Topic: Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): Farmland, Biomass Demand, and Planetary Boundaries
Speaker: Darrin Qualman
Time: Feb12, 2025 13:30 Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Summary:
To reach its 2050 net zero target, the global aviation sector proposes shifting the fuel source for the jet fleet from oil fields to farm fields. Billions of tonnes of grain, straw, and energy crops will be needed from an already oversubscribed global farmland base. But Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is just one new mega-demand among many. What are the limits? How do these new demands intersect with issues surrounding farmland, fertilizer, emissions, extinctions, biomass removals, and planetary boundaries?
Biography:
Darrin Qualman is Director of Climate Crisis Policy and Action for the National Farmers Union. He has been active in agricultural policy development for 25 years. He is the author of the book Civilization Critical: Energy, Food, Nature, and the Future; and the report Tackling the Farm Crisis and the Climate Crisis. Darrin farmed for two decades and has academic degrees in history, biology, and political studies.
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