The concept of “one world living” has stimulated a demand for sustainable feedstocks and resources for a range of industrial applications. Economic and government policies have generated a market for “first generation” biofuels, however, there are growing public concerns that the crops used as feedstock for these fuels are utilising land mass more suited for food production and are therefore not truly sustainable. The development of a truly sustainable “second generation” biofuel is ongoing and there is increasing interest to exploit plants as feedstock’s for other industrial applications via the development of bio-refineries. There is a need to take account of ethics and increasing competition for land use for different purposes in order to develop a sustainable future in which biologically based technologies will play an important role.

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