Justus H.H. Wesseler

Wageningen University & Research | WUR · Department of Economics

Abstract: Vitamin A enriched rice (Golden Rice) is a cost efficient solution that can substantially reduce health costs. Despite Golden Rice being available since early 2000, this rice has not been introduced in any country. Governments must perceive additional costs that overcompensate the benefits of the technology to explain the delay in approva...

This study explores consumer acceptance and valuation of a genetically modified (GM) staple food crop in a developing country prior to its commercialization. We focus on the hypothetical introduction of a disease-resistant GM banana variety in Uganda, where bananas are among the most important staple crops. A choice experiment is used to investigat...

The future institutional environment for the co-existence of genetically modified (GM) crops, conventional crops and organic crops in Europe combines measures of ex-ante regulation and ex-post liability rules. Against this background we ask the following two questions: How does ex-ante regulation and ex-post liability under irreversibility and unce...

In contrast to agricultural crops, long-term tree contract farming (CF) for high-quality timber production under sustainable forest practices contributes to social and economic development, as well as environmental conservation. However, there is limited understanding and insufficient literature on the motivations and benefits of tree growers parti...

This introduction presents five articles of the virtual issue on bioeconomy innovation pipelines and supply chain shocks. The presented cases use alternative methodological approaches with their own advantages and disadvantages. The conclusion we can draw is that the specificities of individual case studies make it difficult to generalise and many...

In the European Union, the bioeconomy is very broadly defined, encompassing all sectors and associated services and investments that produce, use, process, distribute or consume biological resources, including ecosystem services. It is seen as a natural enabler and result of the transformation proposed by Europe's sustainable growth strategy, the G...

Concerns about climate change, food security and biodiversity loss are challenging society and the scientific community to modify our modes of operation. This involves the transition from relying on non‐renewable resources to renewable resources, reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases, sequestering and storing carbon, and at the same time, impr...

Peter Berck started his career as a resource economist applying dynamic systems to study forest management. Over the years, his attention shifted toward other resource challenges, including land use and water management, and his range of techniques expanded to include econometrics and computable general equilibrium models. He immersed himself in va...

While the global number of people experiencing food insecurity remains stubbornly high, innovations have been increasingly adopted that are contributing to ensure that food systems are as resilient and flexible as they can possibly be. Bioeconomy and biotechnology innovations have contributed to improving rural development and food production. Geno...

New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) represent a toolbox of modern plant breeding techniques that can facilitate the development of energy-saving, low-input and reduced-pollution agricultural production and industrial processing of raw materials, contributing to sustainability and a circular bioeconomy (FAO, 2022). In addition, policymakers in the EU have...

With over 14 million hectares allocated, Vietnam's forest and forestland allocation has been one of the largest natural resource decentralization programs in the developing world over the last three decades. Given this remarkable achievement, critics are concerned about the low rates of household tree planting investment and question the roles and...

This chapter identifies opportunities around bioeconomic concepts for the transformation of food systems. Bioeconomy is a multi-dimensional concept and blends well with the food systems concept. Its goals include the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; the efficient use of energy and material; responsible consumption; and social inclusion...

With the increasing expansion of large-scale forest plantations in developing countries, concerns are rising about relationships between plantations and local communities. Community participation in forest plantation management can improve relationships between forestry companies and adjacent communities and affect the distribution of benefits from...

In the published article, an author name was incorrectly written as “Aantoniya Hauerwaas”. The correct spelling is “Antoniya Hauerwaas”. In addition, there was an error in the Funding statement. The correct Funding statement appears below: Funding This publication is part of the project Sustainable Co-Production [053.80.738] of the research program...

The production of biodegradable polymers as coproducts of other commercially relevant plant components can be a sustainable strategy to decrease the carbon footprint and increase the commercial value of a plant. The biodegradable polymer cyanophycin granular polypeptide (CGP) was expressed in the leaves of a commercial tobacco variety, whose seeds...

Many developments in the bioeconomy depend on the use of genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs). GMMs are used in bioreactors to convert biomass into food, feed, and energy products. The recent judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union on gene editing technologies has affected the use of GMMs. A heated debate has started on whether...

The bioeconomy is high on the policy agenda as several countries have published related strategies. We consider five major reasons why we should take the bioeconomy seriously from an economic and policy perspective, namely (1) Advances in biological sciences; (2) An increase in horizontal and vertical integration in agricultural supply chains; (3)...

The EU Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy includes a number of policy objectives that have implications for agricultural production in the EU and beyond. This contribution discusses the possible implications from an economic perspective. We draw on economic assessments by other authors and discuss their wider implications by considering only partially qua...

We examine stakeholder participation in the online debate on genetically modified organisms in China and assess how the debate has changed over time. Therefore, we compare messages posted between 2013 and 2020 on the Chinese microblog website Weibo by using discourse network analysis. Our findings reveal strong opposition to genetically modified cr...

On July 21, 2021, Golden Rice was registered in the Philippines allowing cultivation and consumption. Research, as an intervention to combat vitamin A deficiency (VAD), started in 1991, and proof of concept for what was to become Golden Rice, was achieved in 1999. In the 1990s, 23-34% deaths globally of children less than 5 years old were caused by...

The anticipated failure of many countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 necessitates the assessment of science–policy engagement mechanisms for food systems transformation. We explore options for enhancing existing partnerships, mandates and resources — or reimagining a new mission — for science–policy interfaces.

The European Commission (EC) recommends that policy within the EU should consider how to make the regulation of new genomic techniques ‘more resilient, future-proof and uniformly applied’ than is presently the case. In this article, we explore what this might mean for the EU and what solutions might exist.

Post COVID-19 Implications for Genetic Diversity and Genomics Research & Innovation: A Call for Governance and Research Capacity http://www.fao.org/3/cb5573en/cb5573en.pdf

The European Commission’s Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, under the European Green Deal, acknowledges that innovative techniques, including biotechnology, may play a role in increasing sustainability. At the same time, organic farming will be promoted, and at least 25% of the EU’s agricultural land shall be under organic farming by 2030. How can both...

This perspective discusses the impact of political economy on the regulation of modern biotechnology. Modern biotechnology has contributed to sustainable development, but its potential has been underexplored and underutilized. We highlight the importance of the impacts of regulations for investments in modern biotechnology and argue that improvemen...

p>This paper measures the development of the national income share of the bioeconomy for 28 European Union Member States (MS) and 16 industries of BioMonitor scope from 2005 to 2015. The paper proposes a model which includes the up‐ and downstream linkages using Input‐Output tables. The results show that for the majority of the MS the value added o...

The Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to act as a much-needed trigger for changes to the European Union regulations around genetically modified organisms (GMOs). There are two main reasons for this potential development. Firstly, the majority of vaccines under development would fall under Directive 2001/18 on the release of GMOs into the environm...

The EU’s 2018 Bioeconomy Strategy Update and the European Green Deal recently confirmed that the bioeconomy is high on the political agenda in Europe. Here, we propose a conceptual analysis framework for quantifying and analyzing the development of the EU bioeconomy. The bioeconomy has several related concepts (e.g., bio-based economy, green econom...

br/> New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs), including CRISPR gene editing, are being used widely, and they are driving the development of new crops. They are nevertheless a subject of criticism and discussion. According to a summer 2018 interpretation by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) applying an absolute interpretation of the...

New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs), including CRISPR gene editing, are being used widely, and they are driving the development of new crops. They are nevertheless a subject of criticism and discussion. According to a summer 2018 interpretation by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), European Union (EU) law makes most NPBTS subjec...

Agricultural technologies have a key role to play in advancing international development, including achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are among a wide of range of agricultural technologies that can play a significant role in meeting SDG1 (poverty eradication), SDG2 (zero hunger), SDG13 (c...

As large-scale forest plantations expand in developing countries, concerns are rising about their relation to and integration with adjacent local communities. In developing countries with weak enforcement of property rights, private plantations are more likely than state-owned plantations to involve villagers in plantation’s activities in order to...

The Commission's recently launched its new "farm to fork" strategy. An important input to the formulation of such kind of strategies are the reports of the scientific advisors. One of such preparatory reports for the "farm to fork" strategy is the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors' report "Towards a sustainable food system". We carefully evaluate...

New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs), including CRISPR gene editing, are being used widely, and they are driving the development of new crops. They are nevertheless a subject of criticism and discussion. According to a summer 2018 interpretation by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) applying an absolute interpretation of the preca...

New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) are increasingly used for developing new plants with novel traits. The science tells us that those plants in general are as safe as than those once developed using “conventional” plant breeding methods. The knowledge about the induced changes and properties of the new plants by using NPBTs is more precise. Th...

This chapter reviews trends and developments in the EU bio-based economy. Three main trends are discussed: new developments in gene editing, related EU policies and the implications for the bioeconomy and the bio-based economy in particular; food products derived from cell cultures and new protein sources; and urban farming. The trends in food prod...

The circular economy is not a new concept in economics. Francois Quesnay and the Physiocrats of eighteenth-century France introduced the concept into economics. From a bio-chemical perspective, the law of conservation of mass needs to be considered implying mass can neither be created nor destroyed but allocated differently over time and space in a...

The bio-based economy has increased in importance over the past decades. The sector has received substantial policy support. This chapter reviews the history of the policy developments and provides an overview about the current status and expectations for the future. The methods developed for measuring the bioeconomy and related challenges are disc...

This chapter discusses the link between bioeconomy economics and policies and economic theory. Starting from the measurement of well-being, the link to the importance of irreversibility is established and the importance is stressed of a detailed understanding of the current situation (state of nature). This includes the situation of the agricultura...

Storage policies are used in many countries to smooth price volatility and thereby support food security. When there is a global decrease in food supply caused by a number of extreme weather effects, food reserves are expected to reduce the potential negative implications for households with low purchasing power. In this paper, the properties of su...

Food self-sufficiency is an important contributor to food security, and one of the potential solutions to this problem is increased food production productivity through agricultural biotechnology. In this paper, we study the relationship between a country’s genetically modified (GM) food policy and the food self-sufficiency rate (SSR) under conflic...

To maintain self-sufficiency in rice production and national food security, the Chinese government strongly supports research that aims at increasing the productivity of rice cultivation. Rice with genetic material from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt rice) is transgenic rice that can reduce lepidopteran pest damage and the use of insecticides. It was d...

The literature on real options shows that irreversibilities, uncertainties about future benefits and costs, and the flexibility in decision making generate benefits and costs of delaying immediate action. When applied to government policy making, real option models can lead to efficient policies that take full account of these trade-offs, but they...

New plant‐breeding technologies (NPBTs), including gene editing, are widely used and drive the development of new crops. However, these new technologies are disputed, creating uncertainty in how their application for agricultural and food uses will be regulated. While in North America regulatory systems respond with a differentiated approach to NPB...

p>What are the procedures and trends for obtaining approval for imported genetically modified (GM) crops in China, and how do approval dates and length of approval in China compare with those in other countries? The answers are crucial for current food security in China and the future of crops derived by gene editing.</p

Over 95% of post‐mortem samples from the 1918 pandemic, which caused 50 to 100 million deaths, showed bacterial infection complications. The introduc- tion of antibiotics in the 1940s has since reduced the risk of bacterial infections, but growing resistance to antibiotics could increase the toll from future influenza pandemics if secondary bacteri...

A special regulatory regime applies to products of recombinant nucleic acid modifications. A ruling from the European Court of Justice has interpreted this regulatory regime in a way that it also applies to emerging mutagenesis techniques. Elsewhere regulatory progress is also ongoing. In 2015, Argentina launched a regulatory framework, followed by...

New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) allow biotic and abiotic problems in crop production to be addressed much faster more precisely than conventional ones. Legal regulations governing the use of technologies vary from country to country. Above all the latest ruling by the European Court of Justice has sparked debate. Our authors look at the imp...

This two-volume book provides an important overview to EU economic and policy issues related to the development of the bioeconomy. What have been the recent trends and what are the implications for future economic development and policy making? Where does EU bioeconomy policy sit within an international context and what are the financial frameworks...

This two-volume book provides an important overview to EU economic and policy issues related to the development of the bioeconomy. What have been the recent trends and what are the implications for future economic development and policy making? Where does EU bioeconomy policy sit within an international context and what are the financial frameworks...

With the rapid expansion of forest plantations worldwide, communities, NGOs and researchers are increasingly expressing their concerns about the outcomes of plantations’ activities for local households. This study investigates the perceptions of local households about forest plantations’ investments in social services and local infrastructure in ru...

Pests and diseases are a continuous challenge in agriculture production. A wide range of control strategies have been and will continue to be developed. New control strategies are in almost all countries around the world assessed prior to approval for use in farmers' fields. This is rightly so to avoid and even reduce negative effects for human hea...

Different countries have different regulations for the approval and cultivation of crops developed by using new plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) such as gene editing. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between global food security and the level of NPBT regulation assuming a World Nation Official (WNO) proposes advice on global NPBT f...

New Plant Breeding Technologies (NPBTs), including CRISPR gene editing, are being widely used and drive the development of new crops. However, these new technologies are not undisputed, creating uncertainty in how applications of these technologies for agricultural and food uses will be regulated. While in North America regulatory systems are alrea...

Background Microbial biological control agents (MBCA) are biopesticides based on living microbes. They have huge potential for the control of pests and diseases, but have trouble reaching the European Union (EU) market. According to several authors, this is caused by the regulatory regime, which is less supportive compared with that in the USA. The...

At the beginning of the year, the advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued an opinion that plants created using new plant breeding techniques, including gene-editing platforms like CRISPR, TALENs and the like, are eligible for the so-called mutagenesis exemption. This exemption relates to rules the European Union...

In this paper, we study the effects of international trade on forest conservation and welfare in a two-country model with industry-biased policymakers and Cournot-competing firms. We find that opening up to trade increases the harvest taxes that the industry-biased governments impose compared to the autarky taxes. The tax increase is large enough t...

In Germany, products derived from livestock who were fed GMO are not required to be labeled as GMO. However, non-GMO labeling requires compliance with the national public non-GMO production standard, including a confirmation that no GM feed was used. In addition to the national standard, firms can adopt a private collaborative certification standar...

Sustainable development can be attained by policies that are derived by analyses that integrate biophysical considerations into economic models. We show that policies and incentives that correct market failure can attain sustainable resources, and development of the bioeconomy, which relies on biological processes and feed-stock to produce renewabl...

In the last two decades, voluntary standards have played an increasing role in reshaping the non-GMO labeling schemes in the EU and the US. This work compares the mandatory and voluntary labeling schemes for food produced from or with GMO in these two markets. After reviewing the EU and US regulatory frameworks, we introduce the incentives for the...

This introduction to the special issue focuses on the economics of labeling genetically modified (GM) foods and implications of GM-labeling policies and the specific contributions of papers included.

Innovative biological pest control of the western corn rootworm (WCR) Diabrotica virgifera virgifera and wireworms Agriotes spp. in maize and potato cultivation in Europe is driven by (1) the economic damages caused and (2) the restrictions on chemical pesticides. We analyze the efficacy of biological control agents for WCR and wireworms based on E...

The emerging concept of bioeconomy offers several opportunities to address societal challenges. The bioeconomy is mainly driven by advances in microbiology, which can be applied to various processes that use biological resources by shifting consumer preferences and by yielding new insights into resource constraints related to such issues as climate...

The unintended presence of traces of genetically modified (GM) crops in the harvests of non-GM crops plays a prominent role in the debate over the coexistence of GM and non-GM crops. One way to address the issue is the formation of GM-free or GM-only clubs. We model the decisions of individual farmers to cultivate either GM or non-GM crops and comb...

A number of new crops have been developed that address important traits of particular relevance for smallholder farmers in Africa. Scientists, policy makers, and other stakeholders have raised concerns that the approval process for these new crops causes delays that are often scientifically unjustified. This article develops a real option model for...

Calculating the costs of stunting. (DOCX)

The General Analytical Model. (DOCX)

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We estimate the perceived costs of legal requirements ('coexistence measures') for growing genetically modified (GM) Bt maize in Germany using a choice experiment. The costs of the evaluated ex-ante and ex-post coexistence measures range from zero to more than €300 per measure and most are greater than the extra revenue the farmers in our survey ex...

In the European Union, freedom of choice between genetically modified (GM) and conventional or organic crops, for both producers and consumers, should be provided through coexistence measures. Coexistence measures at the farm level differ in costs and effectiveness and should not tip the balance for farmers in their cultivation decisions, and there...