Leave it to quasi-enviro think-tank Worldwatch Institute to take a long, hard look at the impacts of the booming biofuels industry. The Washington, D.C.-based group on Wednesday announced the release of its 450-page assessment of the ecological, social and economic implications of mass conversion of land to fuel crops, from palm oil plantations in Indonesia to cane fields in Brazil. Findings from the study, Biofuels for Transport: Global Potential and Implications for Energy and Agriculture, trickled out last June, but the whole thing hasn’t been available until now. Published by Earthscan and underwritten by the German Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection, the hefty tome examines the impacts of biofuels production on global climate and water resources, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of the world’s urban and rural poor.

Although biofuels make up less than one percent of the world’s liquid fuel supply, global production jumped nearly 30 percent in 2006 to 44 billion liters, according to Worldwatch’s most recent numbers. The group also said biodiesel production alone rose 80 percent over the same period, outpacing ethanol fuel production, which grew only 22 percent.

That growth could help developing countries produce more of their own fuel domestically, reducing reliance on oil imports, of course. Worldwatch also says the biofuels boom is driving up agricultural prices, which is a good thing for farmers in parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Developing world farmers growing commodity crops like corn, cotton, and sugar have been at a habitual disadvantage to heavily subsidized rich growers in the U.S. and Europe.

But what will seas and seas of cane and other fuel crop fields do to the land, the forests they replace, and the diversity of traditional agricultural systems in the name of “going green”? You’ll have to dig into the book to find out.