NABC Vision Statement

Biobased Products Will Provide Security and Sustainability
in Food, Health, Energy, Environment, and Economy
(Published 1998)

Prepared by the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council
1998

NABC Executive Coordinator: Jane Baker Segelken
NABC Associate Coordinator: Barbara Kneen Avery

Original illustration and design: Linda R. Smith

National Agricultural Biotechnology Council
419 Boyce Thompson Institute, Tower Road, Ithaca, NY 14853

Tel: 607-254-4856 Fax: 607-254-1242
E-mail: NABC@cornell.edu
http://nabc.cals.cornell.edu

December 14, 1998

The National Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC), a consortium of 26 major agricultural research and education institutions in the U.S. and Canada, has formulated the attached "Vision for Agricultural Research and Development in the 21^st Century".

The role of agriculture in the 21^st Century will see major expansion beyond food, feed, and fiber. It will be the basis for the emerging biobased industrial products era. In the 21^st Century we will not only continue to have food security but will see improved nutritional quality and food safety. In addition, the new biobased economy will bring increased security in energy, materials, environment, and health. Agricultural R&D will be the driving force for the new biobased economy.

We are excited about this opportunity and hope that this vision also inspires you. Please contact us if you have questions or would like further details on this vision of agricultural R&D and a sustainable economy. We encourage you to share this vision with others.

Sincerely,

James R. Fischer
Dean and Director
South Carolina Agriculture and
Forestry Research System
Clemson University

Ralph W. F. Hardy
Chair
NABC President, NABC

Agricultural research and development (AR&D) will take the lead in providing the technology for a biobased economy in the 21^st Century. In contrast with our present fossil-based economy, the biobased economy will use renewable resources such as plants instead of non-renewable fossil sources. With the biobased industry now emerging, AR&D has a greatly expanded role beyond the traditional areas of food, feed, and fiber. The 21^st Century biobased economy will:

be rooted in life-science, the dominant science as we enter the new millennium, coupled with bio-engineering processes;
reduce our vulnerability in access to and supply of petroleum for energy and industrial products;
make our industries more sustainable by utilizing domestically-produced renewable plant resources;
be driven by AR&D to improve cost-competitiveness of biobased vs. fossil-based energy and products
lessen projected global climate change by reducing the build up of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas;
create rural and urban job opportunities in the agricultural and industrial sectors;
improve the quality of our air, water, and soil;
improve the healthfulness of food;
produce human health-related products in plants, microbes, and animals;
produce value-added biobased products (fuels, chemicals, and materials) for domestic use and export;
impact favorably our balance of payments by reducing or potentially eliminating our need for petroleum imports;
be broadly distributed across the U.S.; and
make optimal use and improve sustainability of our agricultural land growing food, feed, fiber, and bio-industrial crops.

Thus, the biobased economy will be a major contributor to improved U.S. security in energy, industrial chemicals and materials, the environment, human health, and our economy, as well as maintaining the security of and improving the quality of our food supply.

Twentieth Century AR&D has enabled the U.S. to have a secure, low-cost food supply and to export surplus food to the rest of the world. 21^st Century AR&D will maintain this food security while improving nutritional quality and food safety. Food will be modified to be more healthful with, for example, improved levels of antioxidants and balance of oil types. Transgenic plants and animals will produce health-related products such as pharmaceuticals and vaccines.

The energy resources and industrial chemicals of the 20th century are mainly fossil-based, as are a growing portion of materials, such as synthetic fibers. The dominant sources of energy and industrial products will become biobased, at prices that are economically competitive with those that are fossil-based. With AR&D investment, bio-industrial crops and novel biobased processes are being developed to produce liquid fuels at approximately half the current cost of producing ethanol, thereby making it cost competitive with gasoline. Plants will be modified genetically to make bio-polymers or be processed into chemicals, polymers, and fibers. In the long term, the need for imported fossil fuel, e.g. petroleum, could be eliminated, making the U.S. self-secure in energy, chemicals, and materials.

The fossil-based economy at the end of the 20th century is a major cause of global, regional, and local environmental problems. The biobased economy will minimize net carbon dioxide accumulation into the environment, thereby significantly reducing the problem of global warming and improving sustainability and global environmental security. Fossil-based products, both in their manufacture and use, contaminate our air, water, and soil resulting in numerous environmental and health concerns. The growth, processing, and utilization of biobased products are less contaminating, thereby improving the quality of our air, water, and soil, and thus, our health security.

Biobased industrial products will be a major U.S. economic growth area in the next century as fossil-based industrial products, such as synthetic chemicals and liquid fuels, were in the 20th century. Biobased industrial products will improve economic security through use of domestic versus imported resources, optimal use of currently unused or underused land, and geographically widespread production and manufacture across the U.S.

Investment in AR&D to develop the biobased industry of the 21^st Century will enable the U.S. to be the world leader in this major emerging industry while expanding U.S. security in food, energy, environment, health, and the economy. The National Research Council Report on Biobased Industrial Products, issued in 1998, outlines in some detail the opportunities of the biobased economy and the need for an expanded AR&D.

ASSOCIATION of RESEARCH DIRECTORS Kenneth W. Bell Dean and Research Director Delaware State University	OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY Sam E. Curl Dean and Director Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE Charles J. Arntzen President and CEO
CLEMSON UNIVERSITY James R. Fischer Dean and Director South Carolina Agriculture and Forestry Research System	OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY Thayne R. Dutson Dean, College of Agricultural Sciences Director, Agricultural Experiment Station
CORNELL UNIVERSITY W. Ronnie Coffman Associate Dean for Research College of Agriculture and Life Science
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY Patricia B. Swan Vice Provost for Research and Advanced Studies	THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY Robert D. Steele Dean College of Agricultural Sciences
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY J. Ian Gray Director Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY Johnny C. Wynne Assoc. Dean and Director Agricultural Research Service, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences	PURDUE UNIVERSITY William R. Woodson Assoc. Dean of Agriculture and Director of Agricultural Research Programs
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY Bobby D. Moser Vice President for Agriculture Administration
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM Edward A. Hiler Vice Chancellor and Dean Agriculture and Life Sciences Director, Agricultural Experiment Station	UNIVERSITY of ARIZONA Eugene G. Sander Vice Provost and Dean College of Agriculture
UNIVERSITY of NEBRASKA-LINCOLN Darrell Nelson Dean Agricultural Research Division
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA-DAVIS Alan Bennett Associate Dean Plant Sciences	UNIVERSITY of FLORIDA Richard L. Jones Dean for Research Director, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
UNIVERSITY of SASKATCHEWAN Bryan Harvey Coordinator Agricultural Research
UNIVERSITY of GEORGIA Joe L. Key Vice President for Research	UNIVERSITY of HAWAII H. Michael Harrington Interim Director College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
UNIVERSITY of WISCONSIN-MADISON Elton Aberle Dean and Director College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS at CHAMPAIGN-URBANA Steven Pueppke Associate Dean for Research College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences	UNIVERSITY of MINNESOTA Michael Martin Dean College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY James R. Carlson Associate Dean Agriculture and Home Economics and Associate Director, Ag Research Center
UNIVERSITY of MISSOURI-COLUMBIA William C. Stringer Interim Dean College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Director Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station	NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY COUNCIL Ralph W. F. Hardy President