Vers des alternatives végétales. L'émergence d'une nouvelle bioéconomie

We may be about to enter a new era in farming, perhaps indeed a new “bio-economy” driven both by concern for the environment (especially climate change) and by the amazing growth of biotechnologies that enable us to exploit the “plant cell factory” more systematically. Marc Chopplet and Daniel Thomas argue that, in addition to enhancing the value of the non-food element of farm output, real “plant alternatives” are beginning to emerge and a new alliance is developing between research, industry, agriculture and the environment. The first thing that comes to mind, obviously, is the contribution of biomass to energy production and the major efforts being made both by European countries and the United States, in line with the ambitious goals they have set themselves. The authors argue that, in addition to energy production, we could see the growth of “clean technologies and the emergence of new and different products that prefigure a new bio-economy” which would make the most of the extraordinarily rich properties of plants in a wide range of fields. Marc Chopplet and Daniel Thomas describe these new prospects, the factors that could promote or hold back this revolution, and outline its technological, political, economic and social dimensions.