Are biofuels a proper alternative to fossil fuels?

Today I would like to talk about whether or not it is a good idea to

promote the expansion of biofuels as a real alternative to fossil fuels.
Firstly, I consider that it is necessary to define the concept of biofuel.
A biofuel is every kind of fuel, as wood or ethanol, derived from
biomass. In other words, a gaseous, liquid, or solid substance of
biological origin that is used as a fuel. Practically one hundred percent
of the world biofuel industrial production has an agricultural origin
although biofuels can also be produced and consumed in a sustainable
way in small farms all over the world by using different kinds of organic
wastes such as manure, straw, pruning wastes, etc.
Personally, I strongly disagree with the idea of increasing biofuel
monoculture crops.
I will explain my reasons for holding this belief shortly but first I will
acknowledge that there are some convincing arguments regarding biofuels
like an alternative to substitute fossil fuels. Perhaps, the main one is that
biofuels are a renewable source of energy unlike coal, oil and gas as
the crops are theoretically able to grow year after year in the same place
if some conditions are respected. In addition to this, people that support
biofuels also maintain that growing crops to produce biofuels implies the
important secondary effect of removing CO 2 from the atmosphere.
However, I am passionately anti biofuel monoculture expansion because
of the many downsides they show according to scientific evidences as
well as on my social concerns. Firstly, considering economic reasons,
they can not substitute the total amount of fossil fuels that humanity is
burning nowadays because there is not sufficient land in the planet to
grow such a tremendous quantity of organic material from biofuel crops.
Moreover, they rely totally on (modern agriculture photo) oil as the fertilizers, the
pesticides and the machinery that are required to grow biofuels depend
completely on oil availability. In fact, food and oil prices (food prices index)
show a nearly perfect correlation. For all these reasons, biofuels are not
an efficient (EROEI photo) source of energy.
Secondly, taking into account social reasons. Giant corporations are
investing in biofuels by renting or buying vast extensions of land in
underdeveloped countries which provokes exploitation of workers and

expulsion of peasants from their homeland. It has been shown that

biofuels have already expanded over former food crop lands because
these are less competitive. More and more land is expected to be used
for biofuel crops. This will lead to an increase in food prices and to the
development of riots (riots photo) because less land will be available to
produce food. Therefore, people from underdeveloped countries will be
the main victims of this phenomenon, not only because biofuel crops are
extending over their territories but, because they use the major part of
their incomes in nourishment.
Thirdly, considering environmental reasons and in opposition to what
pro biofuels argue, biofuel crops don't preserve the traditional land uses.
If a food monoculture is substituted by a biofuel crop, the impact over
the landscape won't be very deep but where forests or grasslands are
removed to grow biofuels both carbon sinks and biodiversity will be
reduced due to the diminution of less perturbed and natural areas
extension. Furthermore, according to some research some biofuels
produce greenhouse gases which are more harmful and dangerous than
the ones produced by oil. In addition to this, they promote pollution of
water and soil because of the use of chemicals fertilizers and pesticides.
(last 3 together photo)

In summary, while I recognise that pro biofuels have the ability to find
some cons and the means to convince the public opinion as they control
the media, I am not in favour of this kind of source of energy because
of its several drawbacks. The exploitation of traditional farmers, the
disappearance of traditional agricultural landscapes, the threats to
biodiversity and the rise of food prices far outweigh the potential
benefits of biofuels. For all the reasons mentioned before, I think that we
should change the term used to call them, agrofuels would be far more
suitable instead of biofuels.