The promise of biotechnology in Canada
If you’ve got some time to spare and are interested in how biotechnology could impact the future of Canada by 2020, have a read of this report from the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee, a body of external experts established in 1999 to advise the federal government.
The report envisions a country where rural Canada can supply 25 per cent of the country’s fuel, chemical and synthetic products from renewable biomass. It also conceives of a national “biowaste to bioproduct” strategy based on the conversion of commercial food wastes, household compostable wastes, manure, aquaculture, agriculture and forest residue into biofuels and feedstocks for use in newer, cleaner chemical processes that reduce fossil fuel consumption.
It’s tough to know whether the report is a wish list or a prescription, but in any event it contains many powerful ideas worth serious consideration. In a nutshell, the report analyzes the role of biotechnology in relation to sustainable development. Definitely worth checking out.
Many thanks to Dr. Stuart Lee, Canadian Biotechnology Secretariat and member of the biotech advisory committee, for pointing out this report and supplying links.
NOTE: Here’s a link to a new report (just out today) by the Biotechnology Industry Organization out of Washington, D.C., which asks the question: Can American farmers feed the growing biofuel industry?
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
November 21st, 2006 at 5:37 pm
It all sound very good. If even only some of the goals are achieved, it will be great news.
Although I’m not living in Canada (although I hope to be soon enough) I find these types of efforts worth their weight in gold (or Google stock)
November 21st, 2006 at 7:23 pm
This is where my ideals crash into one another. I like the idea of any thing that will get us off oil . BUT GMO’s are a loose cannon as far as biodiversity. We do not know what the effect will be on ecosystems . I would say this is a good time to use the precationary principle.
November 21st, 2006 at 7:39 pm
A natural forest provides “renewable biomass”, unfortunately most Ontario farms don’t, what with being more dependent on oil than the rest of us. A big problem with industrial farming is that it removes large amounts of nutrients from the soil that have to be replaced somehow–currently through the cheap but energy-intensive manufacture of artificial fertilizers. If the expanding biotech industry means that ever more nutrients will be removed from our fields, and even our forests, then I hope that someone has thought about how to cycle those nutrients back. I’m looking forward to reading that report and seeing how it addresses the subject.