Over the coming decades, the growing global population will need a safe and secure food supply. Climate change will have an impact on primary production systems, such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture.
Thus, a transition towards an optimal use of renewable biological resources is essential. Europe must move towards sustainable primary production and processing systems that can produce more food, fiber and other bio-based products with fewer inputs, less environmental impact and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Europe will need to ensure sufficient supplies of raw materials, energy and industrial products under conditions of decreasing fossil carbon resources. To achieve this, it is necessary to focus specially on the following issues:
- Bio-waste (estimated at up to 138 million tons per year in the Union, of which up to 40 % is land-filled) has high potential added value as a feedstock.
- Biological resources and ecosystems could be used in a more sustainable, efficient and integrated
- An estimated 30 % of all food produced in developed countries is discarded.
Bioeconomy can pave the way to a more resource efficient society, encompassing the sustainable production of renewable resources from land, fisheries and aquaculture environments and their conversion into food, feed, fiber bio-based products and bio-energy. Additionally, managed in a sustainable manner, the Bioeconomy can sustain a wide range of public goods, including biodiversity and ecosystem services and it can reduce the environmental footprint of primary production and the supply chain as a whole.
The OLEAF4VALUE project will set the basis of an industrial stable supply chain able to valorise olive pruning leaves (OPL) and olive mill leaves (OML) in a cost-effective way.
The project will give a new life to olive leaves, solving the problem of its removal from the fields while obtaining high added value bioactive compounds with high-market potential.
Source: More information about the bioeconomy (European Comission)
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