GreenWay article for July
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New food and energy biotechnologies
Necessity is the mother of invention. Drastic price increases are eliciting solutions which can bring jobs and businesses by helping deal with problems people all over the world face. Those involved in food and energy biotech research are developing ways to ameliorate some of the worst effects of the ecological and financial disturbances our planet is experiencing now.
Just as in the Middle Ages maps were drawn on which the outside margins said "There be dragons!" (because the mapmaker just didn't know what was out there), the same name-calling goes on nowadays for those who explore ideas that the average citizen doesn't understand. Here's an example of a biotech trend which represents partial solution to world hunger, but which is difficult for those without knowledge of microbiology to imagine: growing food in bioreactors such as fermentation vats.
Part of the reason for increasing prices of foods in the world markets is more difficulty growing food due to environmental changes. It's also due to more competition with the Earth's increasing numbers of people. In response to these trends - agricultural instability, depletion of biological resources such as fish, more demand - a growing list of scientists, economic development planners and specialists, and activists are getting ready to gear up with some startling new avenues for production. As an enthusiastic follower of some of these research and application trends, I've come to realize that our problems with food and energy have more to do with openmindedness and the need for cooperation than with inevitable shortages.
We are used to the assumption that food in large quantity can only be produced in the country, for instance - because that's where the farms are. People think there's not enough room in the city for large-scale food production. But that idea is just plain wrong. We need to restructure our economy toward much more urban farming. And visionary entrepreneurs are proposing to exponentially increase the amount of food cultured via single cells - in bioreactors of one sort or another. Extremely efficient production of food is possible using varieties of single-cell organisms such as algae that are edible. And cell cultures of muscle tissue from hogs, turkeys, or other livestock can be grown in biological factories similar to those used for the production of beer, bread, yogurt, and some vitamins. These processes involve microbes reproducing in astronomical numbers to produce food. Scientists and others are now advocating that these be used on a much larger scale for food production.
Similarly, rises in energy costs have encouraged the development of socially aware concerns such as GTECH Strategies, which is encouraging growing crops for biofuel in the Pittsburgh area (including the old mill site in Hazelwood). The growing of plant materials as feedstock for biofuel production does not necessarily compete with the production of food. Ethanol production from corn is not necessary and is the result of agricultural conglomerate lobbying for subsidies. Many other plant parts besides corn kernels can be used. Microbes, because of their ability to reproduce so rapidly, are one way to quickly increase the amount of biofuel available instead of gas.
We face prospects of gas prices going even higher. And it has been long foreseen in rough detail that the world is heading toward food insecurity. Biological manufacturing for food and energy production can be an economic development engine for the Pittsburgh area.
Throughout history new ideas have been disturbing. The thought of growing livestock in fermentation tanks may seem grotesque to some; but we should realize that our concepts of what is appropriate and beautiful change. Who decided that a tomato is not an ornamental plant, for instance?
Recognition of the beauty and potential uses for microbes has often been what gets me up in the morning. As a grade-schooler, those living things too small to see without a microscope enthralled me. Now, as an adult, I'm engrossed with the uses for some of those trillions of tiny life forms. Along with the general public recognition of the dangers and harmful possible uses of microbial biotechnology, we should be aware of the enormous financial and human health promise of it's appropriate use.
======
hazelwoodeditor@yahoo.com
for
hazelwoodhomepage.com
======
New food and energy biotechnologies
Necessity is the mother of invention. Drastic price increases are eliciting solutions which can bring jobs and businesses by helping deal with problems people all over the world face. Those involved in food and energy biotech research are developing ways to ameliorate some of the worst effects of the ecological and financial disturbances our planet is experiencing now.
Just as in the Middle Ages maps were drawn on which the outside margins said "There be dragons!" (because the mapmaker just didn't know what was out there), the same name-calling goes on nowadays for those who explore ideas that the average citizen doesn't understand. Here's an example of a biotech trend which represents partial solution to world hunger, but which is difficult for those without knowledge of microbiology to imagine: growing food in bioreactors such as fermentation vats.
Part of the reason for increasing prices of foods in the world markets is more difficulty growing food due to environmental changes. It's also due to more competition with the Earth's increasing numbers of people. In response to these trends - agricultural instability, depletion of biological resources such as fish, more demand - a growing list of scientists, economic development planners and specialists, and activists are getting ready to gear up with some startling new avenues for production. As an enthusiastic follower of some of these research and application trends, I've come to realize that our problems with food and energy have more to do with openmindedness and the need for cooperation than with inevitable shortages.
We are used to the assumption that food in large quantity can only be produced in the country, for instance - because that's where the farms are. People think there's not enough room in the city for large-scale food production. But that idea is just plain wrong. We need to restructure our economy toward much more urban farming. And visionary entrepreneurs are proposing to exponentially increase the amount of food cultured via single cells - in bioreactors of one sort or another. Extremely efficient production of food is possible using varieties of single-cell organisms such as algae that are edible. And cell cultures of muscle tissue from hogs, turkeys, or other livestock can be grown in biological factories similar to those used for the production of beer, bread, yogurt, and some vitamins. These processes involve microbes reproducing in astronomical numbers to produce food. Scientists and others are now advocating that these be used on a much larger scale for food production.
Similarly, rises in energy costs have encouraged the development of socially aware concerns such as GTECH Strategies, which is encouraging growing crops for biofuel in the Pittsburgh area (including the old mill site in Hazelwood). The growing of plant materials as feedstock for biofuel production does not necessarily compete with the production of food. Ethanol production from corn is not necessary and is the result of agricultural conglomerate lobbying for subsidies. Many other plant parts besides corn kernels can be used. Microbes, because of their ability to reproduce so rapidly, are one way to quickly increase the amount of biofuel available instead of gas.
We face prospects of gas prices going even higher. And it has been long foreseen in rough detail that the world is heading toward food insecurity. Biological manufacturing for food and energy production can be an economic development engine for the Pittsburgh area.
Throughout history new ideas have been disturbing. The thought of growing livestock in fermentation tanks may seem grotesque to some; but we should realize that our concepts of what is appropriate and beautiful change. Who decided that a tomato is not an ornamental plant, for instance?
Recognition of the beauty and potential uses for microbes has often been what gets me up in the morning. As a grade-schooler, those living things too small to see without a microscope enthralled me. Now, as an adult, I'm engrossed with the uses for some of those trillions of tiny life forms. Along with the general public recognition of the dangers and harmful possible uses of microbial biotechnology, we should be aware of the enormous financial and human health promise of it's appropriate use.
======
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 9:28 AM
1 Comments:
Really, this seems to be the only way to meet out our food demand. I am working with plant cell culture for secondary metabolite production, and as we are manipulating the cell system for higher production of specific metabolite, we can think of the production of food material in same manner. Raw material developed by the plant cell can be converted by microbes into specific food product. Kind of research going on through out the world it is not too far to have such products in the market. Good wishes for all R & D groups.
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