An area equivalent to roughly half the size of Greater London is now being used across England to grow the ‘energy crop’ maize to produce biogas, which has been billed as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.
They say the current system has echoes of the Drax scandal, which saw environmentally important forests in Canada cut down to produce renewable energy in the UK.
“Large scale cultivation of maize for energy is another example resulting in perverse and counterproductive solutions.”
The technology has been in existence since the late 1800s, but has been encouraged by governments in the UK and Europe in recent decades as a ‘sustainable’ alternative to fossil fuels.
Research by the Soil Association previously found these subsidies were costing UK taxpayers up to £50m per year. The current subsidy scheme, the Green Gas Levy, is expected to bring in a maximum of £266m annually at its peak in 2036/37.
Anaerobic digesters can run on a variety of ‘feedstocks’, including food waste collected by councils and animal waste from farms. This is promoted as a win-win: a sustainable way to recycle waste and create green energy in the process.
According to the Government, purpose-grown crops account for roughly a quarter of the feedstock used in the plants in the UK, while food waste makes up 32 per cent and animal waste 16 per cent.
Experts have warned farmland is being given over to intensive growing of maize crops for biogas (Copyright: Melanie Hobson)
Other forms of renewable energy, such as solar and wind farms, have come under fire for using up limited land resources, but research by Feedback Global has found solar can generate roughly 12-18 times more energy per hectare than growing crops for anaerobic digestion.
“We are using significant amounts of grade one and two, our best quality land, to grow maize and other energy crops, when there is an increased focus on water resources and food production,” he says.
The problem with maize
The amount of land in England used for maize production has grown by over a third in the past decade from 171,165 hectares in 2014 to 236,733 in 2024.
But maize is a crop that has a reputation for causing environmental damage, associated with soil damage, flooding and river pollution.
“It is generally dependent on more intense ploughing than most crops, plus heavy use of chemicals including climate-harming synthetic nitrogen.”
While sewage has been largely blamed for the poor state of Britain’s rivers in recent years, agriculture is often a larger source of pollution, especially in rural areas.
How energy crops took over the Isle of Wight
Around three per cent of arable land in the UK is currently being used for energy crops, but in some hotspots this is much higher.
Around nine per cent of the Isle of Wight’s total farmland is used for this purpose, according to evidence seen by The i Paper.
Jamie Marsh, Director at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, started noticing the transition to this new type of farming around ten years ago.
“When it was first promoted as an idea it was billed as taking the waste product from agriculture and the environment to create energy, but it quickly became apparent that the digesters would only take high sugar content crops,” he says.
“What we started seeing in the early years was a change in farming, and a transition to growing maize and other crops under contract, with the AD plants paying good rates for this.”
Soon the Wildlife Trust started to see the environmental damage being caused by this farming.
“Maize is grown in rows; it’s not generally under sown so you can get a lot of soil erosion and runoff. Everything that’s bound to that soil and sediment – pesticides, fertilisers – all runs off with it into water courses. Consequently, we are seeing poor water quality within our rivers, which are already impacted by a range of other issues and pressures,” he says.
They’ve also encountered problems with the storage of digestate, the byproduct of the biogas process that can be spread on farms as fertilisers.
“We’ve seen issues with digestate lagoons. There have been multiple sites where lagoons constructed on farms have failed and digestate is leaking out into the environment into water courses and protected sites,” he says.
There have also been incidents of farmers spreading the digestate on their land during wet weather, which they are not supposed to do due to the threat of runoff.
Marsh says he understands why farmers have entered these contracts, but says there must be a discussion over appropriate land use on the island. “Ultimately, we all want the same thing, a healthy environment growing healthy food in a sustainable way. Sadly, growing crops for energy production is not actually that green at all,” he says.
Why farmers have turned to energy crops
However, it said this should be driven by three perennial crops – miscanthus, short rotation coppice, and short rotation forestry – that are better for the environment.
Lines said part of the reason for this is that it was hard for farmers to produce these perennial crops on the scale needed to supply biogas plants. These plants typically enter into long-term contracts with local farmers who agree to grow maize on a minimum acreage of their farm.
For farmers, diversifying into energy crops can provide economic security in an uncertain world, where it is becoming increasingly difficult to make a living from growing food.
“I’m not critical of the farmers for supplying anaerobic digestion plants,” says Marsh. “It is a sound business decision in an uncertain economic climate. I’m critical of a system that allows this to be a better way to farm over the production of food.”
“Because of the amount of money involved in it, the people running the plants can rent land at a significantly higher price or value than other farmers in the area,” explains Lines.
Morgan says policymakers must go further. “Anaerobic digestion plants should be used for processing food waste and manures,” he says.
“Like many of these policies, the core of it is set on good principles of turning waste products, either food products or manure, into an energy product,” agrees Lines, but says there are currently too few “checks and balances” on the system.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “Biomethane can play an important role in reducing our reliance on imported gas, increasing our country’s energy security and helping to deliver net zero.
“We are looking at how we can further support the sector and encourage sustainable feedstock options.”
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