In this book Kean Birch analyses the co-construction of markets and natures in the emerging
bio-economy as a policy response to global environmental change. The bio-economy is an economic
system characterized by the use of plants and other biological materials rather than fossil
fuels to produce energy chemicals and societal goods. Over the last decade or so numerous
countries around the world have developed bio-economy strategies as a potential transition
pathway to a low-carbon future. Whether this is achievable or not remains an open question one
which this book seeks to answer. In addressing this question Kean Birch draws on over ten
years of research on the bio-economy around the world but especially in North America. He
examines what kinds of markets and natures are being imagined and constructed in the pursuit of
the bio-economy and problematizes the idea that this is being driven by neoliberalism and the
neoliberalization of nature(s).
