For those of you who might want to know even more about biodiesel than we provide here, there is a new book out by that name that tackles the various aspects of biodiesel, including the potential for competition with food production.  

According to mole333, an occasional writer at MYDD, a very thoughtful political blog, Greg Pahl, the author of "Biodiesel", begins by discussing the history of the diesel engine and of biodiesel as a fuel.

Pahl talks about the need for biodiesel, the only real alternative to petrodiesel fuel for the many areas of the economy that will be unable to retool away from diesel engines for 10-20 years.  Pahl suggests that existing diesel engines will be able to run on a 20/80 combination of biodiesel and petrodiesel easily and may be able to go to 100% biodiesel without any difficulty, given that biodiesel burns cleaner and is better for the engine.  Read the entire report on the book here.