USDA releases new Bioeconomy Report and Implementation Plan

At ABLC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a plan that will boost biomass supply chain resiliency for domestic biobased product manufacturing, while also advancing environmental sustainability and market opportunities for small and mid-sized producers.

The report — Building a Resilient Biomass Supply: A Plan to Enable the Bioeconomy in America is one of the key USDA deliverables of President Biden’s Executive Order 14081, which was issued in 2022 and defined bold goals and new priorities meant to catalyze action inside and outside of government to advance America’s domestic bioeconomy.

“The increasing demand for biomass is a golden opportunity to expand markets and create new revenue for American farmers, ranchers and forest landowners, particularly in rural areas,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in his Holmberg Address remarks at ABLC.

Biomass is organic material that comes from crop residues, agricultural and food wastes, forest residuals, livestock, as well as biomass crops that are grown specifically as feedstocks to produce biobased products. After harvest or collection, biomass can be used to make sustainable fuel, fibers, electricity, construction materials, plastics, insulation, personal care items, and many other biobased products.

According to a recently published report by USDA’s BioPreferred Program, biobased products contributed $489 billion to the U.S. economy in 2021, a more than 5% increase from $464 billion in 2020.

The plan finds that U.S. biomass supplies are abundant. This well positions the U.S. to convert biomass into biobased products if improvements to biomass supply chain logistics and materials handling technology are made, and farmers are provided with incentives to produce biomass while reducing risk. Among the plan’s recommendations are to research and deploy improved biomass crops, take advantage of woody biomass residuals, and to help develop markets for biobased products through USDA’s BioPreferred Program.

Published alongside the Plan is an Implementation Framework that identifies actions USDA will take in the next year to increase available cultivated biomass, invest in infrastructure for biobased products, and support the responsible development of the biomass supply chain.

USDA also released a fact sheet outlining the Department’s 2023 bioeconomy accomplishments (PDF, 128 KB), which include $772 million in investments for research, development, and infrastructure involving biofuels, fertilizer production, crop innovations, biobased products and more.