AgriNovus Indiana

The bioeconomy – where feedstocks from agriculture are transformed into new products – is poised to surge to more than $30 trillion dollars over the next two decades. The White House calls its potential “enormous,” and there’s an organization leading the effort to create infrastructure around this opportunity. Today, BioMADE Chief Technology Officer, Melanie Tomczak, joins us to tell us 1) what exactly the bioeconomy is, 2) the role of BioMADE in its growth and 3) the unique connection between people, plants and animals. &nbsp; Where are the greatest opportunities for growth in bioinnovation? Melanie talks cross-sector collaboration and pushing things from early-scale to commercial scale – getting entrepreneurs out of the “Valley of Death.” She also gets into creating resilience and sustainability in U.S. supply chains in a post-pandemic world also experiencing political unrest and geo instability. &nbsp; What’s ahead? BioMADE recently named six states (Indiana being one) to a short list of geographies that could fill a need that doesn’t exist in the US today: allowing innovators to start the scale-up process without the investment into new facilities, allowing for emerging technologies and products to flow through the U.S. more quickly.&nbsp;

Melanie Tomczak

Chief Technology Officer, BioMADE

The bioeconomy – where feedstocks from agriculture are transformed into new products – is poised to surge to more than $30 trillion dollars over the next two decades. The White House calls its potential “enormous,” and there’s an organization leading the effort to create infrastructure around this opportunity. Today, BioMADE Chief Technology Officer, Melanie Tomczak, joins us to tell us 1) what exactly the bioeconomy is, 2) the role of BioMADE in its growth and 3) the unique connection between people, plants and animals.  

Where are the greatest opportunities for growth in bioinnovation? Melanie talks cross-sector collaboration and pushing things from early-scale to commercial scale – getting entrepreneurs out of the “Valley of Death.” She also gets into creating resilience and sustainability in U.S. supply chains in a post-pandemic world also experiencing political unrest and geo instability.  

What’s ahead? BioMADE recently named six states (Indiana being one) to a short list of geographies that could fill a need that doesn’t exist in the US today: allowing innovators to start the scale-up process without the investment into new facilities, allowing for emerging technologies and products to flow through the U.S. more quickly. 

300. BioMADE’s Melanie Tomczak talks the bioeconomy future, from sustainable aviation fuel to clothing

This weekly podcast dives into the agbioscience sector, where agriculture, life sciences innovation and cutting-edge technology converge. Agbioscience is an in-depth conversation with leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs across food, animal health. plant science and agtech. Learn more about industry innovation and where it's heading from those leading the way.

About 1.6 million barrels per day of petroleum jet fuel were consumed in the United States in 2023.&nbsp; That number is expected to increase to nearly 2 million barrels daily by 2050. Southwest Airlines is taking a bold move, migrating away from petroleum to sustainable fuels. Anthony Gregory, COO of Southwest Airlines Renewable Ventures, joins today to talk about its impact on agbioscience innovation, farmers and airline travelers in the future.&nbsp; As one of the world’s largest airlines, Anthony gets into Southwest’s proactive approach to sustainable aviation fuel, their investment arm aiding new companies in this space and seeing agriculture and aviation industries come together. He also talks about sustainable aviation fuel as a new market for ethanol producers and the critical role of the Midwest economy – farmers, universities, large-scale airline hubs and more – to lead in this space.&nbsp;&nbsp; So what will it take for sustainable aviation fuel to become a reality? Anthony talks economic and environmental sustainability, the current challenges facing SAF consumption and how ethanol producers can begin the process of increasing demand. He also talks alternative feedstocks and other byproducts in SAF production – and the Southwest Airlines investment approach to new technologies that that help bring innovation in this space to market.&nbsp; Anthony talks through this journey with Southwest Airlines and their stance of being “one of many.” Airlines are trying to make a big leap in this space and he’s optimistic that small steps forward in this space will create long-term lasting impact.&nbsp;