Food & Agriculture

Agriculture is now recognized as a major driver of climate change. Current food production methods are unsustainable and likely to become more so as our global population climbs to 10 billion by 2050. To feed more people on an already straining planet, agriculture must become greener, more innovative, and more bountiful. Biotechnology is already boosting crop yields, but more dramatic innovation is still needed.

Synthetic biology is already improving soil health and nutrients, dramatically reducing the need for harmful fertilizers. Innovations like gene editing are creating crops that can better adapt to changing conditions like heatwaves, drought, and pests. Crops aren’t the only food in need of innovation. Cultured meat and precision fermentation offer significantly more sustainable alternatives to animal protein farming. This is only the beginning of why synbio might enable our food future.

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 Applications: Food & Agriculture 

• Precision fermentation 
• Cellular agriculture
• Alternative proteins 
• Plant microbiomes 
• Gene editing in plants 
• Flavors & Fragrances 
• Scale-up challenges 
• Pesticides/ fungicides/ herbicides 
• Nitrogen fixation for crops/ crop nutrition

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Sessions

• Culturing Plant Cells: The Next Frontier? 
• Cultured Meat: How Can We Collaborate as an Industry to Reach Scale?
• Allying with Overlooked Stakeholders to Grow Ag-Tech
• Microbiome for People and Planet

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