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Bio-Economy

Economic development has been dominated by different sectors at various times.  The best known of these was the industrial age where mechanisation rapidly replaced manual labour.  More recently information technology, electronics and communication have been major driving forces for growth and development worldwide.  Now, as natural resources like oil, gold, timber and fish become limiting and environmental protection together with sustainable use of resources is becoming more important, the use of renewable biological resources is growing as a new driver of the economy.  This has led us into the start of the ‘bioeconomy’, a period where living organisms will be used to produce new products and to make old processes renewable and therefore, more sustainable.

The bioeconomy is supported by considerable research into living organisms and the processes that can be adapted for daily activities and for the production of innovative new products.  The bioeconomy will drive more sustainable production of biological resources like food, meat, fish, wood, fibre and oils.  It will harness the sun-fuelled growth of plants and microbes to replace energy gobbling industrial processes and to produce bio-materials for the manufacturing industry, constructions, cars, etc.  Microbes are already being used to produce important animal products in a more sustainable and safe way, compared to farming the animals and harvesting the products from carcasses. 

This shift to biological processing has initiated a large number of new bio-based companies in the food, agriculture, mining, industry, environment, forestry and fisheries industries.  In time, even computers are likely to be biological and the processes of living cells will help establish nanotechnology applications.  Many farmers have already benefited from biotechnology improvements in seed.  The bioeconomy will lead to continued improvements in the way crops are produced and the will increase the markets for plant material to include medicines, health supplements, biodegradable materials, industrial oils, renewable energy, environmental cleanup products and even more.


Bio-Economy Resources

  1. Michigan State University. Questions and Answers on the Bioeconomy
    Outline: This brochure answers questions such as: How does the new bioeconomy relate to traditional agricultural production?  Who are the current prospective market leaders of the new bioeconomy?  Where will the dominant markets be?  Click here
     
  2. OECD. 2008. Biotechnology: Ethical and social debates
    Outline: The development of biotechnology has triggered many ethical and social reactions from the public opinion, the media and non-governmental organisations. The aim of this document is to provide some insights into the ethical concerns, dilemmas and trade-offs that have been expressed concerning biotechnology in the last ten years. The paper focuses on six objects from the agriculture, industry and health sectors, whose procurement, production, storage and use by biotechnology has raised general attention: genetically modified organisms, biofuels, natural genetic resources through bioprospecting, transgenic and cloned animals, private genetic information and stem cells. Specific examples and international comparisons are drawn from a vast geographical scope: Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all hosted some ethical debate, sometimes specific to these countries, other times shared by a more international public.  Click here
     
  3. OECD. 2008. Small and Medium Enterprises in Agricultural Biotechnology
    Outline: The relatively new agricultural biotechnology industry is attracting much attention from industry and policy-making organizations around the world due to the industry’s expanding impact on the productivity of commodities used in food, industrial, and pharmaceutical products. That impact is expected to be even more significant in the future. The source of much of the new technological innovations coming from the agricultural biotechnology industry is small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are research-intensive in their activities, but very fragile in their existence. In each country where agricultural biotechnology is being developed there are SMEs contributing to the advancement of the science. However, little of the financial rewards from this science seems to be captured by SMEs and, as a result, those firms often fail. The high failure rate of SMEs raises several questions, such as “is there some flaw in the business structure of firms in the industry?”, or “is the economic and policy environment facing the industry not conducive to supporting SMEs?” Addressing questions such as these is necessary when assessing whether the industry can indeed have the significant impact on agriculture as expected based on its early performance. Therefore, this study contributes to the discussion of agricultural biotechnology by addressing both of these questions.  Click here
     
  4. OECD International Futures Programme’s (IFP) latest report on The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda.
    Outline: The report examines the range of products and services being impacted by the biological sciences and their potential to further socioeconomic goals in OECD and non-OECD countries over the next 20 years.  Click here
     
  5. Opportunities and Challenges for Industrial Biotechnology in South Africa

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