Implementing the New Biology Decadal Challenges Linking Food, Energy, and the Environment: Summary of a Workshop, June 3-4, 2010 (2010) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 A Vision for the Twenty-First Century: Carbon-Neutral Food and Fuel
1 A Vision for the Twenty-First Century: Carbon-Neutral Food and Fuel
Pages 1-8
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
Increasing demand for food and energy is projected at the same time as the supply of land and other resources decreases. Increasing levels of greenhouse gasses alter climate, which, in turn, has life-changing implications for a broad range of plant and animal species (National Research Council, 2010a)
|
From page 2... ...
. To reach this point, the committee called for a "New Biology" initiative that it defined as a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to biological research to address goals that no one discipline in isolation can achieve: for example, to adapt any food plant to any growing conditions and to expand sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels.
|
From page 3... ...
The group was diverse -- about 30 researchers from different disciplines and from different institutions around the country, many of whom did not know each other previ ously. Yet, the workshop charge, issued by steering committee chair Keith Yamamoto, was ambitious -- identify high-level, decadal-scale problems to which to direct New Biology approaches in order to increase food and energy resources in a context of environmental stress.
|
From page 4... ...
Overarching vision: Achieve carbon neutrality in the agriculture and biofuel sectors. • This broad goal was enunciated in various ways throughout the workshop: "Carbon-neutral food and fuel"; "Carbon-neutral nation"; "Get carbon from the air rather than from the ground"; "Build a carbonneutral healthy food supply while doubling food production, providing the national liquid fuel supply, and engineering crop plants to adapt to climate change." • Participants noted that carbon neutrality -- that is, balancing the level of carbon released and sequestered as a result of food and fuel pro duction and utilization -- is a goal that meets each of the criteria proposed by Dr.
|
From page 5... ...
-- carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other chemical compounds -- are natural components of the Earth's atmosphere, but since large-scale industrialization began about 150 years ago, atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases have increased 25 percent. Moreover, the last few decades have seen the largest rise, with carbon dioxide emissions projected to increase 1.8 percent each year between 2004 and 2030.
|
From page 6... ...
Maintaining focus on achieving carbon neutrality will provide direction and target technological and basic knowledge breakthroughs to enable the research to contribute directly to societal needs. Breakthroughs achieved in pursuit of carbon neutrality can be expected to yield other benefits, as did other ambitious, future-directed goals such as landing a man on the moon and sequencing the human genome.
|
From page 7... ...
Rather, New Biol ogy programs will require a diverse collection of experts who define and work toward ambitious goals in multidisciplinary teams. Workshop steering committee Chair Keith Yamamoto captured the spirit and potential benefits of setting an inspiring goal such as achieving carbon-neutral food and fuel by reminding participants that no one knew how to land a man on the moon or sequence the human genome when those goals were first stated.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.