§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in the light of the harmful effect the common agricultural policy is having on the use of agricultural surpluses as ideal raw material for biotechnology production, what action he is taking to enable British biotechnology firms to have access to these surpluses.
§ Mr. WigginThere are a number of biotechnological (microbiological) processes which can utilise surplus agricultural raw materials as substrates.
Those based on starch fermentation usually manufacture alcohols, which can be used as fuels or solvents, whilst some variants utilise intermediate fermentation products as growth media for protein production from fungi.
All of the processes are energy intensive in terms of their plant operation costs. At the present stage of development, and in the light of continually increasing fuel costs, the raw material price is not the main factor in determining the overall cost-effectiveness of such processes.