Bioeconomy: farm businesses and society, a joint emergency

Résumé

The bioeconomy is a bio-based economy that produces, adds value to, and processes biomass, in a circular economy approach and generating new value chains. The bioeconomy is a crosscutting system that generates synergies between, agriculture, forestry and other industries (such as energy), improving the value of the biomass. The bioeconomy offers endless possibilities and choices in utilizing more efficiently the biomass. European, national and regional public policies which are presently too numerous and lacking well-defined objectives must address these issues. To guarantee the close involvement of stakeholders in the bioeconomy, objectives must emphasize economic competitiveness. Environmental sustainability (including fighting against climate change and managing waste) and social sustainability (bonding local stakeholders and consumers) must come second. Farmers are key stakeholders of the bioeconomy. By definition, they provide biobased products and services, and their efforts must be encouraged with the help of Payments for Environmental Services (PES). The latter could be financed by either private companies as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives or local authorities. The bioeconomy involves numerous technological innovations in biomass processing and conversion, on the one hand, and organizational innovations, on the other. It is essential to create platforms which will bring together stakeholders in biomass research, production, and processing, as well as consumers of bio-based products and services. Lifting certain regulatory burdens is urgently needed to make the bioeconomy more efficient, scaling up the processing of coproducts.