazil: evolution, achievements and perspectives on food security. Global Food Security 2(2): 117-125.

IICA. 2009. Crisis alimentaria en América Latina y el Caribe. Propuesta de acciones a nivel regional. Secretaría Permanente del SELA, Caracas. 45 p.

IICA. 2010. Atlas de la agroenergía y los biocombustibles en las Américas: II Biodiesel. Programa Hemisférico en Agroenergía y Biocombustibles, San José. 377 p.

Kim, G.R. 2009. Analysis of global food market and food-energy price links - based on system dynamics approach. pp. 1-18. In: 27th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society. Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

Lambert, D.K. and D. Miljkovic. 2010. The sources of variability in U.S. food prices. Journal of Policy Modeling 32(2): 210-222.

Latham, J.R. 2000. There's enough food for everyone, but the poor can't afford to buy it. Nature 404(6775): 222.

Liao, W., R. Heijungs and G. Huppes. 2012. Natural resource demand of global biofuels in the Anthropocene: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 16(1): 996-1003.

Londoño, D., E. Londoño y A. Ramírez. 2011. Un sistema casi ideal de demanda para el gasto en Colombia: Una estimación utilizando el método generalizado de los momentos en el período 1968-2007. Ecos de Economía 15(32): 39-58.

Machado, A. 2004. La academia y el sector rural. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Centro de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo, http://books.google.com.co/books?id=W-ByG-clZSkC. 210 p.; consulta: Agosto 2012.

Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural. 2004. El agro colombiano frente al TLC con los Estados Unidos, http://www.mincit.gov.co/tlc/publicaciones.php?id=12727; consulta: Julio 2012.

Ministerio de Minas y Energía. 2007. El programa de biocombustibles en Colombia, http://www.minminas.gov.co/minminas/downloads/UserFiles/File/hidrocarburos/Programa.pdf. 43p.; consulta: Septiembre 2012.

Ministerio de Minas y Energía. 2011. Decreto 4892 del 23 de diciembre de 2011, http://www.minminas.gov.co/minminas/downloads/archivosSoporteRevistas/8302.pdf. 4 p.; consulta: Septiembre 2012.

Morecroft, J. 2007. Strategic modelling and business dynamics: a feedback systems approach. John Wiley and Sons, West Sussex, England. 466 p.

Moxnes, E. 1998. Not only the tragedy of the commons: misperceptions of bioeconomics. Management Science 44(9): 1234-1248.

Naik, S.N., V.V. Goud, P.K. Rout and A.K. Dalai. 2010. Production of first and second generation biofuels: a comprehensive review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 14(2): 578-597.

Nonhebel, S. 2005. Renewable energy and food supply: will there be enough land? Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 9(2): 191-201.

Peters, J. and S. Thielmann. 2008. Promoting biofuels: implications for developing countries. Energy Policy 36(4): 1538-1544.

Pimentel, D., A. Marklein, M.A. Toth, M.N. Karpoff, G.S. Paul, R. McCormack, J. Kyriazis and T. Krueger. 2009. Food versus biofuels: environmental and economic costs. Human Ecology 37(1): 1-12.

Pruyt, E. and G. De Sitter. 2008. "Food or Energy?" Is that the question? pp. 1-20. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference of the System Dynamic Society, Athens, Greece.

Quirke, D., R. Steenblik and B. Warner. 2008. Biofuels - at what cost ? Government support for ethanol and biodiesel in Australia. Genova: International Institute for Sustainable Development, Geneva. 73 p.

Rena, R. 2005. Challenges for food security in Eritrea: a descriptive and qualitative analysis. African Development Review 17(2): 193-212.

Restrepo, J.C. 2010. Una Política Integral de Tierras para Colombia. Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, Bogotá, http://www.minagricultura.gov.co/archivos/ministro_jc_restrepo_tierras_2.pdf; consulta: Septiembre 2012.

Rosillo, F. and A. Walter. 2006. Global market for bioethanol: historical trends and future prospects. Energy for Sustainable Development 10(1): 20-32.

Sandvik, S. 2008. Impacts of peak oil and food based biofuel production on long-term food security a dynamic policy model. University of Bergen, Bergen. 57 p.

Sandvik, S., E. Moxnes and System Dynamics Group. 2008. Peak oil, biofuels, and long-term food security. In: Proceedings of the 27th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Homeland Security, Alburquerque, New Mexico, USA. 180 p.

Senge, P. 1990. The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. Doubleday, USA. 445 p.

Smith, M., J. Pointing and S. Maxwell. 1992. Household food security, concepts and definitions: an annotated bibliography. University of Sussex, Brighton, http://web.ifad.org/gender/tools/hfs/hfspub/hfs_3.pdf. 58 p.; accessed: August 2012.

Sterman, J.D. 2000. Business dynamics. McGraw Hill, New York. 1.008 p.

Stroh, D. 2009. A system view of the economic crisis. The Systems Thinker 20(1): 10-12.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF). 2007. Allocating scarce water. A WWF primer on water allocation, water rights and water markets. WWF, Godalming, UK. 44 p.

Zilberman, D., G. Hochman, D. Rajagopal, S. Sexton and G. Timilsina. 2013. The impact of biofuels on commodity food prices: assessment of findings. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 95(2): 275-281.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The journal allows the author(s) to maintain the exploitation rights (copyright) of their articles without restrictions. The author(s) accept the distribution of their articles on the web and in paper support (25 copies per issue) under open access at local, regional, and international levels. The full paper will be included and disseminated through the Portal of Journals and Institutional Repository of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and in all the specialized databases that the journal considers pertinent for its indexation, to provide visibility and positioning to the article. All articles must comply with Colombian and international legislation, related to copyright.

Author Commitments

The author(s) undertake to assign the rights of printing and reprinting of the material published to the journal Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín. Any quotation of the articles published in the journal should be made given the respective credits to the journal and its content. In case content duplication of the journal or its partial or total publication in another language, there must be written permission of the Director.

Content Responsibility

The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and the journal are not necessarily responsible or in solidarity with the concepts issued in the published articles, whose responsibility will be entirely the author or the authors.