Biotech is a key player in the quest to ensure the longevity and environmental sustainability of our food supply in the face of climate change and a growing population. We joined a podcast focused on reducing waste to talk about some of these solutions.
The details: Dana O’Brien, BIO’s EVP of Food and Agriculture, was interviewed about sustainable biotech innovations for the latest episode of the Zero Waste Countdown Podcast. He was joined by Andy LaVigne, President and CEO of the American Seed Trade Association.
Our population is getting close to 8 billion—which is “a lot of mouths to feed,” said host Laura Nash.
But it’s less about feeding the world, explained Dana O’Brien, and more about “how we use our understanding of biology to do more with less,” and enable farmers to produce more nutritious food with less stress on the land, less water, and fewer chemical inputs.
And there are a lot of these innovations—like crops tolerant to drought or salty soil, and animals more tolerant to rising temperatures.
But there’s no reason to be afraid of gene editing, because “we’ve been doing this since people lived in caves,” said Andy LaVigne, but we now have the genetic code mapped and technology like CRISPR to allow us to do it quickly and precisely, using less time and resources than traditional breeding techniques.
To learn more about the innovations helping farmers, consumers, and the planet,listen to the whole conversation.
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