Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:18:51.850Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The Historical Origins of the Bioeconomy

from Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2023

Piergiuseppe Morone ,
Dalia D'Amato ,
Nicolas Befort  and
Gülşah Yilan
Piergiuseppe Morone
Affiliation:
Unitelma Sapienza
Dalia D'Amato
Affiliation:
Finnish Environment Institute (Suomen Ympäristökeskus - SYKE)
Nicolas Befort
Affiliation:
NEOMA BS
Gülşah Yilan
Affiliation:
Unitelma Sapienza University of Rome
Get access

Summary

To understand the roots of the bioeconomy, it is necessary to look back at two historical episodes with similar characteristics. On the one hand, during the 1920s and 1930s in the United States, some actors joined forces to develop a chemurgy aimed at creating industrial products on the basis of agricultural substrates. On the other hand, during the years 1976 to 1980, the crisis in petroleum-based chemistry led to the idea of a revival based on the chemistry of sugars. In this chapter, we will do so by analysing the way actors have defined how the use of renewable resources in substitution of oil should be organised.

Keywords

bioeconomybiorefinerybio-industrychemurgycollective innovation strategies
Type
Chapter
Information
The Circular Bioeconomy
Theories and Tools for Economists and Sustainability Scientists
 , pp. 3 - 14
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, D., & Adair, G. (2009). George Washington Carver: Scientist and educator, Infobase Publishing.Google Scholar
Achilladelis, B., Schwarzkopf, A., & Cines, M. (1990). The dynamics of technological innovation: The case of the chemical industry. Research Policy, 19(1), 1–34.Google Scholar
Beckert, J. (2013). Capitalism as a system of expectations. Politics & Society, 41(3), 323–350.Google Scholar
Beckert, J. (2016). Imagined futures: Fictional expectations and capitalist dynamics, Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borup, M., Brown, N., Konrad, K., & van Lente, H. (2006). The sociology of expectations in science and technology. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 18(3–4), 285–298.Google Scholar
Bozell, J. J., & Petersen, G. R. (2010). Technology development for the production of biobased products from biorefinery carbohydrates – The US Department of Energy’s “Top 10” revisited. Green Chemistry, 12(4), 539.Google Scholar
Cherubini, F., Jungmeier, G., Wellisch, M., … de Jong, E. (2009). Toward a common classification approach for biorefinery systems. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, 3(5), 534–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chesnais, F. (1981). Biotechnologie et modifications des structures de l’industrie chimique: quelques points de repère. Revue d’économie Industrielle, 18(1), 218–230.Google Scholar
Cohendet, P. (1982). The European Chemical-Industry and the crisis: The necessity of technological changes. FUTURIBLES, (60), 13–29.Google Scholar
Cohendet, P., Ledoux, M. J., & Zuscovitch, E. (1987). Les matériaux nouveaux: dynamique économique et stratégie européenne, FAST.Google Scholar
Colombo, U. (1980). A viewpoint on innovation and the chemical industry. Research Policy, 9(3), 203–231.Google Scholar
Colonna, P., Tayeb, J., & Valceschini, E. (2015). Nouveaux usages des biomasses. Le Déméter 2015, 275–305.Google Scholar
Danielou, G., & Broun, G. (1981). Bioindustrie: de la tradition artisanale à la pratique industrielle. Revue d’économie Industrielle, 18(1), 14–29.Google Scholar
Finlay, M. R. (1997). The failure of chemurgy in the depression-era south: The case of Jesse F. Jackson and the Central of Georgia Railroad. The Georgia Historical Quarterly, 81(1), 78–102.Google Scholar
Finlay, M. R. (2003). Old efforts at new uses: A brief history of chemurgy and the American search for biobased materials. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 7(3–4), 33–46.Google Scholar
Galambos, L., Hikino, T., & Zamagni, V. (2007). The global chemical industry in the age of the petrochemical revolution, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Giurca, A., Befort, N., & Taylor, A. (2022). Exploring transformative policy imaginaries for a sustainable Post-COVID society. Journal of Cleaner Production, 344, 131053.Google Scholar
Jullien, B., & Smith, A. (2012). Le gouvernement d’une industrie. Gouvernement et Action Publique, 1(1), 103–123.Google Scholar
Levidow, L., Birch, K., & Papaioannou, T. (2013). Divergent paradigms of European agro-food innovation. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 38(1), 94–125.Google Scholar
Lokko, Y., Heijde, M., Schebesta, K., Scholtès, P., van Montagu, M., & Giacca, M. (2018). Biotechnology and the bioeconomy – Towards inclusive and sustainable industrial development. New Biotechnology, 40, 5–10.Google Scholar
Morone, P., Falcone, P. M., & Lopolito, A. (2019). How to promote a new and sustainable food consumption model: A fuzzy cognitive map study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 208, 563–574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penasse, L. (1981). Perspectives et contraintes de la bioindustrie. Revue d’économie Industrielle, 18(1), 30–37.Google Scholar
Permeswaran, P. (2010). Chemurgy: Using science innovatively to save American agriculture from overproduction. The History Teacher, 44(1), 95–125.Google Scholar
Potts, J. (2018). Governing the innovation commons. Journal of Institutional Economics, 14(6), 1025–1047.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pursell, C. W. (1969). The Farm Chemurgic Council and the United States Department of Agriculture, 1935-1939. Isis, 60(3), 307–317.Google Scholar
Sanders, J., Langevald, H., Kuikman, P., Meeusen, M., & Meijer, G. (2010). The biobased economy: Biofuels, materials and chemicals in the post-oil era, Routledge.Google Scholar
Shurtleff, W., & Aoyagi, A. (2011). Henry Ford and his researchers – History of their work with soybeans, soyfoods and chemurgy (1928–2011): Extensively annotated bibliography and sourcebook, Soyinfo Center.Google Scholar
Staffas, L., Gustavsson, M., & McCormick, K. (2013). Strategies and policies for the bioeconomy and bio-based economy: An analysis of official national approaches. Sustainability, 5(6), 2751–2769.Google Scholar
van Laer, A. (2010). Towards a common research policy: From the silence of the EEC Treaty to the Single Act. In Bouneau, C., Burigana, D., & Varsori, A., eds., Trends in technological innovation and the European construction: The emerging of enduring dynamics?, P.I.E.-Peter Lang, pp. 79–100.Google Scholar
Werpy, T., & Petersen, G. (2004). Top value added chemicals from biomass: Volume I – Results of screening for potential candidates from sugars and synthesis gas, Golden, CO (United States).Google Scholar
Zitt, M. (1983). Un cas d’innovation: l’isoglucose. Économie Rurale, 158(1), 42–50.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×