Sustainable Alternatives for Energy Generation and Food Production in Brazil

Urbanization driven by industrialization and population growth amplifies food consumption and reinforces the need for more fuels and energy. However, the expansion of biofuels can impose risks on long-term food security. This paper examines potential alternative crops for energy generation and food production, including those used by family farmers and their associations, to decentralize energy production and utilization as a crucial pillar of the global energy transition. Cassava, corn, and sugar beet are the chosen crops, and their performance is compared with that of sugarcane as a reference to consolidated agriculture crops. Four scenarios are proposed and calculated, considering 10, 20, 30, and 40 million hectares of agricultural land to be transferred to family farmers for cultivation of the proposed crops. The crop production, ethanol production, and the resulting emissions are assessed and compared. The results show that the three investigated crop options are viable and interesting for balancing fuel and food production. The results show that for the case of 40 Mha, the crop production of sugar beet is 1600 × 10<sup>6</sup> ton and ethanol production of 400 × 10<sup>6</sup> m<sup>3</sup>, while the cassava produces 1400 × 10<sup>6</sup> ton of crop with ethanol production of 280 × 10<sup>6</sup> m<sup>3</sup>. Compared to sugarcane whose ethanol energy content is 10,108.8 × 10<sup>6</sup> GJ, the sugar beet ethanol energy content is 9,560.0 × 10<sup>6</sup> GJ while cassava ethanol energy content is 6,552.0 × 10<sup>6</sup> GJ. The CO<sub>2</sub>eq emissions due to ethanol production, sugar beet produces 162.8 × 10<sup>6</sup> tCO<sub>2</sub>eq while cassava produces 288.68 × 10<sup>6</sup> tCO<sub>2</sub>eq and sugarcane produces 107.15 × 10<sup>6</sup> tCO<sub>2</sub>eq. The findings show that sugar beet and cassava are adequate candidates to attenuate the demands for more food and diversify resources for ethanol production. The novelty of the present work is the inclusion of family farmers in the command of cultivation of the new crops and management of the production of biofuels and creating strategic food reserves to control food price of the internal market and avoid the impacts of the external food markets on the internal market. The diversification of biofuel sources is welcome to reduce pressure on land for food production, reduce fluctuations of offer and demand of biofuels besides maintain sufficient food offers at affordable price, conditions which are recommended by the United Nations Organization (SDG 2 and SDG 7) and necessary for sustainable energy transition.