Editing Renewable resource (section)

===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>