Indicators and Trends of the U.S. Biobased Economy: 2019 Through 2021

Executive Summary: This report provides an update on bioindicators of the U.S. economy for calendar years 2019 through 2021 with policy updates that include 2022. This period of 2020 to 2021 represents one of the most tumultuous economic periods in both our society and economy triggered by the global COVID-19 pandemic. But while the overall economy and the biobased economy were negatively impacted by the pandemic, there are numerous longer-term trends and recent public and private policy updates in 2022 and 2023 that provide for a strong positive outlook moving forward as most of the severe impacts of the pandemic are behind us. As presented in this report, there are a number of both governmental and industry drivers that are key to providing both near-term and longer-term growth for the U.S. biobased economy. Globally, we are witnessing a rapid transition to a net-zero carbon economy, which will be heavily reliant on climate-smart commodities which are derived from agricultural feedstocks i.e. biobased feedstocks. Both U.S. and global corporations spanning industrial sectors are publicly committing to net-zero carbon no later than 2050 and in most cases far earlier. American agriculture throughout the country as well as existing and expanding green tech manufacturing provides a strong foundation for the country to realize strong economic and job opportunities including exports of American products to global customers. Further, recent investments by the Federal Government including the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will provide the requisite financial and tax incentives to those engaged in the bioeconomy. And while the transition to electric vehicles will have an impact on longer term ethanol production for passenger cars, we see the emergence of un-met demand for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) by the global aviation industry. The country will continue to transition away from non-renewable resources to more climate smart biobased renewable resources.