Plant breeding as the cornerstone of a sustainable bioeconomy

A prime driver for a bioeconomy is the need to ensure the availability of sufficient biomass feedstock for food, feed, energy and industrial uses. This demand must be properly managed in the face of several challenges, including environmental changes and abrupt climate shifts. Plant breeding and breeding innovation is the cornerstone for sustainable supply of biomass. Not only does research and development in this sector aim at providing high yielding crops in order to maximize production, but R&D in this field will also allow to obtain highly specialized plant varieties with new or improved traits that fit to specific applications. At the same time, there is little awareness among the general public of the fact that state-of-the-art R&D is a prerequisite for the production of sufficient biomass of the right quality in a sustainable manner. Plant breeders in the EU have to grapple with a rather challenging policy and regulatory framework. An important way forward to overcome the existing impasse would be to ensure transparent and trustworthy communication with the general public. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.