Potential value of the bioeconomy

Though estimating the economic impact of the bioeconomy is a matter of making an educated guess, the MSU Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources has developed some insights:

• On the basis of estimates by Informa Economics, annual revenues of $117.3 billion can be projected for biobased products for the entire United States. If Michigan maintains its current market shares of biobased industries, the annual impact of shifting to a bioeconomy would be $4.4 billion of direct impact and approximately $11 billion of indirect impact. This activity would generate roughly 15,000 jobs directly and roughly 40,000 jobs in total. If Michigan pursues a bioeconomy strategy that shifts to biobased products faster than other states, Michigan’s share of the bioeconomy would improve, and the economic impacts would be greater. On the other hand, if Michigan lags behind other states in converting to a bioeconomy, the state would lose money and jobs as other states move more quickly and step in to fill the void.
• The economic gains from the bioeconomy are somewhat speculative now, but the potential losses from not moving to a bioeconomy are much more concrete. In Michigan, the direct economic contribution of all industries that could be a part of the bioeconomy is $97.8 billion per year (28.6 percent of the state total) and 1.3 million jobs. As Michigan's auto industry has illustrated, companies can be hit hard with reduced revenues and job losses when they don't invest in the type of technological and market evolution that may arise from the bioeconomy.