I think we agree that biomass, food or otherwise, is not going to replace FF to a significant measure.
If you think replacing ten percent of the nations gasoline with corn ethanol is insignificant, then yes.
Since 20% ethanol could be mandated tomorrow, using food stock for fuel is a serious and genuine concern.
Consider that food as a cost of an average person's wages increased from 10% of salary (for the entire previous century) to 33% from the implementation of 10% ethanol alone. Starvation rates around the world leapt as a result. The corresponding loss of disposable income has caused an enduring anemic economy.
How much further down this trail do you think we can go?
I guess we disagree on the much smaller problem of using woody material to make plastic feedstocks....
You can make all the bakelite you want from wood, but someday, the tree farms will be needed for food farms.
It's not a problem at all until the population is that large.
I advocate the use of woody material to make liguid fuel NOW, and save the oil and coal stock for their vast advantages in manufacturing (especialy oil) Burning oil should be criminal. One oil is made into a plastic good, the mass of it can be re-used almost indefinitely. This is NOT about re-cycling, it is about preserving mass. Once the oil is used as energy, it will never be mass again. We can get all the energy we need without burning oil. We have just been incredibly lazy and greedy until now.
Problems:
--Climate Change
Burning oil and coal are major contributors to climate change.
We have an over-abundance of energy available to use. We do not yet have the political will to use it.
Our true problems, which trump all others. The reason using food stock for fuel is so very wrong.
Not a problem: (IMO)
--Earth abundant elements (Al, Fe, Si)
Don't forget lithium. We have all the lithium we will ever need.
The uses for plastics are manifold and increase exponentially. As we speak, the Chinese are manufacturing housing units from recycled plastic.
The challenges before us need to be prioritized, lest we indulge in 'feel good' solutions to minor problems (recycling??), or add a litany of problems for dramatic effect (no plastics in the future).
Food, then fuel. We would not have significant resources of anything for long without recycling, and ease of manufacturing (cost) is certainly a dramatic effect of any future human venture.
Iron is the most recycled commodity on earth, followed closely by Al, then Si, to be perfectly clear.