Used correctly, biofuels can be a tremendous resource for slowing the emission of heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere. But the tremendous amount of potential carbon savings—not to mention green energy income—offered by the biofuel market may have encouraged some pretty serious corner-cutting on the part of energy producers.

A new report from the UK serves as something of a microcosm for the larger problem. While the study found that biofuels’ current share of all road fuel was just under the 2.5 percent target set by the Renewable Fuels Agency, it also showed that fewer than one-fifth of these fuels were produced in accordance with agricultural standards designed to protect long-term crop viability.  While this is disappointing on a philosophical level—it’s tough to answer detractors of renewable energy sources when they can say that green energy isn’t green—the problem also has other, far more tangible side effects.

Not protecting biodiversity, for example, sets up monoculture conditions in which a single blight could leave an entire area barren, leading to problems with erosion and water run-off. This is an especially serious consideration given that plant stock sources are only known for 90% of the biofuels used in the UK. More careful monitoring of  exactly what types of plants are grown and harvested can help keep the balance of existing ecosystems, and will help maintain agricultural sustainability.

Deforestation is also a significant concern, especially given that the destruction of older-growth, non-industrial forests may represent a far more serious carbon problem than initially thought. Industrialized nations such as England and the United States have been able to cite land use change as a value asset in reducing their carbon emissions; clearing land irresponsibly for biofuel growth will reduce or eliminate this benefit.  Perhaps plans to remunerate organizations for preserving forested land, as the World Bank has done, could better preserve the carbon-sinking effects of forests in biofuel-producing nations.

The consensus seems to be that no one technology is going to provide all the answers for the world’s current energy crisis. Everything from economic considerations, such as commodity prices and the cost of labor, to geographical factors, like the windiness of a region, or the richness of its coal and oil deposits, will determine what low-carbon energy sources become dominant in any given corner of the globe.

But with competition from high global food prices, it’s clear that more careful implementation of biofuel technologies is a must; accruing a reputation as an ecologically-irresponsible energy source that makes it difficult for people to feed themselves could cripple the nascent industry before its full benefits are realized.