The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released a report, “The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda,” calling for an increased world commitment to “reverse the neglect” of agriculture and industrial biotechnology. The report states that while approximately 75 percent of the future economic contribution of biotechnology and large environmental benefits are likely to come from ag biotech and industrial biotech, they only receive 20 percent of research investments.

The report recommends a boost in ag biotech development by “increasing public research investment, reducing regulatory burdens and encouraging private-public partnerships,” and calls for the increased use of biotechnology to address global environmental issues.

Two interesting findings in the report:

“The use of biotechnology in agriculture is an evolving success story. By 2015, approximately half of global production of the major food, feed and industrial feedstock crops could come from plant varieties developed using one or more types of biotechnology.”

And

“Much of the future growth of agriculture will be in developing countries. These countries will need to increase their capacity to use biotechnology in order to develop improved food, feed and fiber crops that are adapted to local growing conditions.”