Ecological cost Effectiveness factor

In addition to technical problems at the interfaces between the individual actors in the biomass supply chain, deficits in oiganization and IT especially impede organizing biomass value added cost effectively and ecologically sustainably. Interactions between and factors influencing the actors and their impact on the cost effectiveness and efficiency of internal and cross company operations are often overlooked. 

The ability to produce antibiotics is common among the actinomycetes and much of the interest in these filamentous bacteria in recent years may be attributed to this fact. This interest has been manifest chiefly in research connected directly or indirectly with medicine. Soil samples from all over the world have been examined in the search for new species and strains that may produce a new antibiotic suitable for medical use. Hundreds of these antibiotics have been isolated but only a few have been found to be sufficiently non-toxic and specific for use in disease control. Among the best known of these that are in use are streptomycin, terramycin, aureomycin, cycloheximide, chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, chloramphenicol and neomycin. Some of these have been used to a limited extent in disease control in plants. Their use for this purpose is limited by cost, by difficulty in getting the antibiotic into the plant, and by toxicity when used at concentrations adequate to be effective. The limited time that they are effective is also an important factor (Brian, 1957 Zaumeyer, 1958 Pramer, 1959). The role of antibiotics in soils and their effect on microbial ecology is considered in Chapter 18. 

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