The Bio-economy Blog: Agricultural Innovation in Europe

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Agricultural Innovation in Europe

The CRÊPE (Coperative Research on Environmental Problems in Europe) project ran from 2008 to 2010 bringing together civil society organisations and academics to investigate agri-environmental issues. The project concluded in December 2010. Read the final report on ‘Agricultural Innovation: Sustaining What Agriculture? For What European Bio-Economy?’ Interesting!

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With a background in political science and environmental science, Kes McCormick is an Assistant Professor at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) based at Lund University in Sweden. The IIIEE works with "Advancing Sustainable Solutions". Learn more on the IIIEE website and facebook.

In 2010, Kes McCormick was awarded funding (2010-2013) from the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) to conduct research on “The emerging bio-economy: Investigating the role of communication and stakeholder involvement” with a focus on bio-energy and bio-fuels for transport.

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BIO-ENERGY: Humans exploit biomass (plant and animal matter) for many purposes. When it is utilised to produce heat, electricity or fuels for transport it is commonly called bio-energy. Biomass can be considered as “stored” solar energy because the process of photosynthesis “captures” energy from sun in growing plants. Utilising biomass for energy purposes is in fact tapping into the vast energy available from the sun.
BIO-REFINERY: Integrated bio-based industries, using a variety of different technologies to produce chemicals, biofuels, food and feed ingredients, biomaterials (including fibers) and power from biomass raw materials. A biorefinery, like conventional fossil-fuel refineries and chemical complexes, will be able to produce a wide range of commodities and specialty end-products and will contribute to increase the competitiveness of the sector by maximising the value of the renewable raw materials.
BIO-ECONOMY: An economy where the basic building blocks for materials, chemicals, and energy are derived from renewable biological resources, such as plant and animal sources. This type of economy can meet the requirements of sustainable development – ecologically speaking, and from a social and economic perspective.
BIO-LITERACY: An understanding of the emerging bio-economy by the general public and key stakeholders appears to be essential to political support and long-term success. Furthermore, a lack of trust and awareness of the bio-economy is likely to result in resistance to new systems and supportive policies. Such understanding can be called bio-literacy. Last, but certainly not least, greater stakeholder and public engagement can help to ensure the sustainability of the bio-economy - from environmental, economic and social perspectives.

The Bio-economy Blog

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Agricultural Innovation in Europe

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