Education and training in agriculture and the Bioeconomy: Learning from each other

In both agriculture and Bioeconomy literature, education is regarded as an issue of paramount importance. Education is often used as an explanatory variable of behavior by consumers (e.g., for food, bio-based products) or entrepreneurs (farmers, bio-based start-uppers etc.). Innovation, that is a cross cutting issue in the Bioeconomy, is also closely connected to education processes. Nevertheless, in the current practice, education is usually deemed to be insufficient or ineffective. In addition, for the Bioeconomy, a major issue is that the Bioeconomy education is often addressed in isolation from the most traditional sectors of the Bioeconomy, in particular agriculture, that have, on the contrary, a strong tradition with educational and training issues. The aim of this paper is to discuss current and perspective issues of agriculture education in the framework of the Bioeconomy and to identify promising conceptual pathways to overcome the current lack of integration.