Is this the end of the DDGS era in the EU?

Biofuels and dried distillers’ grains with solubles (DDGS, the by-product) have become everyday items in the news. However it appears that EU legislators are now thinking of taking a step backwards, trying to correct the unexpected (to them) rise in feed prices!

Biofuels
and dried distillers’ grains with solubles (DDGS, the by-product) have become
everyday items in the news. However it appears that EU legislators are now
thinking of taking a step backwards, trying to correct the unexpected (to them)
rise in feed prices!

 

The
European Union Parliament’s environment committee has just voted to reduce from
10 percent to 5.5 percent the total transport fuel use from renewable sources
(basically wheat, maize, and rapeseeds).

 

This
is not final, but by all appearances it will be enforced pretty soon, making
DDGS, the major by-product of wheat and maize-derived ethanol, pretty scarce in
Europe. Of course, there is encouragement to enhance efforts to use the so
called “second generation” biofuel sources (algae and high-cellulose crops),
but this is far in the future.

 

As
far as I am concerned, if this legislation passes, wheat and maize will become
more affordable in the European Union as animals will no longer have to compete
(so hard) with cars for their feed. This implies that the European Union’s
animal industry will become a bit more competitive in the worldwide market, and
especially against the United States where biofuel use is very high!

 

So,
what do you think? Should we expect the United States to follow suit?

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