B&C® Biobased and Sustainable Chemicals Blog

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   On April 25, 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it published a new five-year strategic plan. According to APHIS, it incorporates input it received from stakeholders on the strategic framework, a summarized version of the plan that it published in June 2022. The plan includes six strategic goals that focus on working to: Protect agriculture from...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   Colorado State University (CSU) announced on April 11, 2023, that its chemists, led by Eugene Chen, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry, have created a synthetic polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) platform. CSU states that PHAs are a class of polymers naturally created by living microorganisms or synthetically produced from biorenewable feedstocks. While they are biodegradable in the ambient environment, they are brittle and...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a request for information (RFI) on April 27, 2023, seeking public input on existing or potential bioeconomy-related industries and products that are established, emerging, or currently embedded in existing industry/manufacturing processes. 88 Fed. Reg. 25711. As reported in our September 13, 2022, blog item, on September 12, 2022, President Joseph Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) creating a...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   On April 25, 2023, the Council of the European Union (EU) announced that it approved the conclusions on the opportunities of the bioeconomy in light of current challenges, with special emphasis on rural areas. Using biomass to produce food, materials, and energy can help boost rural communities, increase competitiveness, and combat many of the challenges facing the EU. According to the press release, in their conclusions,...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a “Science & Tech Spotlight” on synthetic biology on April 17, 2023. GAO defines synthetic biology as “a multidisciplinary field of biotechnology that involves engineering the genetic material of organisms — such as viruses, bacteria, yeast, plants, or animals — to have new characteristics.” According to GAO, scientists are currently exploring the use...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   On April 5, 2023, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report on the food safety aspects of cell-based food, which is animal agricultural products grown directly from cell cultures. FAO, in collaboration with WHO, developed the report to engage with respective members and relevant stakeholders “by proactively sharing the current knowledge to identify concrete...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on April 11, 2023, that its Agricultural Research Service (ARS) recently developed sustainable, machine-washable antimicrobial wipes that can be used at least 30 times for cleaning hard and nonporous surfaces. According to USDA, ARS researchers developed the antimicrobial wipes “by using raw cotton fiber that naturally produced silver nanoparticles inside the fiber in the presence of a silver...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced on April 10, 2023, that it is inviting public comment on a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and draft Plant Pest Risk Assessment (PPRA). 88 Fed. Reg. 21602. APHIS states that it produced these documents in response to a petition from Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. seeking deregulation of a corn variety developed using...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   On March 23, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced the release of its 2023 Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP). The MYPP is used as an operational guide, setting forth BETO’s mission, goals, and strategic approach. It also serves as a resource to help manage and coordinate BETO’s activities and communicate its strategy to stakeholders and the public. The new plan identifies...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) publicly released a report on March 27, 2023, entitled Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Agencies Should Track Progress toward Ambitious Federal Goals. According to GAO, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production and use in the United States have increased in recent years; this fuel is now used by airlines at two major commercial airports in California. GAO states that while U.S. production reached...