Renewable ethanol is a win for EU’s Farm to Fork strategy

The EU’s new Farm to Fork Strategy aims to build a more sustainable European agriculture and food system. Importantly, it highlights the potential for a truly circular, bio-based economy in which advanced biorefineries produce bioenergy, protein feed for animals, sustainable fertilisers and bio-chemicals in “the transition to a climate-neutral European economy and the creation of new jobs in primary production”. That’s a good start. But the Strategy should give more attention to the contribution already being made by European biorefineries in realising these sustainability goals – a contribution that could be increased with the right policy moves as the EU moves along the Green Deal timeline. The biorefineries that produce renewable ethanol are working, real-life examples of the bioeconomy in action. European feedstock grown by EU farmers is used to make several important products: including not just renewable low-carbon fuel but also food, high-protein GMO-free animal feed, alcohol for use in hand sanitiser, and captured CO2 for beverage use. Promoting...