PEFerence: Use of Food/Feed Crops for Bio-based Materials and Effects on Food Security

Using plant-based sugars as a resource leads us to a well-known debate: The competition between food and non-food when it comes to bio-based crops. This debate is flawed, subjective and not fully based on evidence. What is detrimental to food security are, according to the World Food Programme in 2023, climate change, conflict, extreme inequalities in wealth distribution, heavy dependence on food imports from industrial countries, overconsumption of meat, losses along the value chain and the impact of the COVID pandemic. Competition between biomass uses is not mentioned among the relevant causes.
The authors of a related paper (https://renewable-carbon.eu/publications/?search=1&woof_text=food) argue that using food and feed crops for chemicals and materials will not necessarily exacerbate food insecurity, and in fact has the potential to cause multiple benefits for local and global food security, climate mitigation and other factors. One of the main authors is Lara Dammer, Head of the “Economy & Policy” Department at nova-Institute.

This free webinar gives you the opportunity to learn more about the new scientific insights on crops for bio-based materials directly from the source. At the end, there will be time for your questions to be answered live by Lara Dammer.

PEFerence receives funding from the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (JU) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 744409. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Bio-based Industries Consortium.

Further information.