Biotechnologies for Sustainable Agriculture

Wednesday, April 15 | 1:30- 5:30 PM | Location: Cambridge Innovation Center, Havana Room

Intensive agriculture over the last century has been a boon to global food security but has depleted many agricultural soils of their beneficial nutrients and microorganisms. Increasing sustainability in agriculture is multifaceted; it involves decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, many of which come directly from cropland and pastures; minimizing harm to the surrounding environment through nutrient or pesticide leaching; and ensuring stability in the global food supply. In unmanaged environments, nature has developed enzymes for nutrient cycling and methods for maintaining balanced ecosystems. This workshop will examine strategies for improving sustainability in agriculture through harnessing natural processes, in particular through utilizing or managing microbial communities and plant–environment interactions. We will identify research priorities to bring these technologies from the lab to implementation through addressing questions such as the following:

• How are new on-farm technologies scaled from laboratory development to widespread deployment? Where are the snags in this process?
• Which sustainability challenges in agriculture have potential to be addressed using new microbe- or plant-focused technologies (e.g. nutrient delivery, pest management, emissions reduction)?
• What potential co-benefits are there to using biological approaches to reduce agricultural GHG emissions and pollution?
• What current microbe-based products are available for agricultural use, and what makes these products viable? What approaches have failed, and why have they failed?
• What must be known for an agricultural biotechnology or management strategy to be trusted? How can we draw on lessons from the past to prevent harmful substitutions?
• What crops or regions should be prioritized for testing strategies that decrease on-field emissions or improve soil health?

Facilitators:

• • Amanda Bischoff, Impact Fellow, MIT Climate & Sustainability Consortium (MCSC)
  • Benedetto Marelli, MIT Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mission Director MIT Climate Project
  • Darcy McRose, MIT Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Featured Speakers:

• • Dr. Min-Hyung Ryu, Scientist, Director of R&D, Anthology Biotechnologies
  • Dr. Sean Kearney, Senior Scientist, Robigo
  • Dr. Sonia Boor, Postdoctoral Associate, Whitehead Institute
  • Yuan Shi, Martin Fellow, MIT Operations Research Center
  • Ben Burke, PhD Candidate, MIT Materials Science and Engineering
  • Greg Downing, Senior Director, Climate, Cargill