ABSTRACT
On its website’s homepage, the European Commission describes the bioeconomy as ‘a more resource efficient society that relies strongly on renewable biological resources to satisfy consumers’ needs, industry demand and tackle climate change’ (EC, 2016). I will not in this chapter echo all the thousands of pages from the European Commission that describe all the initiatives that will be taken to achieve the Grand Goal of the EU Bioeconomy. I will instead rather critically review the EU’s strategies to reach its goals. In particular, I will stress the opportunities that modern plant science and breeding could offer to increase the use of renewable biological feed stocks in the chemical industry, which for complex political reasons have been left out of these strategy plans.
