I spent a couple of years doing USDA/DOE research into oilseed biofuels. The short answer to your question is 'it depends'. Part of our work involved doing a LC

I spent a couple of years doing USDA/DOE research into oilseed biofuels. The short answer to your question is 'it depends'. Part of our work involved doing a LCA (life cycle assessment) on the oilseeds as a biofuel. There are several considerations to be had here. Firstly, are you farming on marginal or primary farmland? Marginal land is generally marginal for a reason and will have typically lower yields. How are you farming? What intensity? Where do you have to move the product to for processing? What is the energy mix going into the processing workflow? Do you have to move the fuel again after you process it? The relatively easy answer to solving for the above issues, is that in some circumstances, it can make sense for some farmers to generate some oilseed for the purposes of making their own biodiesel.