A car that runs on beans seems like the magic answer to our petroleum-centered society. Here’s the very simple reason it isn’t.

Corn, soybeans, and sugarcane, the crops used to create biofuels, need space to grow. Increasing production of these crops enough to support our fuel demands means clearing forests and disrupting fields and grasslands.

According to two studies released this month, the carbon cost of farming biofuel crops would outweigh the benefits for a very long time.

Scientific American reports that “it would take 319 years of using ethanol made from soybeans to make up for the extra carbon released by chopping down the forests needed to grow the crop. And of course more CO2 in the atmosphere means more global warming. So biofuels might actually exacerbate the problem they’re meant to solve.”

Hopefully, the scientific community will come to a fuel solution that doesn’t do more harm than good. In the meantime, you could convert your car to run on waste oils, or just Ride. Your. Bike.

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