Denmark has over the past century, developed one of the world’s most coherent, integrated, and strategically governed bioeconomy ecosystems. It is the fruit of the combined evolution of agriculture, industrial biotechnology, environmental regulation, green energy policy, and a deeply rooted collaborative culture linking public institutions, research organizations, private industry and users. The Danish experience offers lessons for how advanced economies can combine competitiveness, sustainability, and innovation in a biological, circular, and low-carbon economic system...
California has enjoyed decades of growth without significant economic planning. The state’s role has mainly been to track this growth, find ways to leverage it for general fund revenues, and regulate it where necessary to ensure clean air and water—all of which it has done exceptionally well. But the time has come to move from reaction and management to action and implementation. This will require California officials to affirmatively map a strategy for the bioeconomy that flows from feedstocks through to consumer purchase, and to overcome real pinch points on implementation, including how...
In response to the economic dislocation from COVID-19 and the subsequent federal investment in recovery, one California county – Stanislaus County – chose to make a major investment in growing the local bioeconomy as part of an economic mobility strategy. That seed investment resulted in the creation of a new bioeconomy sector intermediary and the expansion of the work to become a regionwide priority where the intermediary has been working with dozens of companies and researchers since 2023. That funding successfully leveraged four times additional public and private resources. Over...
The chapter argues that California's bioeconomy can bridge the widening economic divide between its prosperous coastal regions and its lagging inland regions by leveraging inland agricultural assets alongside coastal innovation strengths.
