Hot Topics

The $78.3 Billion Canadian Bio-based Economy

Biotechnology is driving an economic shift to a broader “bio-based economy” which integrates biologic products and technologies, derived from renewable resources into new sustainable production and manufacturing processes.

Canada’s bio-based economy is valued at 78.3 billion dollars. At 6.4 percent of the GDP, this footprint is larger than the automotive and aerospace sectors respectively.

The concept of the bio-based economy goes beyond the traditional definition of biotechnology. The bio-based economy focuses on biological tools and products from renewable resources to create wealth and sustainability in the production of medical treatments, diagnostics, more-nutritional foods, energy, chemicals, and materials, while improving the quality of the environment.

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National Biotechnology Week
Sept. 18-25, 2009

This week is a celebration of the imagination and innovation of Canadian scientists from Vancouver to St. John's. Biotechnology is improving the quality of life for Canadians through healthier foods, a cleaner environment and treatments for a great many debilitating illnesses.

Biotechnology affects our lives in a number of different ways. From the food we eat to the medicines we take to the way we clean up our environment. This section is dedicated to a series of Hot Topic questions and answers on issues such as regulatory framework to ensure patient safety, technology innovations in agricultural technology and more.

Biotechnology Timeline

Beginning in 8,000 BC with the domestication of plant crops and livestock, the Biotechnology Timeline will take you through the decades of biotechnology development worldwide, and in Canada.

From Quebec City and Jean Talon's brewery using yeast and fermentation technology in the 1660s, to the first reference of biotechnology in print in 1919, to Canada's role in agriculture, industrial and health care developments to 2006, the Biotechnology Timeline illustrates how biotech research and discovery has taken off.

The timeline is available in pdf format by clicking here.

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