Chapter 9
The Politics for a Fairer Bioeconomy
Abstract Bioeconomies are yet to meet their sustainable development potentials.
Thus far, mostly unsustainable production has prevailed, due to reasons on four
different levels. First, domestic regulatory and economic incentives have favored
conventional, input-intensive monocultures and big agribusiness-controlled systems.
Second, some norms have been crucial in underlying those policies: (i) the economic
but not political inclusion of smallholders and low-income countries; (ii) the preeminence of climate and wild biodiversity conservation over other sustainability
issues, assuming “renewable” to mean “sustainable” and disregarding the performance of bio-based production on other social and environmental criteria; and (iii)
an implicit urban bias that limits rural development strategies and prioritizes the
provision of resources to cities. Third, state and private agroindustry agents who
espouse those norms have formed winning coalitions to concretize policy beliefs
held in common. Ultimately, there are feedback loops between agency, governance
architectures, and allocation and access patterns. Therefore, the prevailing production patterns’ very distributive outcomes can be identified as a cause underlying their
dominance. As such, social equity reveals to be not just a normative goal but also a
key determinant of governance. To not aggravate inequalities and be more sustainable, bioeconomy promotion needs policies that reconfigure allocation patterns and
promote structural change.
Keywords Bioeconomy · Biofuels · Emerging economies · Inclusiveness · Social
equity · Value chains
9.1 Introduction
This book began with the observation that sustainable development’s social pillar,
with its considerations on equity and other human dimensions of environmental
change, has been systematically marginalized, both in scientific research and in
sustainability policy. Biofuels, an emerging bioeconomy sector avant la lettre, has
been no exception to that.
Still, despite remarkable growth, worldwide political and economic engagement,
and significant global impacts on people and the environment, bioeconomy sectors
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. G. Bastos Lima, The Politics of Bioeconomy and Sustainability,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66838-9_9
203
The Politics for a Fairer Bioeconomy
Abstract Bioeconomies are yet to meet their sustainable development potentials.
Thus far, mostly unsustainable production has prevailed, due to reasons on four
different levels. First, domestic regulatory and economic incentives have favored
conventional, input-intensive monocultures and big agribusiness-controlled systems.
Second, some norms have been crucial in underlying those policies: (i) the economic
but not political inclusion of smallholders and low-income countries; (ii) the preeminence of climate and wild biodiversity conservation over other sustainability
issues, assuming “renewable” to mean “sustainable” and disregarding the performance of bio-based production on other social and environmental criteria; and (iii)
an implicit urban bias that limits rural development strategies and prioritizes the
provision of resources to cities. Third, state and private agroindustry agents who
espouse those norms have formed winning coalitions to concretize policy beliefs
held in common. Ultimately, there are feedback loops between agency, governance
architectures, and allocation and access patterns. Therefore, the prevailing production patterns’ very distributive outcomes can be identified as a cause underlying their
dominance. As such, social equity reveals to be not just a normative goal but also a
key determinant of governance. To not aggravate inequalities and be more sustainable, bioeconomy promotion needs policies that reconfigure allocation patterns and
promote structural change.
Keywords Bioeconomy · Biofuels · Emerging economies · Inclusiveness · Social
equity · Value chains
9.1 Introduction
This book began with the observation that sustainable development’s social pillar,
with its considerations on equity and other human dimensions of environmental
change, has been systematically marginalized, both in scientific research and in
sustainability policy. Biofuels, an emerging bioeconomy sector avant la lettre, has
been no exception to that.
Still, despite remarkable growth, worldwide political and economic engagement,
and significant global impacts on people and the environment, bioeconomy sectors
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. G. Bastos Lima, The Politics of Bioeconomy and Sustainability,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66838-9_9
203