The current land use for growing crops for biofuels is relatively small: about 0.24 to 0.3 million square kilometers, which is less than 1 percent of the total agricultural area. This is in stark contrast to the approximately 77 percent of the total agricultural land that we currently use for meat and dairy production. We use these 40 million square kilometers to produce only 17 percent of the caloric value of our food. The remaining 11 million square kilometers are enough to supply 83 percent of our food needs with vegetable products. The following figure shows how the cultivation of biomass relates to land use for agriculture, livestock and other applications.
Ever since the introduction of the European agricultural reforms at the end of the last century, which reduced direct agricultural subsidies, agricultural land in Europe has been lying fallow. This soil can be used to supply the biofuel industry with raw materials, for example by growing rapeseed.
