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The two fastest-growing global uses of food crops are their conversion into biofuels and their use as livestock feeds. These trends are accelerating the risks of species extinctions, of agriculturally-driven climate change, and of agricultural water and air pollution.

Biofuel production from food crops also directly decreases the availability of food for the world’s 700 million malnourished people, and may cause further harm to the world’s poor by impacting food prices.  When both their direct and indirect environmental impacts are considered, most food-based biofuels cause more environmental harm than the petroleum fuels they replace. The solution to global food and environment problems is often thought to require the efficient closure of yield gaps, healthier diets, and input-efficient agriculture. To these must be added a fourth: the rapid elimination of crop-based biofuels.

David Tilman is Regents Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology at the University of Minnesota, and Distinguished Professor in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California Santa Barbara. He is an ecologist whose long-term experiments and related theory were the first to show that biodiversity is a major determinant of ecosystem stability, productivity, carbon storage and susceptibility to invasion. His recent work focuses on agriculture, and seeks ways to preserve biodiversity, prevent extinctions and moderate climate change while providing secure and healthy diets for all the people of the Earth. 

He has written two books, edited five books, and published more than 300 scientific papers, including more than 40 papers in Nature and Science, and is the most highly cited ecologist.  He is a member of the National Academy of Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Major awards include the International Prize for Biology (2008), the Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences (2010), the Balzan Prize (2014), the BBVA Foundation’s “Frontiers of Knowledge Award” (2015), and the Blue Planet Prize (2023).

'Feeding the world while preserving earth’s liveability: the biofuel barrier' with Prof David Tilman