farming

Join Dr. Yonathan Zohar as he takes us on a tour of the University of Maryland Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) in Baltimore, MD.  Scientists at COMB are working on ways to create new, advanced, and more sustainable aquaculture systems in hopes of decreasing the burden overfishing has put on our fragile ocean systems.

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Dr. Targan explains how biotechnology is working to create drought resistant crops.  Learn how this agricultural biotech innovation could have a global lifesaving and economic effect for people living in drought plagued areas like sub-Saharan Africa.

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Meet John Reifsteck, a corn and soybean farmer who utilizes biotechnology on his farm in Champaign, IL.  In this BioDigest, John will explain how biotechnology has helped to improve his crop yields, limit soil erosion, and decrease his use of insecticides and herbicides.

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In August, 2009, I attended the 7th International Transgenic Animal Research Conference in Tahoe, California. I visited with Dr. James Murray, Professor, University of California in Davis. Dr. Murray is the organizer of the Conference. His research is producing genetically engineered (GE) goats. He and scientists in Brazil are teaming up to develop a herd of GE dairy goats, whose milk is expected to protect against the types of diarrheal diseases that each year claim the lives of more than 2 million children around the world.

At the BIO International Convention, this session featured three farmers from different regions of the world that have had substantial experience with agricultural biotechnology, and they provided testimony as to how the technology has improved their lives.

Today's world population is more than 6.6 billion people and growing. Fast. By some projections there will be 9 billion people inhabiting our planet by 2050. That may sound far off, but it is less than a single lifetime away—meaning that many of us alive today will still be alive then. Perhaps even you.

One of the many issues raised by this expected population surge is how to feed all those people. Meeting the world demand for nutritious and abundant food is a challenge today and will only grow in the future.