Land use for multiple resources has long been an ecological problem with direct impacts on societal welfare and environmental quality. The expansion of bioenergy feedstocks (i.e. biofuels) has sparked debate about sustainable land use practices, especially for developing countries that have limited resources. Approximately 925 million people are undernourished and almost 90% of these people live in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Asia and the Pacific. The threat of substantial changes in climate raises concerns about our future capacity to sustainably maintain current levels of food security because climate change will impact food security most severely in regions where undernourishment is already problematic. At the same time, biofuel agriculture is expected to expand in both the developing and developed world as a way to mitigate climate change caused by fossil fuel energy use. This may offset some of the risks for food crops in regions with vulnerable climate regimes, but may introduce competition that causes new risks for the economic viability of food crops. While there have been initiatives by many governments, including the US, to develop biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels, the regional costs and benefits of bioenergy vary across the globe. Resistance to biotechnology for increasing both food and fuel crop sustainability is one major issue that affects many countries. Improvements in crop productivity can be achieved through sustainable agro-ecological management and/or biotechnological innovations. Also, while bioenergy development has been the source of much concern because of the potential impacts on food security, this conflict does not exist in all regions and causation of this conflict varies regionally. Another problem that varies by region is the potential risk of agricultural expansion of both food and fuel onto sensitive ecosystems that have poorly defined economic values. Therefore, the purpose of this symposium is to address the ecological interface of food security and bioenergy development.