Editing Renewable resource (section)

==Non-food resources==
[[File:Douglas des farges 1.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Douglas fir]] forest created in 1850, [[Meymac]] (Corrèze), France]]
{{main|Energy crop|Nonfood crop}}
An important renewable resource is [[wood]] provided by means of [[forestry]], which has been used for construction, housing and firewood since ancient times.
<ref Name=unece>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unece.org/info/ece-homepage.html|title=UNECE Homepage|website=www.unece.org}}</ref><ref Name=fao>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/am859e/am859e08.pdf|title=FAO Factsheet}}</ref><ref Name=woodecon>[https://www.economist.com/news/business/21575771-environmental-lunacy-europe-fuel-future Wood The fuel of the future] Environmental lunacy in Europe, Economist title story Apr 6th 2013</ref> Plants provide the main sources for renewable resources, the main distinction is between [[energy crop]]s and [[non-food crop]]s. A large variety of [[Grease (lubricant)|lubricants]], industrially used vegetable oils, textiles and fibre made e.g. of [[cotton]], [[copra]] or [[hemp]], [[paper]] derived from [[wood]], [[Textile|rags]] or [[grass]]es, [[bioplastic]] are based on plant renewable resources. A large variety of chemical based products like [[latex]], [[ethanol]], [[resin]], [[sugar]] and [[starch]] can be provided with plant renewables. Animal based renewables include [[fur]], [[leather]], technical [[fat]] and lubricants and further derived products, as e.g. [[animal glue]], [[tendon]]s, [[Casing (sausage)|casings]] or in historical times [[ambergris|ambra]] and [[baleen]] provided by [[whaling]].

With regard to pharmacy ingredients and legal and illegal drugs, plants are important sources, however e.g. venom of snakes, frogs and insects has been a valuable renewable source of pharmacological ingredients. Before GMO production set in, [[insulin]] and important [[hormones]] were based on animal sources. [[Feather]]s, an important byproduct of poultry farming for food, is still being used as filler and as base for [[keratin]] in general. Same applies for the [[chitin]] produced in farming [[Crustacean]]s which may be used as base of [[chitosan]]. The most important part of the human body used for non-medical purposes is [[human hair]] as for [[artificial hair integrations]], which is being traded worldwide.

===Historical role===
[[File:Japan Factory Ship Nisshin Maru Whaling Mother and Calf.jpg|left|thumb|An adult and sub-adult [[Minke whale]] are dragged aboard the [[Nisshin Maru]], a Japanese whaling vessel.]]
[[File:Hanfdaemmstoff CG.jpg|right|thumb|[[Hemp#Building material|Hemp]] insulation, a renewable resource used as [[Sustainable living#Sustainable building materials|building material]]]]

Historically, renewable resources like firewood, [[latex]], [[guano]], [[charcoal]], [[wood ash]], plant colors as [[indigo]], and whale products have been crucial for human needs but failed to supply demand in the beginning of the industrial era.<ref name=rad/> Early modern times faced large problems with overuse of renewable resources as in [[deforestation]], [[overgrazing]] or [[overfishing]].<ref name=rad/>

In addition to fresh meat and milk, which as food items are not the topic of this section, [[livestock]] farmers and artisans used further animal ingredients as [[tendon]]s, horn, bones, bladders. Complex technical constructions as the [[composite bow]] were based on combination of animal and plant based materials. The current distribution conflict between biofuel and food production is being described as [[Food vs. fuel]]. Conflicts between food needs and usage, as supposed by [[fief]] obligations were in so far common in historical times as well.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20141006095848/http://www.wageningenacademic.com/_clientfiles/download/livestockhousing-e_01.pdf A short history of livestock production], J. Hartung, in Livestock housing, Modern management to ensure optimal health and welfare of farm animals, edited by: Andres Aland and Thomas Banhazi, © 2013 {{ISBN|978-90-8686-217-7}}</ref> However, a significant percentage of (middle European) farmers yields went into [[livestock]], which provides as well organic fertiliser.<ref>Gustav Comberg, Die deutsche Tierzucht im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Ulmer, 1984, {{ISBN|3-8001-3061-0}}, (History of livestock breeding in Germany)</ref> Oxen and horses were important for transportation purposes, drove engines as e.g. in [[treadmill]]s.

Other regions solved the transportation problem with [[Terrace (agriculture)|terracing]], [[urban agriculture|urban]] and garden agriculture.<ref name=rad>Nature and Power: A Global History of the Environment. By Joachim Radkau. Publications of the German Historical Institute Series. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008</ref> Further conflicts as between forestry and herding, or (sheep) herders and cattle farmers led to various solutions. Some confined wool production and sheep to large state and nobility domains or outsourced to professional shepherds with larger wandering herds.<ref>Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte. 2, Band 0, Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Reiner Prass, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1958, p. 58</ref>

The [[British Agricultural Revolution]] was mainly based on a new system of [[crop rotation]], the four-field rotation. [[United Kingdom|British]] agriculturist [[Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend|Charles Townshend]] recognised the invention in Dutch [[Waasland]] and popularised it in the 18th century UK, [[George Washington Carver]] in the USA. The system used [[wheat]], [[turnip]]s and [[barley]] and introduced as well [[clover]]. Clover is able to fix nitrogen from air, a practically non exhaustive renewable resource, into fertilizing compounds to the soil and allowed to increase yields by large. Farmers opened up a fodder crop and grazing crop. Thus [[livestock]] could to be bred year-round and winter [[culling]] was avoided. The amount of manure rose and allowed more crops but to refrain from [[wood pasture]].<ref name=rad/>

Early modern times and the 19th century saw the previous resource base partially replaced respectively supplemented by large scale chemical synthesis and by the use of fossil and mineral resources respectively.<ref name= DCH/> Besides the still central role of wood, there is a sort of renaissance of renewable products based on modern agriculture, genetic research and extraction technology. Besides fears about an upcoming [[peak oil|global shortage of fossil fuels]], local shortages due to boycotts, war and blockades or just transportation problems in remote regions have contributed to different methods of replacing or substituting fossil resources based on renewables.

===Challenges===
The use of certain basically renewable products as in [[Traditional Chinese medicine#Animal substances|TCM]] [[endangered species|endangers various species]]. Just the black market in [[rhinoceros horn]] reduced the world's rhino population by more than 90 percent over the past 40 years.<ref name=RH>''"Rhino horn: All myth, no medicine"'', ''National Geographic'', Rhishja Larson</ref><ref name=FTCMRH>''Facts about traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): rhinoceros horn'', Encyclopædia Britannica, [http://www.britannica.com/facts/5/1035448/traditional-Chinese-medicine-TCM-as-discussed-in-rhinoceros-mammal Facts about traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): rhinoceros horn, as discussed in rhinoceros (mammal):&nbsp;– Britannica Online Encyclopedia]</ref>

===Renewables used for self sufficiency===
[[Image:FA Geisenheim22.jpg|thumb|In vitro-culture of Vitis (grapevine), [[Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute]]]]
The success of the German chemical industry till World War I was based on the replacement of colonial products. The predecessors of [[IG Farben]] dominated the world market for [[Dye|synthetic dyes]] at the beginning of the 20th century<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aftalion |first1=Fred |last2=Benfey |first2=Otto Theodor |date=1991 |title=A History of the International Chemical Industry |location=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-8207-8 |page=104}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Chandler |first=Alfred DuPont |date=2004 |title=Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-78995-1 |page=475}}</ref> and had an important role in artificial [[Drug|pharmaceuticals]], [[photographic film]], [[Agrichemical|agricultural chemicals]] and [[Electrochemistry|electrochemicals]].<ref name= DCH>{{Cite book|title = The German Chemical Industry in the Twentieth Century|last = Lesch|first = John E.|publisher = Springer Science & Business Media|year = 2000|page = 219}}</ref>

However the former [[Plant breeding]] research institutes took a different approach. After the loss of the [[German colonial empire]], important players in the field as [[Erwin Baur]] and [[Konrad Meyer]] switched to using local crops as base for economic [[autarky]].<ref name="heim">Autarkie und Ostexpansion: Pflanzenzucht und Agrarforschung im Nationalsozialismus, (agrarian research during the NS regime) Susanne Heim, Wallstein, 2002, {{ISBN|3-89244-496-X}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Autarkie und Ostexpansion: Pflanzenzucht und Agrarforschung im Nationalsozialismus, (agrarian research during the NS regime)|last = Heim|first = Susanne|publisher = Wallstein|year = 2002|isbn = 978-3-89244-496-1}}</ref> Meyer as a key agricultural scientist and spatial planner of the Nazi era managed and lead [[Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft]] resources and focused about a third of the complete research grants in Nazi Germany on agricultural and genetic research and especially on resources needed in case of a further German war effort.<ref name="heim"/> A wide array of agrarian research institutes still existing today and having importance in the field was founded or enlarged in the time.

There were some major failures as trying to e.g. grow [[Hardiness (plants)|frost resistant]] olive species, but some success in the case of [[hemp]], [[flax]], [[rapeseed]], which are still of current importance.<ref name="heim"/> During World War 2, German scientists tried to use Russian [[Taraxacum]] (dandelion) species to manufacture [[natural rubber]].<ref name="heim"/> Rubber dandelions are still of interest, as scientists in the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) announced 2013 to have developed a cultivar that is suitable for commercial production of natural rubber.<ref name=sciencedaily>{{cite web|title=Making Rubber from Dandelion Juice|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131028114547.htm|work=sciencedaily.com|access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref>