Modeling of bioenergy impact on food security of EU countries

Abstract

Ensuring the energy and food independence of each state will not only remain important but that its importance will continue to grow given the constant need for the state to properly guarantee the basic needs of the population. However, the rapid development of bioenergy is a potential precondition for the fuel and food conflict over agricultural raw materials. The article examines the relationship between food safety indices and the overall share of energy from renewable sources and bioenergy production in 13 European countries. The main factors characterizing the food security of these countries for the period from 2012 to 2018 are identified. Statistical methods of correlation analysis are used to determine the links between the outlined factors. It is studied that in most countries the prosperity of the bioenergy sector of agricultural enterprises does not affect the main indices of food security. In 5 countries (Poland, Germany, Norway, Spain, the Czech Republic) correlations were found, but for the most part, they are direct. It means that large values of one variable are associated with large values of the other, in other words with increasing the share of bioenergy production and overall share of energy from renewable sources, food safety indices also increase.