Knock on wood: why trade and brand will trump tech in the advanced bioeconomy

So investors have been saying, probably since the beginning of time, “no” to “advanced anything” where they see costs driven by commodity markets to unsustainable highs and low, fickle consumers and unsure margins.

For many years, we saw it in the coffee markets. So notoriously unstable that an unstoppable fall in coffee values is said to have driven Brazil’s President Vargas to suicide in 1954.

Yet one of the biggest, best, and most highly valued consumer companies in the world is in the world of coffee. Starbucks. They have discovered the powerful antidote to unstable markets, and that is the power of brands.

Though you may not yet know it, you’ll be building brands now, and for some time to come Brands internalize and communicate to customers all those societal benefits you bring — energy security, food security, jobs and reduced impact from climate change. They encourage consumers to allocate their capital more efficiently to products that solve our problems, both short-term and for the long-term.

Elections and oil prices

And we have problems in our sector and with any sector. More than anything else, when I ask you what is on your mind, you want to know about oil prices, and national elections. For those answers help us to understand the costs, the prices and the policies more than any other factors.