Raymond O. Miller
Forest Biomass Innovation Center, Michigan State University

Hanging climate and rapid economic development among large populations are combining to place extreme pressure on earth’s productive land. Policy makers are being asked to solve the problem of sustainably producing more food, forage, energy, and housing from land that is already providing economic, social, and ecosystem services. To make matters more complicated, the ability of land to be productive is changing as global temperatures and weather patterns rapidly change. One obvious solution is to increase the production of desirable products and services from each parcel of land; thereby satisfying increased demand from the same landbase. This is precisely how agricultural systems have changed in the developed economies of the world during the last decade. Yields of corn, wheat, rice and other commodity crops have doubled or quadrupled as a consequence of changes in cropping systems and genetic improvements in the plants themselves. Systems and genetic advancements have also increased dairy cow productivity in the United States by a factor of six during the past century. There is every reason to expect that energy crop productivity will undergo similar improvements if similar efforts are directed toward achieving that goal. The net result would be to increase our ability to meet the rising demand for services from a decreasing or static land base while improving the quality of life in the rural communities which encompass these lands. A case will be made, using an example from the Lake States Region of the United States, that a thoughtful systems approach to research, development, and deployment of new woody crops, cropping systems, harvesting / handling systems, and conversion methods can lead to increased production of affordable, clean, renewable energy resulting in rural development without adversely effecting the existing land services being provided in those areas. In fact, this may be the only viable pathway forward for both developed and developing countries in light of the rising human pressures on limited global resources.