This book is a comprehensive reference for energy crops from the plant perspective with expert authors for each crop. Of particular importance are the chapters covering the sustainability aspects (social, economic and environmental), including food security.
About the Author: Nigel G. Halford is a Research Leader at Rothamsted Research, the UK's premier crop and agricultural research institute. He graduated from Liverpool University in 1983, obtained a Masters Degree from University College London in 1984 and, in 1989, was awarded a PhD for his work at Rothamsted on wheat seed protein genes. He transferred to Long Ashton Research Station near Bristol in 1991, but returned to Rothamsted in 2002. He runs a research programme on metabolic regulation in plants, with strategic objectives in crop yield, stress tolerance and food safety as well as bioenergy production. Professor Halford has authored more than 100 scientific papers and has written one book. He also and edited another book on plant biotechnology. He frequently lectures on plant biotechnology to schools, farmers and environmental groups, and has debated the issue in many media interviews and public meetings in the UK and abroad. He is a member of the Advisory Committee for Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF), one of the committees that advise the UK government on the use of GM crops, foods and animal feed. He also holds an honorary chair at the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Angela Karp is Scientific Director of the Rothamsted Centre for Bioenergy and Climate Change, and Deputy Head of the Plant and Invertebrate Ecology Division at Rothamsted Research. She is a geneticist by training, having graduated with a First in Genetics at Queen Mary College, London University. Dr. Karp leads an internationally recognised, integrated programme on bioenergy aimed at improving biomass crops within a sustainable land use context. She is the overall coordinator of the UK DEFRA Genetic Improvement Network on SRC willow which involves willow breeding underpinned by trait mapping and genomics. She also coordinates a project on the social, environmental and economic implications of increasing rural land use under energy crops, which focuses on She also coordinates a project on the social, environmental and economic implications of increasing rural land use under energy crops.