On January 17, 2025, experts discussed "Bioeconomy and Global Food Security – Challenges from an International Perspective" at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in Berlin. The event was organized by IAMO and the German Agribusiness Alliance (GAA).
The bioeconomy is based on the sustainable use, production, processing, and marketing of resources and promotes both ecological and economic sustainability. At the event in Berlin, the international panelists from politics, business, and research focused primarily on past experiences in applying bioeconomic principles, the role of modern technologies today and tomorrow, and how the bioeconomic system can be further promoted in the future.
The panel discussion was accompanied by scientific commentary from IAMO researcher Frans Hermans, who, in his keynote address, pointed out that bioeconomic goals cannot be achieved solely through innovations, such as biotechnologies; instead, experiential knowledge also plays a crucial role. He further recommends promoting bioeconomy clusters to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration between the relevant sectors, including agriculture, businesses, government agencies, and research institutions.
Kazakhstan also wants to play its role in global food security, increase exports, and, for example, expand organic farming, explained Yermek Kenzhekhanuly, Kazakhstan's Deputy Minister of Agriculture. New technologies, such as the use of lasers in vegetable and cotton cultivation for more water-efficient drip irrigation, are important for this.
As representatives from the business world, Maryna Kovalova, Head of Marketing at the SmartFarming Group in Ukraine, and Oliver Gierlichs, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Bayer Ltd. Ukraine, underscored the potential of innovations and new technologies to increase efficiency in agriculture. While Maryna Kovalova pointed out that bioeconomic farming is something new in Ukrainian agriculture and that digitalization has not yet been widely adopted, she also emphasized that digital technologies offer many opportunities. For example, explained Maryna Kovalova, drones and satellite images could provide data that make fertilization and irrigation more efficient. Oliver Gierlichs explained that innovations enable the optimized use of resources, for example through the use of waste products and more biologically compatible crop protection products and fertilizers.
The speakers of the expert panel, which was moderated by Dirk Stratmann, country spokesperson for Ukraine/Central Asia at the GAA, agreed that bioeconomy is a key factor for ecological and economic sustainability as well as the achievement of global food security.
About the GFFA
The 17th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) will take place in Berlin from January 15 to 18, 2025, under the title "Shaping a Sustainable Bioeconomy." The GFFA is an international conference on agricultural and food policy issues. It is organized by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in cooperation with Messe Berlin GmbH. General information about GFFA 2025 can be found on the conference website: www.gffa-berlin.de.
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Comment
In recent years, the bioeconomy has spawned numerous international conferences, forums, and meetings emphasizing the potential of this strategy to solve global challenges such as food security. Yet despite this multitude, it remains largely lip service; practical implementation is lacking. A critical look at this dynamic reveals several problem areas:
- Discrepancy between words and actions
While numerous meetings, such as the Bioeconomy Forum 2023 in Berlin or the Global Bioeconomy Summit, regularly emphasize the need for a transformation toward sustainable economic systems, concrete implementation remains elusive. While political measures and funding programs are announced, they often lack clear mechanisms to overcome structural obstacles such as power asymmetries or conflicting goals between ecological and economic interests.
2. Dominance of industrial interests
The bioeconomy is shaped by a "triple helix" of politics, industry, and science. Economic interests dominate, while social and ecological aspects take a back seat. Many events—like the one mentioned above—are more like platforms for industry to present their technologies. This event, too, had nothing to do with a "true" forum for transformative change.
One example is the one-sided promotion of “bio”fuels or “bio”plastics : Here, economic goals clearly take precedence over food security, while the negative impacts and the resulting ecological costs are ignored.
3. Lack of involvement of civil society
Although the bioeconomy has significant social and environmental impacts, civil society involvement remains marginal. Many meetings are elitist and focus on technological innovations without adequately considering the needs of local communities or smallholder farmers. This hampers broad social acceptance and threatens the legitimacy of bioeconomy policy.
Our Conclusion
While the multitude of meetings and events on the bioeconomy reflects the growing awareness and potential of the topic, the bottom line is that a lot of money is wasted for nothing (three-digit participation fees, five- to six-digit sums for conference venues, catering, and accommodation for speakers, etc.).
What's sorely lacking is courage. Courage to make it clear to the public that our consumer-driven lifestyle cannot continue as it has been – if we don't want to end up with a mess we can't clean up. Because this lifestyle stands in stark contrast to the global problems of our time. The unchecked consumption of resources, driven by a throwaway mentality and the relentless pursuit of new products, has massive ecological and social consequences. Forests are cleared to produce cheap consumer goods, the oceans are filling with plastic waste , and workers in poorer countries are exploited to make the Western lifestyle possible. Our way of life is not only highly unethical, but also anything but sustainable.
The resource consumption of the Western world far exceeds the capacity of our planet. At the same time, consumerism exacerbates social inequalities, as it comes at the expense of those who benefit the least. It is high time that Western societies change their priorities and abandon the illusion that happiness and prosperity can be achieved through consumption. A conscious use of resources, a focus on sustainability, and solidarity are essential to securing a livable future for all. What we truly need is a moral revolution that will make a global sustainability ethic, and thus a bioeconomy, possible in the first place.
