The term "Bio-based" was defined by the United States Secretary of Agriculture in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, and said that "bio-based products" means a product determined by the Secretary to be a commercial or industrial product (other than food or feed) that is composed, in whole or in significant part, of biological products or renewable domestic agricultural materials (including plant, animal, and marine materials) or forestry materials OR an intermediate feedstock.
It would be remiss of me to talk about bio-based materials without throwing out the words "sustainability," "green," "carbon footprint" and "environmentally friendly" in the same context. One could also argue that low V.O.C. or V.O.C. free formulations might be better for us than "bio-based" anything because we're eliminating or limiting the amount of volatile organic compounds that escape into the atmosphere. And we all know that less air pollution equates to a healthier ozone layer, which in turn helps protect and sustain our planet.