Biofuels Bonanza?: Exploring community perceptions of the promises and perils of biofuels production

Abstract

While the expansion of the biofuels industry has received scholarly attention with respect to environmental and food security concerns, little research has explored the impacts of biofuels industry on local communities where ethanol plants are located. Drawing on sociology of networks and flows theory to situate expansion of the industry globally, this paper uses a community case study approach to examine local community perceptions of benefits and burdens of the ethanol industry. Data from community level surveys, individual and focus group interviews in three case study communities in Iowa and Kansas in the Midwestern region of the United States are utilized to explore community perceptions. Results show that community members believe that ethanol plants have brought modest economic benefits to their community. Increased traffic and water competition were two areas of concern identified by residents with respect to local ethanol plants, but other environmental impacts were not prominently identified by community members. Widespread concerns were expressed about future viability of the ethanol industry and the devastating impacts that future declines in the industry would have on communities. This research highlights the social vulnerabilities that place-bound communities in biofuels regions are experiencing.

Introduction

In a recent paper, environmental sociologist Arthur Mol [1] argues that important social dimensions of biofuels production have been overlooked in recent debates that have been dominated by natural and environmental scientists. In fact, in addition to concerns about fostering energy independence in the context of depleting oil reserves, one of the primary reasons why many countries have been promoting and subsidizing biofuels production is in an attempt to reverse the ongoing social and economic crises affecting rural areas of many OECD countries, due to low prices and continued overproduction of agricultural commodities [2], [3], [4]. However, the expanded acreage and production of biofuels in many countries has led to heated debates about the environmental consequences, and more recently, to concerns about impacts on food security of the poor as land is diverted from food to fuel crops [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. Many analysts realize that biofuels production presents an opportunity for agricultural producer countries, many of which are developing countries, but that higher food prices could threaten the food security of the poor in developing countries as well [4], [11].

Applying a sociology of networks and flows approach to the analysis of the expansion of the biofuels industry globally, Mol characterizes biofuels regions as being either locally or nationally organized. In place of the focus on the static categories of states and societies as key actors in political-economic sociology, sociologists of networks and flows emphasize the importance of flows (of power, finance, technology, information) that define the contemporary era of globalization [12], [13]. Sociology of networks and flows research suggests that power in these networks is in the ‘space of flows’ that are related to access to, inclusion in, and control over these flows, while the ‘space of place’ describes the place-bound location of production outside the network that is rendered essentially powerless [12], [13]. While for Castells, the networks and flows mainly refer to information and technology, in Mol’s formulation, the space of flows includes material and environmental flows, especially flows of energy [1], [14]. While many poorer developing countries produce biofuels regionally for local consumption with limited state involvement, in countries such as Brazil and the US, biofuels (specifically ethanol) production has strong state involvement, well developed infrastructure, and is organized into national biofuels regions that are part of a globally integrated network [1]. In Europe, the state has also played a major role in stimulating biofuels (mainly biodiesel) production through policies subsidizing production and consumption, but recent critiques of social and environmental consequences from non-governmental organization (NGOs) have made a direct impact on renewable energy policies, leading to reductions in renewable energy targets from biofuels for the European Union [8], [9], [15] With the increasing concentration and global integration of ethanol production in national biofuels regions such as the Midwestern US, locally- and regionally-organized biofuels production, distribution, and consumption are increasingly sidelined from global circuits. Whether this is positive or negative in the long run remains to be seen.

However, even within nationally-organized biofuels regions, such as the US Midwest, there is considerable differentiation between communities in which biofuels production is located. While a great deal of attention has been paid to concerns about the environmental externalities of biofuels production, such as deforestation of tropical forests for biofuels crop production, and about vulnerabilities of the poor in developing countries due to rising food prices because of the shift from food to fuel crop production, little research has focused on the social vulnerabilities of communities hosting biofuels production within national biofuels regions. As specific communities are locales for biofuels production, there is a need to explore how communities are affected by the siting of grain-based ethanol plants, and what community members perceive and experience to be the promises, and the perils, of the emergence of biofuels industry. While integrated into global networks, the ethanol plants still have local impacts. Although many have assumed the rural development benefits of biofuels production, little research has examined empirically what social and economic benefits communities gain. This paper employs a community case study approach to examine community perceptions toward biofuels production in three rural communities hosting ethanol plants in the states of Kansas and Iowa in the Midwestern US. The paper is organized into the following sections. In the first section we discuss prior research on community level impacts of economic restructuring and how this informs the study of communities with ethanol plants. We then provide a description of the historical development of our three cases study communities. Following that description, we present a short description of the methods used and data drawn from community surveys, individual and focus group interviews in all three case study communities. We then present our findings and implications for other communities.