Biosecurity in the new bioeconomy

This 2011 Terrestrial systems issue of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability discusses the new bioeconomy (which the OECD considers has the potential of generating a 21st century agricultural revolution [1]) with respect to the associated biosecurity and sustainability issues that will emerge within it. The Bioeconomy includes all economic activities relating to the invention, development and production of particularly non-food products and processes based on biological resources. It is largely driven by a future need for industrial products and fuels to be derived from renewable resources and therefore largely from biological production systems in agro-forestry. By biosecurity we are referring to biological threats to the integrity of such biological resources and the environment. The biosecurity concerns this issue discusses relate to addressing the agricultural, environmental and some human health risks of developing, trialling, distributing and cultivating new crop species where the potential economic and particularly sustainability benefits are still largely unknown. These risks are associated with the unaided spread of these new crops themselves and the economic risks posed by pests to these future production systems [2]. Production systems that from competition with food-based agriculture will by necessity need to be more viable on the less fertile parts of the landscape. The issue provides industrial, scientific and policy perspectives.