Justus Wesseler
Wageningen University
Stuart Smyth
University of Saskatchewan
Sara Scatasta
University of Hohenheim

Until the recent financial crisis, biology-based industries were some of the most rapidly growing sectors of the world economy—the biofuels business was booming, agriculture commodity prices were high, agricultural biotechnology firms were making record profits, and the pharmaceutical industry was increasingly based on biologics. A recent European Union report has estimated that the contribution of modern biotechnology to the European Union’s gross value added is just under 2%, about the same size as the contribution of all agriculture or the chemical industry. The financial crisis has had impacts on the bio-economy, and these impacts will continue. Read More . . .