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Societal Aspects of the Biobased economy

Societal Aspects of the Biobased economy

Introduction

“On an objective level, we know that industrial biotechnology has great potential to solve some of the difficult problems facing modern societies: environmental degradation, climate change, reliance on imported oil and gas, etc. However, we cannot assume that the average citizen will necessarily be comfortable with widespread use of biological processes by industry, particularly in instances where genetically modified micro-organisms are used (although in contained environments). In order to assure society’s consent, society must be involved in an open dialogue at an early stage.” (Working document from EuropaBio and ESAB, 2002, p22)

The transition to a biobased economy has a lot of interrelated components. It might seem to be a technological problem: we need to replace our dependency of fossil fuels and substitute it for biological sources. Biodiesel instead of normal diesel, ethanol instead of gasoline, and electricity can be generated by combustion of biomass. Plastics, and other materials for which we now use oil can be manufactured from plants. Apart from the last 200 years, humanity has mostly lived in a biobased society, burning wood and using animal based products to sustain themselves, so why would it be difficult to turn away from fossil resources?

First of all, we are at this moment very spoilt with the high energy density of our fossil reserves. To get an idea of how absurdly luxurious and unsustainable fossil fuel consumption is, it is good to look at how long it took for the reserves to form (400 million years) and how long it will take to deplete these reserves (probably less than 400 years). During each day then we are using an amount of fuel that took more than 2000 years to produce.[1] These figures also make clear that it will be impossible or at least very difficult to replace the fossil fuels with biological alternatives without decreasing our energy consumption. And to effectively decrease our consumption we have to change our lifestyles, which is usually very difficult to achieve.

The need for a different energy so has several elements. One of the main driving forces towards a move away from the fossil fuel system is anthropogenic climate change, which is threatening the majority of the world.[2] But even without the threat of rising sea levels and more extreme weather conditions, it makes a lot of sense to look for alternative energy carriers. In the North of The Netherlands there is currently a lot of social unrest due to earthquakes that are caused by the extraction of gas.[3] Fracking, a popular method by which the United States and Canada set out to become energy independent, can also lead to earthquakes.[4] The wish to become energy independent is nevertheless spreading since the largest fossil fuel reserves are concentrated in the politically unstable Middle East and in Russia whose government is not afraid of using its gas supplies strategically.

The increasing world population is also an important reason to look for alternative energy systems. The world’s population recently reached 7 billion citizens and is expected to grow by another 2 or 3 billion by 2050. Globally, people’s incomes are also increasing, which leads to the situation whereby more and more people are able to buy cars, thus adding to the increasing energy consumption. The growing standards are additionally leading to a food demand that is increasing even faster than the population growth. The development of sustainable technologies is essential for reducing the human impact on the environment, although this will in most scenarios still have to be combined with a sustainable lifestyle. If someone for example takes longer showers because water is partly heated by the sun, or when people start buying larger televisions because the power consumption (per unit of surface) is reduced, then the sustainable technology could even lead to higher energy consumption.

There are several sustainable technologies that are currently being developed using molecular techniques to optimize photosynthesis and achieve a more efficient use of solar energy.

The major advantage of a biological solar cell is that once such a system is developed, production costs can in principle be kept very low, because the biological system is self-replicating in a completely sustainable way. This is an enormous improvement when comparing this with, for example, photovoltaic cells, or windmills, which are not only relatively expensive to produce but also need materials that come from limited sources. An ideal bio-solar cell is completely sustainable and would produce high value chemicals or, at a later point, hydrogen or carbon based energy carriers (e.g. ethanol or butanol) that can directly be used in cars, industry and even in the domestic environment. It will probably still take a long time before such an ideal cell is made which could compete with fossil fuels, but it is essential to develop these alternatives while we still have enough oil and coal in the ground, to ensure the smoothest possible transition to a sustainable bio based energy system. In the development of a biobased economy, two important trends come together, that are both gaining influence in the contemporary era; the search for a more sustainable energy system, away from fossil based reserves, and the rising influence of molecular biology.

 The research, which is mostly bio molecular, is emblematic of the way that the field of biological engineering is gaining influence in our society and the rest of the world. Our daily lives would, for example, not be the same without genetically modified organisms; genetically modified crops are dominating agriculture in a large part of the world, enzymes in laundry detergents that make it possible to clean your clothes at low temperatures come from genetically modified microorganisms, as do a lot of life-saving pharmaceuticals. It often seems that living organisms are moldable at will. This is especially the case in the field of synthetic biology where biological systems are understood to be composed of functional modules. These modules are DNA-strands that code for proteins that can perform specific functions. The possibilities to modify the human body are also increasing; some genetic diseases are already treated with gene therapy and embryos are in some cases selected prior to implantation in IVF to prevent the birth of a child with severe disabilities. The same technologies can however also be used to augment or add particular characteristics in humans. All of these developments are changing our relationship towards living entities and the concept of life itself. Questions around life that have been the subject of philosophy for thousands of years are suddenly being answered by scientists. These scientists are able to explain mechanisms and how aspects of life are functioning. However, questions around values and how our changing relationship with life affects our conception of being human, and what that means, remain. The enormous amount of new scientific knowledge does not provide us with an understanding of the meaning and value of this changing life, which can sometimes create to tensions in our society.

Another problem around the application of new technologies is that the majority of society only experiences the technology after it has been developed, after years or even decades of development. When a societal debate starts at this point, it is very difficult to change the course of events. Another problem that often occurs in societal debates is polarization, which can obstruct constructive deliberations. Opponents and allies of techniques dig deeper in their trenches, and do not listen to the adversaries’ claims. This polarization leads to the stagnation of debates, and the repetition of arguments.[5] This is seen both in the debates around the risks of genetic engineering and around anthropogenic climate change. Solutions for the societal distance from the technological development and for the challenge of polarized debates are to be found in education, open debate platforms and bioethicists who focus on molecular biology.

The characteristics of controversial research are that it challenges the ‘natural’ order, that it has direct applications, that it is relevant to some politicized social issue, that sentiment has mobilized a related social movement and that the research is in competition with limited resources.[6] Biotechnology can in this respect absolutely be seen to be controversial, and this makes the debates around this field problematic.

An increasing area of arable land is worldwide used for the production of biomass. This can lead to frictions between small scale farmers and the larger industries. In some areas, for example in parts of Africa, there is still a lack of basic social rights around labor conditions. There are numerous reports of slavery, child labor and land grabbing with inadequate governmental protection.[7]

Because the incomes of primary agriculture are in these areas often very low, the farmers are trapped in a vicious circle.  They don’t have enough money to invest in better agricultural practices so that the yield of the farmlands are staying low. While relatively simple measure could be taken to increase the yield, for example fertilizing with phosphorous and nitrogen.

 Investments in in agriculture and biomass production by states or large corporations are also not automatically leading to better incomes for the farmers because of existing power relations. In some of the production areas of developing countries in Asia and Africa there is rather a relative impoverishment of the population because the monopolization of access rights to land and 

water because of land grabbing. The vegetation is often also deteriorating and lands are deprived. It should therefore be ensured that with a future excessive demand for bulk bio-based applications, local access to food and animal feed is not hindered. In many areas, malnutrition is a real problem and food security is insufficiently guaranteed. With the increasing demand for biomass there is also an increasing competition between food, feed, energy and materials. 

Traditionally, agriculture produces both food, materials and energy. However, the scale has changed considerably: the demand for bioenergy has become much larger. Therefore, there is a risk for a shift away from food creation and reduced access to food for the poorer people. One of the reasons for this is that crops that produce food are often more efficient for biomass applications than non-edible crops. From efficiency considerations it is therefore often better to opt for the use of food crops for a bio-based economy.[8] However, this brings with it the risk that there is a rapidly growing demand for such crops for industrial and energy applications, making food more expensive. 

Malnutrition occurs mostly in the rural areas, where the availability of land is not the only problem. War, poor agricultural infrastructure, low education, poor healthcare and corrupt economy are often the main causes. Large-scale land use for bioenergy or biofuels could nevertheless increase the problems although they could in theory also be part of a solution.

 

There are a lot of obstacles between the successful production of biobased producs and a societal integration of these products which could eventually lead to a biobased economy. Although a large majority of people indicate that they favor biobased products, most people still choose to buy the products that are most attractive in terms of price, performance or other marketable aspects.[9]

Most biobased products are at this moment more expensive and sometimes even of a lesser quality than competing products made from fossil components. Consumers are unwilling to pay more for products when the added value is not clear to them. This is often a problem in the frequently vague and ambiguous domain of biobased products.

 

[1] Idea from Katan 2012, the figures for the reserves come from Patzek and Pimentel 2005

[2] As stated in the IPCC report or the more straightforward synthesis report by Pachauri et al. 2008

[3] The social impact is described in van der Voort and Vanclay 2015

[4] Also described in Eaton and Mahani 2015

[5] See for example McHughen 2011

[6] Described by Clarke 1990, 30

[7] Land grabbing is the phenomenon whereby foreign investors buy or rent agricultural lands without the consent of the original owners. See:  Nele Delbecque (2011) ‘Land grabbing: neokolonialisme of ontwikkelingskans?’

[8] J.W.A. Langeveld et al. (2014) ‘Biofuel Cropping Systems, Carbon, land, and food’ Routledge, M. Carus and L. Dammer (2013) Food or non-food: Which agricultural feedstocks are best for industrial uses?’, Nova paper #2 on bio-based economy, nova-Institut GmbH

[9] BBMG (2012), Rethinking Consumption: Consumers and the Future of Sustainability. (http://www.globescan.com/component/edocman/?task=document.viewdoc&id=51&Itemid=0 )

 [DL1]Link met waarom het nodig is om hogere efficientie te krijgen (gebrek aan ruimt, relatief ineffficiente photosynthese)

Colofon

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Auteur
David Louwrier
Laatst gewijzigd
2016-08-03 10:05:39
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