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Page added on September 22, 2019
Food Security Becoming One Of Our Biggest Challenges For Humankind’s Survival
Biotechnology woman engineer with a clipboard and pen examining a plant for disease!
Getty
Food security is one of the biggest challenges we’re facing as we move further into this century. Changing climate, pests, stress on water and land are all limiting our ability to produce sufficient amounts of food. making food production an issue.
Synthetic biology offers ways to help produce and supply enough safe and nutritious food sustainably for the estimated 9 billion people that will inhabit the planet by 2050.
Here are a few ways how.
Synthetic biology can break our dependence on fossil fuels for farming. The typical Westerner consumes about 2 gallons of diesel fuel per day. A family of four consumes some 66 barrels of oil each year. How? Most of the food on our plates has been fertilized, grown, transported, processed, chilled, and stored using vast quantities of fossil fuels.
One of the ways synthetic biology companies are changing this is by engineering plants that fertilize themselves. The ammonia that is the base of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is produced using a complex and energy-intensive process called the Haber–Bosch process. Companies such as Joyn Bio and Pivot Bio are creating plants able to fix nitrogen themselves, biologically, by engineering the microorganisms that live in and on their roots.
For example, Pivot Bio’s first generation microbial product is sprayed in the furrows when corn is planted. In the soil, the microbes adhere to the roots and produce nitrogen to help corn grow.
PivotBio’s CEO & Co-founder Karsten Temme at the SynBioBeta Conference in 2018
SynBioBeta
Making it possible for plants to feed nitrogen themselves will reduce the amount of industrial nitrogen needed to grow crops. That would cut greenhouse gas emissions, reduce fossil fuel use, and reduce water pollution.
Synthetic biology brews edible, delicious protein.
The summer fires burning across the Amazon were front page news. Deforestation is occurring to open the rainforest to more farming, logging, and mining. Fires are set to clear the land before grass can be planted for pasture.
In other words, the Amazon, the so-called lungs of the earth, is being burned to graze cows and produce protein. Livestock, according to researchers, contributes nearly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, driving further climate change.
Meanwhile, the livestock sector contributes 14.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, driving further climate change.
Is the public ready for livestock alternatives?
If the stock prices of plant-based meats are any indicator, the answer is a resounding YES!
This year, plant-based burger company Beyond Meat saw its stock gain an incredible 500%. The company has benefited from a near-500% increase in sales to restaurants and food service companies. Other meatless burger products are being introduced by companies as varied as ConAgra, Hormel, Kellogg’s, Nestle, and Tyson Foods. The demand for meatless alternatives is so high that Target stores across the US now have an aisle called Plant-Based Protein.
While those companies protein sources are plant-based, synthetic biology food companies are quickly brewing up meat-based alternatives. They include Aleph Farms, Finless Foods, Memphis Meats, and Shiok Meats. By growing meat in the lab, they are reducing the carbon footprint left by growing chicken, beef, lamb and salmon.
This year, plant-based burger company Beyond Meat saw its stock gain an incredible 500%.
Getty Images
Synthetic biology will make foods more nutritious.
The genetic engineering of foods can help increase crop yields by increasing longevity and survival. The CRISPR gene editing technology may also make crops more nutritious and impervious to drought and pests. This could be important if weather patterns become more extreme as predicted due to climate change.
CRISPR gene editing has resulted in an explosion of research and production of bioengineered foods. Experts predict that in five to ten years, many CRISPR-made foods will be available our local supermarkets.
Among the companies using CRISPR technology for crop improvement are Benson Hill Biosystems, Corteva (a division of DowDupont), Pairwise, Syngenta, Tropic Biosciences and Yield10 Bioscience.
Synthetic biology will increase local food production.
In the book I co-authored with Karl Schmieder, WHAT’S YOUR BIO STRATEGY? synthetic biology pioneer, Craig Venter predicted, “If we jump ahead 50 to 100 years, I see very little farming because agriculture if fundamentally anti-nature. I see biological factories producing foods. It is more efficient and better for the environment.”
It’s not hard to imagine urban farms. They’re already operational in Tokyo and rooftops across Brooklyn.
Through the use of the CRISPR technology mentioned above, it’s likely we’ll see an increase in localized food production.
Will we see mangoes growing in Montreal? I hope so.
Synthetic biology will ensure food security.
Though we face an increase in population while at the same time confronting challenges from climate change, synthetic biology will help increase the sustainability and yield of agriculture.
In addition, through localized production (or distributed biological manufacturing) synthetic biology will secure supply chains. Companies such as Amyris, Codexis, Evolva, and Conagen, among others, are producing important ingredients that can be brewed locally. Need a sweetener? Amyris can brew up it’s Reb M molecule from the Stevia plant. Need an enzyme to produce sweetener? Codexis can brew up the enzyme with their CodeEvolver technology. Need natural vanilla? Evolva can brew up the molecule using its yeast fermentation process. Need terpenes to enhance the flavor of the food you’re creating? Conagen can brew those up for you.
As in other industries, synthetic biology is already making an impact. And we’ve only just begun.
With synthetic biology offering more answers to securing food supplies, it won’t be long until you can buy lab-grown steak, grill it, and serve it on a rare-grain hamburger bun produced a few blocks from where you live.
57 Comments on "Food Security Becoming One Of Our Biggest Challenges For Humankind’s Survival"
makati1 on Sun, 22nd Sep 2019 8:34 pm
Interesting that they use a picture of a heart attack meal as good for you! This fake meat is a fad that will disappear as all fads do when they are replaced by something else. Right now, they are advertising for suckers to invest in the dream.
‘Food security’ does not exist. Never did. Never will. Even the so-called “exceptional” country, the US, imports 20% of it’s food. Maybe more after Mother Nature gets done with its farm country.
Self sufficiency in food, and the other necessities (water, shelter, clothing) should be an individual’s goal. Depending in the JIT delivery system is playing roulette with your life.
supremacist muzzies jerk on Sun, 22nd Sep 2019 10:19 pm
dear uneducated makako (UM) pbuh SAWS swt.
some of the fake food is extreme but certainly the amount of manufactured food is big and everywhere. yogurt has been genetically engineered a long time ago.
vitamin fortified food has been saving the world of diseases for a long time and unfortunately saving muzzies too.
Chrome Mags on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 1:48 am
Mak, I tried a vegan burger at a restaurant a week ago and was really surprised. It tasted very close to real meat and the feeling in my gut later was somewhere between having eaten a salad and a real burger.
I’ve been in the process of improving my diet for several months now and they include:
1) No more fast food
2) Salads for dinner
3) Less sugar
4) Less fat
5) Much less sodium
Trying to get my slightly elevated BP down naturally.
makati1 on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 2:14 am
You can do anything with chemicals these days Chrome. Was the taste authentic or artificial? Only the ‘manufacturer’ would know for sure.
I still prefer my meat real, not fake/lab. It is a fad. Do you realize how much beef they would have to “grow” per year just to satisfy today’s consumption?
In 2016, the world consumed about 130,000,000,000 pounds of beef and that has probably passed 140 billion pounds by now.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=amount+of+beef+consumed+anually+in+the+world
I gotta see a lab that can turn out that much annually, not to mention world wide distribution. A fad. LMAO
What are all those ex-cattle farmers going to do?
BTW: The US consumes five times the beef, per capita, than the Filipinos do. Maybe they can cut down to Pinoy levels? LMAO
Lucifer calling on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:11 am
uneducated makako:
U must bitch and complain about everything. Ever visited a modern butchering operation where they use heifer wheels to kill the animals? And don’t even say, yeah know all about them.
Those poor animals are forced to suffer the tortures of hell before dying. And guess what? U get to consume the surge in adrenal hormones that are produced and flood the body.
But you still prefer your MEAT.
U may be on the menu in the next life so watch your karma because paybacks are a real bitch.
supremacist muzzies jerk on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:17 am
Big goat supertard no check in. Must have ordered the family Learjet fueled up and ready to take goat and old lady back to 10000 acre McMansion ranch with REAL green DEEPEST adaptions. Gun ports operational. Just waiting for end times.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:21 am
supremacist muzzies jerk said Big goat supertard no check in. Must have ordered…
Lucifer calling said uneducated makako: U must bitch and complain about…
JuanP said All these measures will do is buy a little time le…
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:21 am
Chinese haircut. The BRI will suffer a similar fate. The Chinese are known to buy and figure out the purchase latter. The huge credit creation of the last 10 years was partly squandered by these activities.
“Chinese Firms Dump $40 Billion In Global Assets, Turn Net Seller For First Time In Decades”
https://tinyurl.com/y34a4qac zero hedge
“Many of the Chinese-owned assets hitting the market this year were purchased in 2016, the peak of Chinese firms’ off-shore shopping spree. That year, Chinese companies struck more than $200 billion in overseas deals, while taking on extremely high levels of debt. “There was a crescendo of outbound Chinese deals – a few that lacked industrial logic,” said Raghu Narain, Asia Pacific head of investment banking at Natixis. “The deals that were either funded by too much debt, lacking logic or subsequent actual synergies are unwinding now…The decision to divest foreign assets was handed down from the party leadership a few years back as the PBOC and China’s other economic authorities scrambled to shore up their dollar reserves and lower corporate debt. Now is a particularly precarious time for Beijing, which recently recorded the first default of a local government financing company, adding to concerns that the Chinese economy could crumble like a house of cards as it pumps credit back into the economy.”
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:22 am
This is for our socialists:
“Negative Interest Rates Are The Price We Pay For De-Civilization”
https://tinyurl.com/y68n9698 mises
“Negative interest rates are just the latest front in the post-2008 era of “extraordinary” monetary policy. They represent a Hail Mary pass from central bankers to stimulate more borrowing and more debt, though there is far more global debt today than in 2007. Stimulus is the assumed goal of all economic policy, both fiscal and monetary. Demand-side stimulus is the mania bequeathed to us by Keynes, or more accurately by his followers. It is the absurd idea, that an economy prospers by consuming and borrowing instead of producing and saving. Negative interest rates turn everything we know about economics upside down. Under what scenario would anyone lend $1,000 to receive $900 in return at some point in the future? Only when the alternative is to receive $800 back instead, due to the predicted interventions of central banks and governments. Only then would locking in a set rate of capital loss make sense…Austrians stress the time element of interest rates, comparing the lender’s willingness to forego present consumption against the borrower’s desire to pay a premium for present consumption. In Austrian theory interest rates represent the price at which the relative time preferences of lenders and borrowers meet. But once again, negative interest rates cannot explain how or why anyone would ever defer consumption without payment — or in fact pay to do so! It should be noted that rational purchasers of negative-yield bonds hope to sell them before maturity, i.e., they hope bond prices rise as interest rates drop even lower…Negative interest rates are the price we pay for central banks. The destruction of capital, economic and otherwise, is contrary to every human impulse. Civilization requires accumulation and production; de-civilization happens when too many people in a society borrow, spend, and consume more than they produce. No society in human history previously entertained the idea of negative interest rates, so like central bankers we are all in uncharted territory now.”
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:22 am
This is for cloggo and makato. Yea, the Anglosphere is in decline but not so fast boys.
“And The Best University In The World Is…”
https://tinyurl.com/y3332lra statista
“The latest global university ranking has been released by Times Higher Education, putting the UK’s Oxford University at the top of the pile. Institutions are ranked based on five indicators: teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income. On this basis, the UK and United States completely dominate the top ten, and indeed the top 15, with only one other country represented – Switzerland with ETH Zurich in 13th place.”
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:23 am
The end of 3rd world growth not just the 1st world:
“From Underwear to Cars, India’s Economy Is Fraying”
https://tinyurl.com/yxc3ppfl ny times
“The country once had the world’s fastest-growing economy, but it has been battered by global and domestic forces. India’s troubles are a warning sign for other developing countries.”
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:23 am
Two points, one is the hypocrisy of global climate agreements and two limits of growth:
“Planned power plants in Asia likely to face water shortages”
https://tinyurl.com/y5gx4ng5 upi
“Climate activists have raised concerns about the number of power plants planned for development in Asia, but the threat of climate change appears to be just one reason to think twice about building new power plants in the region. According to a new study, water shortages in Asia could make it increasingly difficult to cool new power plants…According to the latest research, published this week in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, the problem is likely to be worse in places like Mongolia, Southeast Asia and parts of India and China. These regions are set to host more than 400 gigawatts of new coal-fired power production by 2030. In calculating the impact on local water supplies, researchers determined the additional power supplies will create new demand for water — beyond their own demand for cooling.”
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:23 am
Asian environmental destruction:
“Choking and gasping in Indonesia’s noxious haze”
https://tinyurl.com/y29r6wxp asia times
“Indonesia’s annual haze from wildfires in Sumatra and Kalimantan is again spreading across the wider region, the latest cloud to gather over President Joko Widodo’s failed attempts to contain a problem that has made the country into a carbon-emitting environmental disaster site. To the president’s obvious annoyance and frustration, the gathering haze threatens to be as bad as it was in 2015, when 115,000 fires burning as far afield as easternmost Papua churned out the equivalent of more than 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide over a 10-month period.”
Troll that bitch on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:24 am
juanP ualtard is your depression acting up? You have been less virulent lately.
Cloggie on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 6:52 am
“The latest global university ranking has been released by Times Higher Education, putting the UK’s Oxford University at the top of the pile… On this basis, the UK and United States completely dominate the top ten“
That’s impressive, empire dave.
Strange though that both the US and UK are dangling at the bottom of the real “darwinian lists” that count, like trade statistics.
Could it be that all these Times-certified top-universities mainly excel at applied Marxism, slavery and holocaust studies, not to mention gender studies and lesbian finger painting?
These rankings are far more telling:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_current_account_balance
Cloggie on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 7:01 am
“‘We don’t need aircraft carriers, we need weapons to sink them with’ – Russian defense minister”
https://www.rt.com/russia/469353-russia-weapons-aircraft-carriers/
One wonders what the geniuses from Oxford have to say against that.
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 7:10 am
More like Russia can’t afford them. China knows better and that is what counts
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 7:14 am
These rankings are far more telling:
Cloggo is an economic illiterate. He cherry picks numbers out of context without relationships then says see??? He loves to wiki it. Cloggo explain current account balances and then fit those into other indicators and get back to me.
Cloggie on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 7:37 am
I’m sure Harvard has made it to the Times top university list:
https://youtu.be/RC-Cqkq6zWc
…and Eindhoven is nowhere to be seen:
https://youtu.be/jL3TYXr52BY
But Eindhoven is the real deal, Harvard a has-been.
World Solar Challenge: Dutch universities dominate, Anglos little success:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Solar_Challenge
You can stick your Times ranking in a place where the sun doesn’t shine.
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 7:40 am
Poor Cloggo, he has emotional issues that make it difficult to be objective.
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 8:26 am
“US Futures, Global Markets Slide As Europe Careens Into A Recession”
https://tinyurl.com/yy4bncku zero hedge
“Germany reported the latest PMI data, which missed across the board, printing at 7 year lows, and was – in the words of Phil Smith, Principal Economist at IHS Markit, “simply awful.” (And it’s not just Germany: French PMIs were ugly too, missing across the board). The result was an instant shift in risk sentiment, as not only is the German manufacturing recession getting worse, but the Services PMI also dropped, dragging the composite below 50 for the first time in seven years…”
JuanP on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 8:55 am
Everyone with two properly functioning, healthy brain cells knows that the USA has been in decline for over half a century, and it is about to enter terminal collapse. My advice to anyone still dependent on the US economy for their survival is very simple: Prepare for the worst because the US collapse will be the largest in human history and there is no telling how it will play out.
JuanP on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 8:58 am
Delusional Davy “Cloggo is an economic illiterate.”
This is according to the board’s self appointed economic expert, who swears on his grandpa’s grave that he did pass Econ 101. ROFLMFAO! You are exceptionally foolish, genius!
Cloggie on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 8:59 am
“Cloggo is an economic illiterate. He cherry picks numbers out of context without relationships then says see??? He loves to wiki it. Cloggo explain current account balances and then fit those into other indicators and get back to me.”
If you were an economic literate, YOU would provide that context, but you don’t.
I’ll provide you with that context:
You lost competition on international markets. The only reason you haven’t collapsed yet is because of that dollar reserve currency free lunch.
Enjoy as long as it lasts. It’s the only thing that separates you from being a third world cuntrey.
JuanP on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 9:04 am
Cloggie ““‘We don’t need aircraft carriers, we need weapons to sink them with’ – Russian defense minister””
And they have them in abundance. Russia has the capacity to destroy the USA in a matter in minutes. Can you imagine how many nukes would land all around Missouri? I know I wouldn’t want to live at the center of a place that has thousands of nuclear missiles pointing at it! It’s like going through life with a target in your back even when you are sleeping. Little wonder that the marvel of the Ozarks is living in denial.
Sissyfuss on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 9:06 am
OT, plant based protein is BAU based and ultimately designed to accelerate overshoot. Our predicament cannot be solved by increasing the population in any form. But then again, our predicament cannot be solved at all. Gaia will solve it in the most efficient manner of all, elimination.
JuanP on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 9:08 am
Cloggie, Regardless of whatever the official “statistics” say, the USA has already been a Third World country for decades. Anyone who travels across the Third World, including, the USA has witnessed this. And, it is not even a nice Third World country at that! Most people in other Third World countries won’t step foot in the USA, not even for a stopover.
Cloggie on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 9:13 am
Oxford #1 not much of a help here:
“The £100m airlift begins: First flight bringing Thomas Cook holidaymakers home takes off from JFK to Manchester as Britain’s biggest peacetime repatriation effort begins after collapse of holiday company“
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7493969/First-flight-bringing-Thomas-Cook-holidaymakers-home-New-York-Manchester-takes-off.html
This is very “Anglo”:
“The first flight sent for stranded Thomas Cook customers has taken off for home today amid mounting fury over how its bosses plundered £30million in pay and bonuses before Britain’s most famous travel firm went to the wall.”
I myself just lost two months of pay because a British company in the head-hunter chain went bust (TCP Solutions). Will get my money anyway from the Dutch state.
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 9:17 am
Wow, JuanP, what a change. Instead of a lunatic destroying the forum now you are trying to play fair. WTF, did the MEDs kick in?
Yet, we know this will only last a few hours then you will be back to the dirty behavior of ID theft and deranged socks.
JuanP said Cloggie, Regardless of whatever the official
JuanP said Cloggie ““‘We don’t need aircraft carriers,…
JuanP said Delusional Davy “Cloggo is an economic illit…
JuanP said Everyone with two properly functioning, healthy br…
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 9:19 am
“Cloggie, Regardless of whatever the official “statistics” say, the USA has already been a Third World country for decades.”
If you can’t see the 1st world too then it is obvious you can’t think without your emotions. Both of you are
Illiterates with carefully crafted agendas.
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 9:25 am
“land all around Missouri? I know I wouldn’t want to live at the center of a place that has thousands of nuclear missiles pointing at it! It’s like going through life”
I would rather be here than south Florida in any situation. Oh I know, you think you can get out before it gets bad. LMFAO at the lunatic
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 10:23 am
BTW, I love spending all my free time debating with lunatics. It makes me feel real smart like.
dumbasses
Hello on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 10:24 am
>>>> USA has already been a Third World country for decades
Of course. Importing ungodly numbers of 3rd world will turn every country into 3rd world.
Look on youtube at some “immigrant neighborhoods” in germany to get the idea. You didn’t expect anything else, did you? Or did you expect all those 3rd worlders to turn into 1st world citizens upon arrival?
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 10:45 am
JuanP aultard ID theft
Davy said BTW, I love spending all my free time debating wit…
Robert Inget on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 11:07 am
There’s no problem getting food. OK, sometimes around lunchtime a person needs to wait in line longer.
forbin on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 11:13 am
The typical Westerner consumes about 2 gallons of diesel fuel per day.
bloody hell mate , most would die after a few ounces !
Forbin
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 11:16 am
Good one Forb!!
Lunatic JuanP aultard fraud on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 12:51 pm
Davy on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 11:16 am
Good one Forb!!
claes on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 4:02 pm
Mak said: “Depending in the JIT delivery system is playing roulette with your life.”
I agree, but why and how would that happen ?
World wide it migth happen, but locally systems would continue to work – or maybe not ?
What would make JIT stop working even on a local plane ?
claes on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 4:09 pm
We take it for granted that “just in time” deliverence could break down completely, but wouldn’t local systems survive now we know how to do it.
claes on Mon, 23rd Sep 2019 5:01 pm
Couldn’t North america, The Greater Europe or China survive with out each others.
Yes they could, but their elites would have a hard time surviving it, dependent as they are on globalism.
JIT is a mechanism that favours big companies, and disfavours loal/regional initiatives and enterprices.
I would say, let’s have a go on global JIT collapse. Think locally and fuck globally
Richard Guenette on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 9:52 am
We need to think locally. To hell with globalization.
Davy on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 10:21 am
JuanP aultard sock outed long ago. A boring stupid sock IMA
Richard Guenette said We need to think locally. To hell with globalizati…
Dooma on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 5:21 pm
Hi Davy. I don’t think that it is prudent to write-off Russia so quickly.
Just go back in history and see what happens to armies that act aggressively towards them.
Ivan can be quite devastating when his back is against the wall.
supremacist muzzies jerk on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 5:34 pm
i spend my time on the farm, i spend no time on this lame forum. i milk my goats.
i’m afraid paint draw muhammad on the learjet
Davy on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 5:34 pm
Russia doesn’t need aircraft carriers. They are doing far better investing in advanced aircraft, drones, and missiles. They have a small GDP for such big military ambitions so relatively speaking they can’t afford an expensive aircraft carrier and do some of the other very effective tech they are excelling at.
supremacist muzzle jerkoff on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 5:36 pm
I am back jack and her to entertain with my muzzle routine
supremacist muzzle jerkoff on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 6:13 pm
supertard JuanPaultard the former and the PBUH fucknut please check in to Douglas and check out of PO dot com. We have had enough of your mental issues here
supremacist muzzies jerk on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 8:51 pm
Supertard lives
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GielMXWQlbw
Dooma on Tue, 24th Sep 2019 8:54 pm
Where is PBR Streetgang when you need them? Juan, I used to have respect for you and your intelligence.
I don’t know what your intentions are but I would rather side with Davy than you because you are being a fucking idiot. Get some help please?
This is the only rise that you are going to get out of me.