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Publications - UK
Annual report of the Government Industry Forum on Non-Food Uses of Crops |
1.The Government Industry Forum on Non-Food Uses of Crops is an advisory non- departmental public body sponsored by Defra and supported by the DTI. It was set up in March 2001 with the remit to provide strategic advice to government and industry on how to promote development of non-food uses of crops in UK, in particular to promote development of sustainable opportunities that will add to UK economic activity. This is the forum's second annual report.
2. We are grateful for all the letters we have received from industry and government agencies in response to our first report and recornmendations. We are also indebted to the many industry representatives who have given up their valuable time and resources to assist the forum in its investigations. In promoting non-food uses of crops we are trying to enable a more sustainable basis for industry in the 21st century, and it is vital that we have their support. We are also extremely grateful to the many academics and researchers who have taken the time to discuss their work and the key scientific issues with us.
3. The government has made financial and strategic commitments to extending the competitive non-food uses of crops in the year since our last report; their embryonic long-term strategy for non-food crops is pivotal to realising this and we look forward to advising government as it develops. In addition the government has committed to taking the UK towards a lower carbon economy. The recently agreed indicative targets for transport fuels under the EU Biofuels Directive put further pressure on the UK to move in this direction. There are also numerous potential commercial opportunities in the medium to long term arising from plant genetic research to provide industry with renewable raw materials with superior productivity, performance and functionality, and importantly, to contribute to the resolution of environmental problems. These opportunities also provide a sound scientific basis for further improvements in primary production and bio-processing. It is our view that, placed in the context of the government's overarching commitment to ensuring development is sustainable in the long term, these factors should combine to position a number of crops at an important juncture where they increasingly become the raw material of choice for industry.
4. In our first annual report we commented on the surprising diversity of opportunities for non-food uses of agricultural crops. As research has continued in our second year, we continue to be fascinated by the functionalities provided by crop-based raw materials. They can substitute for non-renewable resources in an enormously varied range of applications. Added to this is the potential for production of novel products of high utility through the bioscience route; this presents the forum with a challenging range of opportunities to assess. However since our first annual report we have undertaken fewer new case studies than in the first year; instead we have concentrated on consideration of the generic issues that impact upon many of these potential uses and the importance of these to the sector as a whole.
5. We have devoted considerable time to examining the sustainability of the use of crop derived products. It is beyond our resources to undertake life cycle assessments for each of the opportunities. We have subjected them to much closer scrutiny than previously in the context of the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainable development. The renewable resource does not always offer the most sustainable solution. In certain instances the non-renewable resource has been developed with such sophistication that the environmental impact is small and the economics almost impossible to match at this point in time; an example of this is large-scale use of synthetic dyes.
6. But there is still much to be done if progress is to be realised. We have advised Defra and DTI on plans for the new National Non-Food Crops Centre as it has developed and we think this will provide a valuable focal point for the sector. The government's proposed demonstration scheme will also give support to the market introduction of a range of crop-derived products, as will programmes such as the HGCA's Enterprise Award for non-food products, and the Sustainable Technologies Initiative.
7. Ultimately we believe that non-food uses of crops must be market led, but there are very important contributions that government can make to the development of this emerging industry. Sustainable procurement policies, featuring a requirement to use crop-derived raw materials where possible and practical would be a strong market driver. Emerging EU legislation is often designed to address problems created by materials already on the market and it is important this should not disadvantage the use of renewable raw materials; government departments should enter negotiations with the EU with this as the cornerstone of their position.
8. The government responded to our first annual report and recommendations in June this year and we were encouraged by the generally positive comments. The response document is available on our website. It is now for us to work with the government and with industry to see that, where our recommendations have been accepted, they are taken forward and implemented. We were particularly pleased to see the positive response to recommendations on biopackaging: this is an area where there is a clear, large-scale potential for use of a UK grown crop to contribute to one of the government's key priorities. We have committed a significant proportion of our meeting times and other resources to this issue. Individual comments are discussed in part 5 of this report.
9. Liquid biofuels for transport are often in the news these days and we too have spent considerable time on this complex issue. The Sheffield Hallam report (N-B Mortimer P Gormaclc. MA. Elsayed and RE. Home. Evaluation of the comparative energy, global warming and socio- economic costs and benefits of biodiesel. Resources Research Unit, Sheffield Hallam University) commissioned for the forum by Defra in 2001, was published in January this year. We engaged in lengthy discussions with the authors in September last year when the research was nearing completion; we have also received letters and taken advice from a number of potential stakeholders in a UK biofuels industry. We advised ministers on the potential benefits of biofuels in November 2002. Our key message was that the commitment to a biofuels industry should be considered in an holistic framework given the range of potential benefits, and that in our view a 2Op per litre tax rebate would be insufficient to support development of a significant UK biofuels industry. We believe this is an area of evolving policy and we watch for further developments. In particular we retain a strong interest in the potential offered by lignocellulosic technologies for production of bioethanol and will commit further time and studies to track its development.
10. This report contains our conclusions and recommendations for three case studies - plant oil based lubricants for use in hydraulic fluids in total loss and potential loss applications, plant derived anti-microbial products, and adding value to wool. These three reports illustrate very well the breadth of the issues we have encountered in this sector. In particular adding value to wool has been a very complex area; we entered it thinking the opportunities may be rather limited, only to find the opposite, there are plenty of innovative uses for wool, but the incumbent regime provides a very inflexible framework for development of these new opportunities.
11. In our third year we will be keen to see the recommendations of our first report implemented, and we look forward to the government's response to recommendations in this report in due course. We are aware there are a number of areas that we have not yet addressed and we will be reviewing our case study portfolio to take on new work areas; the input of industry and stakeholders on this would be most welcome.
12. This report and all other reports that have been commissioned to support the forum's work, together with all forum meeting papers can be downloaded from our website at http://www.defra.cjov.uk/gifnfc.
Contents
The full contents are as follows:
1. Progress in the year since the last report
2.Contribution to the government's objectives, including those ofsustainable development
3. Generic issues
4. Land use and resource implications
5. Forum case studies
6. Future work
Acknowledgements
Contact point
Annex 1 - Background to the forum
Annex 2- Register of members' professional interests
This Crown copyright information is reproduced with permission from the report published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in October 2003.
Printed copies of this publication may be obtained from DEFRA, (Product code PB 8539). It is also available on the Defra website.
Contacts
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© Copyright 2006 Policy Statements
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by CPL Press:
03/07/2007
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