The aims of overcoming our dependence on limited fossil resources and of combating climate change inevitably entail societal issues regarding the global demand for food, health, material, and energy. These questions must be tackled synchronously with issues of human rights, social inclusion, fitness for future, and the central question of “how do we want to live”. Therefore, interdisciplinary discussions are needed that go beyond particular academic disciplines and dedicated research must be interconnected.

Thanks to financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Universitätsbund Hohenheim e.V., and the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg on September 13 to 14, 2019, a first step in this direction was made with a workshop organized by the Department of Innovation Economics (Prof. Dr. Andreas Pyka and his team), the Bioeconomy Research Program Baden-Württemberg (Dr. Annette Weidtmann), and Wageningen University & Research (Dr. Vincent Blok). The workshop took place in the beautiful balcony room of the Hohenheim Palace with the aim of facilitating interdisciplinary exchange among bioeconomy experts from around the world about the normative issues of a sustainable bioeconomy.

Short presentations by the participants from diverse fields including economics, agricultural science, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and political sciences were followed by in-depth and sometimes controversial discussions facilitated and documented by faculty members and participants.

The participants discussed normative issues related to six thematic blocks:

• Ethics in the bioeconomy,

• a systems perspective on the sustainable bioeconomy,

• society and culture for a sustainable bioeconomy,

• ethical aspects of farming for a sustainable bioeconomy,

• sustainability transitions,

• and conceptual approaches to a sustainable bioeconomy.

Despite the diversity of these topics, it quickly became clear that the workshop addressed an important spot of the current bioeconomy discourse.

Examples of central findings from the six thematic blocks include philosophical considerations on what we owe to nature and future generations, pathways and drivers of the (cultural) evolution of more sustainable lifestyles, questions regarding the availability of biological resources on Earth, as well as reflections on the role of different actors required for a socially and ecologically desirable realization of the bioeconomy.

As a joint publication a special issue in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics is planned. The call for papers is now open. Please find more information here. 

Many of the attendees found great inspiration in the event and were sure that they had met potential collaborators for future research projects in the field. At the same time, the participants all agreed that this workshop can only be considered as a first step. An interdisciplinary understanding and a common language for the unsolved ethical questions raised by the bioeconomy transformation are yet to be found. Therefore, more workshops and conferences dedicated to the normative dimension of transformations towards a sustainable bioeconomy are needed, and a follow-up workshop will be planned in 2020.