Sustainable agro-bioeconomy after Covid-19: Nineteen utopian and dystopian scenarios for the world and Turkey

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic continues as a major global threat. Like all sectors, agriculture is adversely affected by this pandemic as a twin crisis in the context of health and economy. It is predicted that the losses in agricultural production can be compensated by biotechnological methods. The aim and subject of this study is to draw a framework for post-pandemic sustainable agro-bioeconomy and to develop a series of utopian and dystopian scenarios for this. The reason for the number of scenarios to be determined as 19 here is that the outbreak originated in 2019. Ten of the scenarios are utopian (increase in biotech added value and employment;strengthening the supply chain with biotechnology;green budgeting;agro-bioeconomic diplomacy;agro-bioeconomic citizenship;collective food sector;the need for less child labor;weakening of neoliberalism with bioeconomy;agro-bioeconomic tourism) and nine of them as dystopic (new corona tax;reverse migration waves;pandession;negative externalities;asymmetric information and alternative costs;climate change;abundance paradox;globesity;coronomy). The validity and sustainability of each of these scenarios depends on specific conditions. Utopias, unlike dystopias, can be expected to come true more and more rapidly in order to humanity to prosper on the basis of equality and justice in the future. In this expectation, sustainable agro-bioeconomy production will have a substantial contribution. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.