Bioeconomy’s literal meaning: More bio and more organic farming, please!
by Ilka Dege, DNR The dominant industrial agriculture in Germany and Europe threatens biodiversity and the climate. By contrast, in particular organic farming ensures a sustainable biomass production. Foto: © Eva-Maria Lopez Discussions about the opportunities of the bioeconomy regularly set free a number of promises disguised in sustainability rhetoric. Their obvious weakness is: Where will the required resources come from, or how will they be produced? The climate policy’s demand to keep fossil raw materials in the ground is an indisputable fact. But can we substitute renewable for fossil resources? In view of the enormous demand for resources, the substitution is an outrageous claim that agriculture cannot accomplish neither with traditional nor innovative methods that are pushed. Therefore, the only valid sustainable bioeconomy concepts are those based on the need to reduce resource consumption. The failures in the field of bioenergy clearly show the wrong direction that mere replacement strategies can take. Hyped as a promising field of the bioeconomy only a few years ago, its legacy are deserts of palm oil plantations …