Technology and FoodWhat are we eating, and how is it changing?

Keith Allen, PhDPrincipal Computational Biologist, Syngenta

Science and Technology FellowReed Winter Alumni College, 2010

What do we grow in the US?

Everyone wants to talk about GMs...(meanwhile, we're soaking in them)

What do farmers want?

More production for less input (higher yield).The "triple stack" (corn and soy requirement).Drought tolerance, water use efficiency.Nitrogen use efficiency (lower need for nitrogen).Disease and pest resistance (lower need for chemical inputs).Various "agronomic traits".

The way the world eats is changing

And that changes the need for feed...

3000 liters for a kg of rice1350 liters for a kg of wheat

900 liters for a kg of cornSource: www.waterfootprint.org

Water footprints for different foods.

A growing middle class worldwide wants to eat the way Americans and

Europeans do.That would require more farmland than exists on the face of this planet....

....by a factor of about THREE.

The Mighty Ogallala Aquifer

...is dropping fast...

And here's why the aquifer is dropping

Seed companies (and independent breeders worldwide) are responding to this by developing new, higher yield, lower input varieties.

....surely that's only part of the solution.

There is a revolution in crop productivity going on... Source:Troyer, (2006) Crop Sci 46:528-543

But the revolution in productivity is local...

Marker Assisted Breeding(conventional breeding on steroids)

Almost NONE of what you see in the produce section of your supermarket occurs in nature.

It's ALL genetically modified.

Domesticated corn looks nothing like teosinte

Domestic tomato looks nothing likeits wild relatives.

pimpinellifolium glandulosum

hirsutum

chilense