Bioeconomy and Ethics

Although many empirical studies have been done to elaborate the meaning of sustainability, the core of its meaning is normative. When the concept of bioeconomy emerged, the overarching concept of sustainability was used to place bioeconomy in a normative, long-term development. For example, in Germany bioeconomy is defined as a new model for industry and the economy. It involves using renewable biological resources sustainably to produce food, energy, and industrial goods. It also exploits the untapped potential stored within millions of tons of biological waste and residual materials. This definition focuses on renewable resources and biological waste. Other definitions focus on the use of biotechnology in the production of (bio-based) goods, services, or energy from biological material (or biomass) as the primary resource base. In this paper we will present an overview of the ethical issues of bioeconomy in Europe. On the one hand, we will compare the bioenergy situation in Germany and the Netherlands. We will show that the Netherlands is now switching from a bio-based economy to a circular economy. This process has been accelerated by a recent number of serious problems with the use of wood as biomass. On the other hand, we will focus on the latest developments in biotechnology and show that, next to already known ethical problems about genetic modification, CRISPR-Cas9 leads to a number of new specific ethical problems.