Global warming and environment pollution increase the demand for environmentally friendly production systems. Energy, foods, biomaterials, and medicines have traditionally been made from fossil resources or by using agricultural practices and industrial processes. Non-sustainable practices resulted in polluting our environment, the greenhouse effect, and loss of biodiversity. But there is a rethinking taking place. It has become obvious that in order to prevent serious environmental problems, we need to switch using more renewable resources. However, a transition to sustainable production and manufacturing systems is challenging. New powerful biotechnologies and competitive environmentally compatible production systems are required to enable this transition.
This site discusses advantages of biotechnological production systems for bioenergy, biomaterials, healthier foods, and phytopharmaceuticals. By highlighting past and future applications of biotechnology in each area, the benefits as well as current limits and future prospectives for biotechnology applications are discussed.