All posts filed under: biomass

Online congress: How much bioeconomy can our planet cope with?

Alternative Bioeconomy Summit (online), February 23, 2022 What has to be on the agenda of the new federal government, to design a socially just and ecologically sustainable economy of the future ? Again and again, salvation has been promised by bioeconomy – an economic system operating with biological resources. Though, farmland, forests and oceans can supply a limited amount of biomass only, and most ecosystems are already under enormous pressure. Now and then, the production of agricultural goods in the Global South is obtained at the cost of serious human rights violations, while in Germany an increasing social division is threatening social peace. Not an easy starting point for developing the economy of the future. Ultimately, the often-cited planetary boundaries must become the cast for practical policies without neglecting the fair distribution of natural resources. Experts from environmental and development organizations, politics, science and specialist authorities come together at this Bioeconomy Action Forum Online Summit to define guardrails for a sustainable future. Please use the following link to register : https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtc-qvrDMqH9buU-jfLKlTrFPWW1ySE-dm Event with impulses from, …

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 …