The Potential of Bioeconomic Innovations to Contribute to a Social-Ecological Transformation: A Case Study in the Livestock System

Abstract

Environmental crises, which are consequences of resource-intensive lifestyles and are characterized to a large extent by both a changing climate and a loss of biodiversity, stress the urgent need for a global social-ecological transformation of the agro-food system. In this regard, the bioeconomy and bioeconomic innovations have frequently been seen as instrumental in addressing these grand challenges and contributing to more sustainable land use. To date, the question of how much bioeconomic innovations contribute to sustainability objectives remains unanswered. Against this background, we study four bioeconomic innovations using the case study of animal production and manure utilization in relation to their potential contributions to a social-ecological transformation. The analysis is based on the application of analytical categories derived from the literature that assess the normativity of these innovations and their implicit cultural changes. The results show that the innovations examined manifest existing thought styles and the incumbent socio-technical regime rather than contribute to a more fundamental transition. In this respect, we stress the importance of evolving alterative ideas in innovation design, applying more integrative approaches, such as embedding innovation processes into transdisciplinary processes, and developing adaptive and reflective governance approaches. In return, bioeconomic innovations should adjust towards the design mission of a social-ecological transformation and include a multitude of actors to discuss and harmonize contesting imaginaries and ethical concerns.

Bioeconomic fiction between narrative dynamics and a fixed imaginary: Evidence from India and Germany

“…Conversely, the design of innovations recalibrates fictional expectations in that the resulting new artifacts and knowledge influence the content and shape of fictional expectations. This inevitably also applies to bioeconomic innovations ( Bröring et al, 2020 ;Friedrich et al, 2021a ).…”

“…In the following, we provide an analysis of the two bioeconomies mentioned above. While the notions of imagined futures and fictional expectations provide the theoretical background of our study, we direct our empirical focus toward the concrete nar- ( Beck et al, 2021 ;Friedrich et al, 2021b ) Global South, high share of subsistence agriculture, discourses on food security, population growth, and poverty reduction ( Choudhary et al, 2014 ;Kathage and Qaim, 2012 ;Najork et al, 2021 ) Bioeconomic policy strategies Guiding principles: (1) the development of innovations by using biological knowledge and (2) the design of a circular economy (CE) based on natural resources; the aim is to help meet the SDGs ( BMEL and BMBF, 2020 ) Focus on "efficiency, productivity, safety and cost-effectiveness of agriculture, food and nutritional security; affordable health and wellness, environmental safety; clean energy and biofuel; and bio-manufacturing" ( Departement of Biotechnology 2021 , p. 7) ratives that exist around innovations helping to solve the manure issue in Germany ( Friedrich et al, 2021a ) and Lepidopteran infestations in Indian cotton fields ( Najork et al, 2021 ). Our aim is to reconstruct the irritations and subsequent dynamics that these narratives are subject to and to understand how these narratives are stabilized and adjusted by the involved actors.…”

“…Against this backdrop, new bioeconomic products for manure management are currently being developed ( Friedrich et al, 2021a ). These innovations include the cultivation of insects on manure (this innovation could provide a protein-based fodder substitute in livestock production (e.g., Či čková et al, 2015 )), the cultivation of duckweed on manure (this innovation could be used as a substitute for soy in livestock production (e.g., Stadtlander et al, 2019 )), and the recycling of manure by using manure as a mineral fertilizer substitute (this innovation could help compensate for the finiteness of rock phosphate (e.g., Pintucci et al, 2017 ) and strengthen the already existing reciprocal transport of manure and fodder between different livestock-intensive and arable regions in Germany (e.g., Asai et al, 2018 )).…”

“…The role of imagined futures has thus far been widely neglected in the research on sustainability transitions associated with sociotechnical change ( Feola, 2020 ;Knappe et al, 2019 ;Longhurst and Chilvers, 2019 ). Retrospective studies on bioeconomies and sustainability transitions have discussed how the introduction of specific innovations can lead to mental or institutional lock-ins, thus creating path dependencies that are difficult to change afterwards (e.g., Beck et al, 2021 ;Friedrich et al, 2021a ;Graupe, 2020 ;Trencher et al, 2020 ;van den Bergh et al, 2015 ). However, the critical role of imagined futures in the emergence of new path dependencies and a resultant "colonization of the future" ( Beckert, 2018 ) has yet to be accounted for.…”

“…Seawright and Gerring, 2008 ) case studies from India and Germany. The first case study offers an example of the "bio-resource vision" of the bioeconomy ( Bugge et al, 2016 ) and discusses innovations that aim to solve the manure surplus and the associated issues of the eutrophication of water bodies and the loss of biodiversity in Germany ( Friedrich et al, 2021a ). The second case study relates to the "bio-technology vision" of the bioeconomy ( Bugge et al, 2016 ) and discusses the innovation of genetically engineered (GE) cotton that is resistant to Lepidopterans 2 ; the aim of this innovation is to increase production while reducing the need for pesticides in India ( Najork et al, 2021 ).…”