The US bioeconomy at the intersection of technology, policy, and education

Abstract

The bioeconomy is a complex, multivariate, and interdisciplinary system that requires a comprehensive assessment of its independent parts if it is to be understood fully. Hence, this article presents a holistic perspective of industry, public policy, and education aspects of the US bioeconomy. It is premised on the idea that a successful bioeconomy industry relies on the balanced development of all stages of the supply chain. For this balance to be struck, a strong interdisciplinary workforce must find novel solutions to multifaceted problems across the entirety of the supply chain. These solutions require innovative technologies that can improve the climate benefit of bioproducts, decrease their production costs, and make them more economically competitive. Increasing consumer education and awareness about the bioeconomy goes hand in hand with the development of a robust market for bioproducts. To guide these interdependent efforts, public policies must encourage demand, support competitive markets, promote the entry of renewable options, and stimulate growth by reducing financial barriers. We contend that a combination of policies is likely to be more effective than any singular policy on its own. Supporting the bioeconomy also entails attending to an existing lack of public awareness as well as workforce-ready professionals. To address these gaps, the USA must increase the intensity and intentionality of its efforts to educate students about the bioeconomy, particularly at the K-12 level. Furthermore, these efforts should encompass both formal and informal learning contexts in order to meet the workforce challenges facing the bioeconomy now and in the future.

Governing biotechnology to provide safety and security and address ethical, legal, and social implications

“…Without a cohesive governance structure, differing incentives will drive uneven technology development and exacerbate social concerns pertaining to ethics, values, and equitable distribution of benefits and risks. Where the field will continue to expand in complexity and product prominence, we anticipate the need for safety-by-design in technology readiness level benchmarking will become increasingly required to maintain a robust bioeconomy, as well as prevent diverging risk culture from making countries and industries incompatible with their societies or one another ( Thormann et al, 2021 ; Pascoli et al, 2022 ).…”

Multicriteria assessment of technology pathways to produce renewable and sustainable biofuels: case study in eastern Canada

“…The policies can be incentive based, for example subsidies or tax credits, market based with direct regulation of the market or information based with training, labels, or the use of specific websites. 11 The choice of criteria and related quantified metrics in an MCDM depends on the projects and the biorefinery process itself, as well as the stakeholders involved and their vision of the projects:…”

“…Several types of policies can be applied at different levels of governance, such as national, state or local. The policies can be incentive based, for example subsidies or tax credits, market based with direct regulation of the market or information based with training, labels, or the use of specific websites 11 …”

Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel Production in the United States

“…To stabilize the global climate within safe bounds, a transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy resources is needed. To this end, sustainably produced biofuels can play a critical role in decarbonizing various transportation sectors. − …”