Abstract
Biobased, bioeconomy, and biotechnology are all concepts sharing one common denominator: βιoς, which derived from Ancient Greek and means “life,” but also “manner of living,” and “means of living.” 1 For millennia, mankind has used seemingly renewable resources (wood, wool, leather, cotton, plant extracts) for housing, clothing, food and medication. This was not been without impact on the environment, leading to negative impacts such as deforestation in some regions.
The last century or so has witnessed the rise and hegemony of fossil-based resources for practical and economical reasons. But we are now entering a new era where we need to make more room for sustainable sources of materials and energy in order to preserve the biosphere.
In this special issue of Industrial Biotechnology, the reader is invited to sample research activities carried out by teams of scientists in Québec, Canada, and share some reflections with resource-utilization specialists. Québec is endowed with ample natural resources—forests, lakes and fresh water, fertile lands, and even a long marine shore line. But there is still an urgent need to better understand how these ecosystems work and develop a sound approach for optimizing the way we collectively harvest such resources.
This endeavor must rely on relevant experimental data, high-quality information and scalable know-how and technologies. Above all, a new approach is required to exploit renewable resources in a sustainable fashion without repeating the errors of the past, in full respect of biodiversity—another important word starting with the prefix bio.