Whether for electricity and heat production, for use in gas-powered household appliances or as a fuel, biogas is firmly established in everyday life. There are around 9,000 biogas plants nationwide, producing 94 terawatt hours (TWh) of biogas. Biogas production currently accounts for about 9% of total natural gas consumption in Germany. About half of the natural gas was imported from Russia in 2021. However, with the attack on Ukraine and a looming gas embargo by Russia, gas supply has become more uncertain.

Energy crops such as rapeseed and corn are grown on more than one-fifth of the arable land in Germany. This means that they compete with food production for valuable agricultural land. Agri-photovoltaics (Agri-PV) promises a resource-efficient dual use of arable land. The simultaneous use of fields for the cultivation of food crops and for the generation of electricity also opens up new sources of income for farmers.

With the trend toward plant-based nutrition, a food crop that seemed forgotten for decades is gaining in importance: the field bean. Nationwide, the area under cultivation has increased almost tenfold since 2010 and reached a new record level of around 56,500 hectares in 2020, according to the Federal Statistical Office. As part of the group's 2026 PLUS strategy, Südzucker subsidiary Beneo now wants to significantly expand its acreage under field beans.

The natural storage of carbon dioxide in the form of biomass and soil deposits is considered an important tool on the road to climate neutrality. Wetlands are particularly important in this respect, as documented in a study published in the scientific journal Science: According to the study, wetlands store five times more carbon per square meter than forests and even 500 times more than oceans.

The market for meat substitutes may still be small, but it is growing rapidly. Microbial protein could play a particularly important role as an alternative to beef, researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) report in the scientific journal Nature.

Biobased materials and resource-saving methods and processes are the key to a sustainable future that protects the climate and the environment. For this purpose, the start-up competition "PlanB - Biobased.Business.Bayern" has been launched, which is now starting its fifth round. Start-ups and bio-entrepreneurs who have a so-called Plan B ready for a world free of fossil raw materials can apply for funding again since May 9, 2022.

Poplars are not only relevant for the paper and pulp industry - but they can do what plant research had not expected: Their defence hormones salicylic acid and jasmonic acid reinforce each other. In contrast, these two hormones block each other in annual plants such as the model plant thale cress, which is popular in research. Either one or the other defence pathway is particularly active.

Sugar is an integral part of many foods and it is hard to imagine a household without it. The white crystalline sweetener is obtained from sugar cane, but also from the domestic sugar beet. However, the cultivation of the sugar beet is laborious, because weeds have to be removed regularly and is therefore declining in some regions. In conventional farming, pesticides are used that are harmful to the environment. In organic farming, the pests are removed with a hoe. Both methods are not only time-consuming, but ultimately expensive.

Seagrass removes carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere more sustainably than previously thought. This is the conclusion of a study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, which examined seagrass meadows off the island of Elba.