This article on the Swissaid website raises an interesting fact that it takes as much maize to fill a car’s petrol tank as it does to feed one person for a year.  Swissaid has launched a campaign to stop agrofuel production. – swissinfo

Whilst in Sheffield the University is investigating the possibility of running cars on coffee!   I don’t mean that as you make that first cupper in the morning to get you going you make another and pop it in your tank.   Field studies in Nicaragua have shown that waste coffee beans produce an oil which can be turned into a biofuel.  So a waste by-product that was of little value could be sold by the farmers.  The research is being carried out by PhD student Annabel Townsend.  

Localised pockets of biofuel production using waste products can have huge benefits but the global move to agrofuels still marches on.