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Showing posts from April, 2015

Freely-Speaking: On Soil

This is just a quick note on my way to work. I just listened to a news podcast from DW. I have to give it to the German press: Today's podcast covered a topic that I think is very forward thinking. It discussed the importance of soil. The main points were very simple: 1.) Fertile soil is an important resource. 2.) It takes a long time to build up fertile soil (upwards of a generation or so). 3.) The demands on soil are increasing because of in large parts increasing populations and decreasing availability of fertile soil (due to different forms of erosion, and unsustainable agricultural practices). Interestingly the news podcast also discussed that a future in which the biobased economy takes root will by necessity also contribute to increased demands on the limited soil that we have.  Given the above, and the fact that making, managing fertile soil is never in the farmer's short term interest as the farmer usually just thinks about the next few harvesting seasons, the arti

In Other Words: Opinion of the German Bioeconomy Council

Have you ever wondered what other countries outside of the US are thinking about the biobased economy? Following is a word-for-word copy of what the "German Bioeconomy Council" thinks should be the road ahead. You can access the original document here: http://biooekonomierat.de/fileadmin/Publikationen/Englisch/Strategy_paper.pdf Decided at the 8th session of the Council, 14.5.2014 Preamble A sustainability-oriented bioeconomy can contribute vital solutions to the serious ecological and economic challenges of the future. However, such a bioeconomy will not develop automatically. Regulatory, social and technology policies are needed to move towards an ecologically sustainable economy that is based on innovation, renewable resources and efficient production processes. The Bioeconomy promotes process and product innovations with consumption and societal expectations in mind.