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Diana Hubbell
Diana Hubbell Verified Account
Contributor
A James Beard-winning journalist, reporting on sustainability and food systems across 3 continents.

Diana Hubbell is a James Beard Award-winning journalist who has been reporting on sustainability and food systems for more than a decade across three continents. Previously an editor at Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia and currently an editor at Atlas Obscura, she also has bylines in The Washington Post, The Guardian, VICE, Eater, The Independent, Condé Nast Traveler, Esquire, Travel + Leisure, Architectural Digest, and Playboy, among other publications.

Why the world must reduce noise and noise pollution in the oceans
Why the world must reduce noise and noise pollution in the oceans
In 1967, humans realized for the first time that the clicks, croons, and other noises made by whales weren’t just random sounds; they were “songs,” of a sort. Biologist Roger Payne noted complex patterns in whale songs that resembled human speech or even poetry. Some whales repeated ending phrases; some even used a form of repetition reminiscent of a sonata. Those songs changed throughout the year, depending on where whales were in their migration patterns and life cycles. What’s more, these underwater calls had the power to travel far—as much as 20,000 kilometers. The more scientists study whales, the more it becomes clear that these are sentient creatures with complex cultures and emotional responses. Whales grieve their dead, store memories for decades, and pass traditions down through generations. More than a few have speculated that whales may be the closest we get to communicating with an alien intelligence. To that end, scientist David Gruber has been immersed in a remarkable undertaking: using A.I. technology to allow humans to talk to whales. By monitoring the clicks of sperm whales over the course of years, Gruber and his team hope to be able to train large language models (LLMs) on the data sets, effectively allowing us to have a conversation. The more we know, the more heartbreaking it becomes to recognize the extent of the damage humans have done, both intentionally and not to these highly intelligent creatures. Although the majority of commercial whaling was banned in 1986, whales face another ongoing existential threat: noise pollution.  The Unseen Toll of Noise PollutionThe ocean that whales and other marine life evolved in was a far quieter space. Since the invention of SONAR around the turn of the 20th century, that has changed drastically. Much like a whale’s own echolocation system, SONAR blasts sound waves out as far as 300 miles, which bounce back and allow ships and submarines to navigate. To accomplish that, SONAR operates at a level of about 235 decibels. For contrast, a concert by heavy-metal band Metallica that drew noise complaints was 126 decibels. Because whales have highly sensitive hearing organs, they’re even more susceptible to physical and psychological damage. A 2022 found that cetaceans—the broader family that includes both whales and dolphins—reacted to SONAR with same kind of terror normally reserved for apex predators. In some cases, a direct blast of SONAR is enough to permenantly deafen whales—which all but amounts to a death sentence. Without their hearing, whales are unable to navigate or communicate with their pods, putting them at risk for ships, predators, and beaching. As damaging as SONAR is, it’s far from the only culprit. At present, there are more than 100,000 commercial shipping vessels in active use, all of which contribute to the noise. As the global economy has grown, we’ve build both more and larger vessels to accommodate—so much so that the total carrying capacity quadrupled from 1996 to 2020. With the underwater roar of a large cargo carrier hovering around 190 decibels, that really adds up. All that cacophony impacts whales in a variety of ways, some of which we are only beginning to understand. Researchers have found instances in which it stops whales from feeding or mating, or disturbs their migration patterns. And as with humans or other intelligent mammals, the sustained levels of heightened anxiety can take a serious toll over time.  Work to Be DoneUltimately, much of the work that needs to be done to make our oceans a quieter, safer place again needs to be done at a policy level. To that end, there have been several highly positive developments. In 2024, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) agreed on a new Action Plan in which member states will agree to stricter guidelines, in addition to funding more research and data collection. The good news is that this is one space in which small changes could make a big difference when applied on scale. One analysis from the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) found that if the world’s ships could simply reduce speed by 10 percent, their decibel output would drop by 40 percent. Slowing down ships offers the added bonus of slashing their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 24 percent as well. Shipping technology can also make a significant difference. Hanhwha Ocean Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, one of the largest shipping companies in South Korea, has been investing in several different technologies that could reduce noise. Air lubrication effectively blankets the ship’s hull in million of tiny air bubbles. This cuts down on friction, allowing the ship to glide comparatively smoothly—and quietly—throught the ocean. Air Injection, on the other hand creates a bubble curtain around the hull to block soundwaves. A number of private tech startups have also jumped into the arena to try and help out. U.S.-based AdBm Technologies has raised more than US$2 million for technology engineered to reduce sounds under the sea. Finally, researchers at the University of British Columbia and University of Glasglow have been looking into A.I.-powered solutions to tackle the problem. In a paper titled “Deep neural network for learning wave scattering and interference of underwater acoustics,” the researchwers lay how machine-learning could be used to predict just how far man-made soundwaves travel underwater. The team trained a long short-term memory network on 30 simulated underwater environments, then asked it to make predictions about how soundwaves would behave in other underwater scenarios. The results were impressively accurate. “Waiting seconds instead of days to produce models of underwater acoustic scattering would be a significant breakthroug,” said Dr. Wrik Mallik, of the University of Glasgow's James Watt School of Engineering in an interview with Phys.org. Having real-time feedback on devices which could be used out on the ocean would allow much more effective planning to help mitigate the effects of noise pollution on marine animals.”
0 Comments   7/30/2024
Tech innovators are attempting to reduce the world’s meat consumption
Tech innovators are attempting to reduce the world’s meat consumption
In 2023, humans consumed a staggering 318 metric tonnes of meat. That’s roughly four times the amount that was eaten in the 1960s. According to some projections, that number could climb over 500 million metric tonnes by the year 2050. That quantity is simply too high for the planet to sustain. Regardless of your stance on the ethics of eating animals, the reality is that the meat industry is responsible for 14.5 percent of mankind’s greenhouse gasses. Kilo for kilo, beef produces 20 times more greenhouse gasses and requires 20 times more land area than beans or other plant-based proteins. Factory farming in particular leads to a host of other problems, from water contamination resulting from animal waste to antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains that flourish when animals are forced to live in cramped, inhumane conditions. These farms also emit nitrous oxide and methane, which the CDC found can be 300 times more damaging than carbon dioxide with regards to global warming. Although no one expects the whole world to go vegan, scientists are advocating a more sustainable global diet rich in plant-based proteins. For the last couple of decades, tech companies have been searching for solutions to make that possible. The Shifting Role of Meat Consumption Through Human HistoryPart of the world’s rising meat consumption can be attributed to population growth, but much of it is tied to changing dietary habits. While plant-based diets have been around since the dawn of human civilization, for most of history, the majority of humans have eaten animal products. The key difference is that they just did not eat so many of them. For the most part, this had more to do with pragmatic considerations than humanitarian or environmental ones. Raising animals required more time and land resources, something small farming families were notoriously short on. As a result, humans came up with remarkably ingenious ways to coax flavor out of every part of an animal. Bones were transformed into stocks and fatty cuts were cured and used in small quantities to enhance whole dishes. With the arrival of industrialized farming, however, meat became the center of virtually every meal. China, for instance, relied on a diet of largely grains and vegetables, with small amounts of pork used almost as a flavoring agent. By 2021, the country consumed nearly 100 million metric tonnes of meat, mostly pork, making it the world’s largest consumer. And there’s still room for that to increase; the average American consumer eats twice as much meat as the average Chinese one. While part of this can be chalked up to the fact that many people enjoy the taste of animal products, a large portion has to do with the way in which big agribusinesses have marketed them. Meat has been marketed as a symbol of prosperity, of attaining a certain lifestyle. In 1928, U.S. President Herbert Hoover ran on the campaign slogan, “A chicken in every pot!”  How Tech Is Transforming the Veggie BurgerFrom tofu and tempeh to rice and beans, the planet already has plenty of plant-based protein options. The reality, however, is that many people who are accustomed to eating meat are often reluctant to give it up. Enter an increasingly sophisticated array of alternatives. In 2016, both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat launched. Unlike the crunchy, pallid veggie burgers of yesteryear, both products bore a respectable resemblance to ground beef. They sizzled, they retained moisture, and they even appeared to “bleed.” The initial response was overwhelmingly positive, with Impossible Burgers even replacing beef patties at Burger Kings in dozens of countries. As a few years went by, however, enthusiasm for both products waned, in part because consumers still thought they just weren’t a match for the real thing. Now, some tech startups are looking into a somewhat unorthodox approach: adding animal fat. In an interview with The Washington Post, Ed Steele, the founder of the London-based startup Hoxton Farms, said, “While people do want to change the world and want to live sustainable lives, ultimately, at the end of the day, people only want to do that when they’re able to eat the products that taste really good.” Steel’s company is growing pork fat from cell cultures, then using that real lard to enhance the mouthfeel of plant-based meats. It’s a similar approach to Mission Barns, a U.S.-based startup, which is using the same lab-grown pork fat to give its otherwise plant-based sausages and bacon a better texture. Lab-grown meats have already been approved for sale in some markets. Although the resulting product is not strictly vegetarian, it still has a drastically lower carbon footprint than beef or pork, plus no animals were harmed in its production.  Searching for A.I. SolutionsSome companies are looking beyond human intelligence for out-of-the-box plant-based solutions. Climax Foods, a U.S.-based biotech firm started by an astrophysicist, has harnessed the power of A.I. to engineer a synthetic version of casein, an animal protein in dairy. The result is a plant-based cheese that melts and stretches like the real thing. The product is so compelling that it’s showing up everywhere from the triple-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park in New York to products by juggernaut Kraft Heinz. Meanwhile, Meati Foods teamed up with PIPA, an A.I. innovator, to help work on its meat-substitute based on mycelium, the subterranean root-like network that connects mushrooms. The hope is to better be able to fully explore the nutritional benefits these mushroom meats can offer diners.At the end of the day, no one scientific breakthrough is going to fully overhaul the world’s dining habits. What’s important to remember, though, is that for the health of the planet, reducing meat consumption is not a zero-sum game. Every incremental change matters here. If these startups can help shift broader narratives about the role of animal products in our diet, that in and of itself is a victory.
0 Comments   8/8/2024
Can A.I. help combat global food waste?
Can A.I. help combat global food waste?
According to the World Health Organization, in 2023, 29.6 percent of the world’s population was struggling with food insecurity. That works out to approximately 2.4 billion people, some 900 million of which are facing severe nutritional shortages. That’s a dramatic spike of roughly 122 million additional people going hungry than just a few years prior in 2019. The problem extends far beyond drought-ravaged and war-torn regions. Food insecurity is a growing problem in affluent nations with robust agricultural systems. In Japan, an estimated 20 million citizens have a difficult time reaching their basic nutritional needs. In the United States, the number hovers around 17 million households. In many cases, the problem hides in plain sight, as families work to keep up appearances, while privately struggling to keep food on the table. Yet most of these nations have no shortage of food. By current estimates, around 1.2 billion metric tonnes of food fit for human consumption winds up in the garbage each year. As the world’s population continues to skyrocket, scientists are rushing to find sustainable, ethical solutions to the ever-growing problem. Now, some are wondering if artificial intelligence could hold the key.   A Problem of Catastrophic ScaleThere are a number of culprits responsible for the staggering volume of food waste. Around 454 million metric tonnes never make it out of the fields, courtesy of poor harvesting methods and pest management, while another 318 million tons wasted due to storage issues. Finally, 35 percent of food is simply thrown out by households and grocery stores—part of the price for the seemingly infinite bounty we see on perpetually stocked shelves. When put together, the amount of food that’s wasted accounts for 1.4 billion hectares of agricultural land, an area the size of India, Egypt, and the United States. The cost of all that waste is dire, both for humans and for our warming planet at large. According to the United Nations, around a third of greenhouse gas emissions are a direct result of food production and transportation. All that food waste takes a toll on the global water supply as well. Around a quarter of the world’s freshwater gets drained by food waste. Given that environmental groups are already warning of potentially catastrophic freshwater shortages, it is in our collective interest to reduce that figure.  How A.I. Could Help Find Solutions While there is no single solution that will eliminate food waste, some are hopeful that A.I. could make real strides in reducing it. The Harvard Business Review claims that one of the primary obstacles that companies need to overcome boils down to simply keeping better track of and accurately reporting their environmental impact. A 2023 survey of food companies in the U.K. found that 79 percent had difficulty reporting their environmental performance along the supply chain. Programs like the European Union’s Digital Product Passport have the potential to help consumers and corporations monitor a food product’s real journey from farm to table. With more data to work with, A.I. could help grocery stores and restaurants make better decisions about which products to carry and in what quantities. Already in 2019, McKinsey concluded that implementing A.I. technologies in various steps of the farming and food supply chain could result in a USD 127 billion savings by the year 2030. Given how far large language models (LLMs) have evolved since then, one can only speculate that the savings would be even greater. Ocado Group, a large U.K.-based grocer, has been using machine learning to reduce its food waste successfully for several years now. A highly efficient series of robots powered by an A.I. system effectively manage the company’s large distribution warehouse. Alex Harvey, chief of advanced technology at Ocado Group, told Tech Informed in an interview that, “Using AI and ML techniques we were able to spot characterizes far beyond what a human would be able to detect with the data.” The results speak for themselves. By 2019, the program had been so successful that the company’s food waste had plummeted to one out of every 6,000 items. By 2023, Ocado reported that its food waste was down to 0.5 percent of total products—far below the industry standard of 3 to 5 percent. Other grocery companies are getting in on the action. In 2022, Albertsons, a U.S.-based grocer, began using the A.I.-powered platform Afresh Technologies, which tracks consumer purchasing habits to determine what quantities of fresh produce grocery stores should stock. The company is optimistic that the program will help it reach its goal of reducing food waste by 50 percent by 2030, a number in-line with the U.N.’s target for the world. Even the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is helping out. Last year, the nonprofit joined forces with Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment (PCFWC), Shelf Engine, and Afresh Technologies. The pilot program using A.I. to help grocery stores make smarter purchasing decisions cut food waste by 14.8 percent. The study concluded that if this program were applied throughout the U.S., it would save a whopping 13.3 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide. Other small startups are focusing on making a difference on an individual level. Although much of food waste occurs before groceries ever reach a consumer’s home fridge, individual households still throw out a shocking volume of usable food. Apps like ShareWaste and Olio allow consumers and restaurants to offload some of their unneeded perishables to people in the area. As daunting of a problem as global food waste may appear to be, industry innovators are already tackling it head-on using new technological tools in their arsenals. A.I. alone will not provide the solution, but it can be used to streamline supply chains, trim waste at every step of the way, and help both businesses and consumers cut waste.
0 Comments   6/25/2024
Can A.I. reduce its carbon footprint?
Can A.I. reduce its carbon footprint?
At the end of 2023, climate scientists were frantically sounding the alarm. Last year was officially the hottest year on record and Earth’s global warming was escalating at an alarming pace. According to data collected by NASA, temperatures around the globe were an average of 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) higher than the 20th-century baseline. At the same moment, generative A.I. had already disrupted industries around the globe and its societal impact continues to expand exponentially. OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 had already flooded the internet with surreal paintings virtually indistinguishable from the works of human artists, while the company’s ChatGPT-4 was churning out coherent text on all sorts of subjects. Both activists and world leaders are continuing to put pressure on the automotive, manufacturing, and oil and gas industries to change their ways while there’s still time left to mitigate the damage. Yet as generative A.I. 's role grows, more conservationists are calling for a more sustainable approach.The Cost of Big TechIn a 2023 interview for Communications of the ATM, Matt Warburton, principal consultant and sustainability lead with global technology research and advisory firm ISG, suggested that A.I. should be measured as a subset of the larger information and communications industry, which hovered around 1.8 to 2.8 percent of global carbon emissions in 2020. Admittedly, that’s still far below, say, automotive emissions, which in 2022 accounted for 15 percent of global emissions. However, part of the challenge of decreasing A.I.-related carbon emissions is that there’s a shortage of quantifiable data on exactly how much the industry currently produces. We already know that some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent players are a serious source of carbon emissions. Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple—the so-called “Big Five” tech companies—alone leave a serious dent. In 2021, Amazon was responsible for 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. When it comes to large language models (LLMs) such as DALL-E, tech companies have been less than forthright with tracking and disclosing the amount of emissions required to train their creations. Training is the process by which LLMs trawl immense datasets in order to learn. It’s such a power-hungry process that Microsoft has looked into building its own nuclear reactors to generate the necessary electricity. According to MIT Technology Review, the startup Hugging Face estimated that ChatGPT-3’s training would have resulted in more than 500 metric tons of carbon dioxide. For reference, that’s roughly the carbon footprint of 171 flights from New York City to Tokyo. The scale is set to increase across the board. The volume of data in the world doubles every two years. As LLMs grow increasingly powerful and are trained on increasingly massive data sets, they are only going to require more energy to operate. A recent peer-reviewed analysis estimated that by 2027, global A.I. energy demands could be as much as that of whole countries such as Argentina or Sweden. Searching for SolutionsAs generative A.I. becomes an ever-more crucial part of society, it is important that the global community takes greater steps to make it as eco-friendly as possible. The first and most obvious is to demand greater transparency around emissions linked to generative A.I. Holding leading tech companies accountable for accurately monitoring and reporting their emissions tied to LLMs will both help us understand the present situation and the appropriate steps to take. A more challenging, but ultimately essential step is going to be greening the global power grids. As the MIT Business Review points out, France, which derives more than 60 percent of its energy from nuclear power, will have far lower emissions due to generative A.I. The more nations can wean themselves off of their dependence on fossil fuels and gravitate towards renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric, the better. In the meantime, some tech companies have been taking admirable steps towards greening their own energy usage. Alphabet has invested heavily in renewable energy sources including the Rødby Fjord solar project in Denmark, the Piiparinmäki wind farm in Finland, and a series of wind turbines in Chile, all with the goal of having what it calls 24/7 carbon-free energy by the year 2030. Apple has also stated that it aims to be carbon neutral by 2030 and has invested heavily in renewable energy sources. Realistically though, overhauling the world’s energy supply is a herculean undertaking that will not be completed in the short-term. While world leaders continue to tackle that problem, there are plenty of smaller, strategic moves that tech companies can employ to lower their emissions. As a 2023 article in the Harvard Business Review suggests, an early step should be to limit the use of LLMs to where they’re most beneficial for society. Generative A.I. has astonishing research applications, particularly in the field of medical science. Yet many of the LLMs that the public currently interacts with are largely used for entertainment purposes. Ajay Kumar and Tom Davenport, the article’s authors, suggest that we should limit the use of models such as Midjourney or DALL-E-2. By the estimate of one peer-reviewed analysis, 1,000 images created by Stable Diffusion, one such image-generating LLM, is equivalent to 4.1 miles in a gasoline-powered car. The authors further suggest that instead of training large generative models virtually from scratch, tech companies should mostly build off of existing LLMs. By adjusting current models, rather than forcing new ones to churn through mammoth data sets, companies can minimize their impact further. There is still a long way to go when it comes to making this developing industry greener. The time to act is now, in order to set a positive precedent for an A.I.-powered future.
0 Comments   7/3/2024
Big tech is using A.I. to combat microplastics and pollutants in the oceans
Big tech is using A.I. to combat microplastics and pollutants in the oceans
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch sprawls for over 1.6 million square kilometers, covering an area approximately three times the size of France. According to Ocean Cleanup, its mass is believed to be around 100,000 metric tonnes. Although some mistakenly envision it as a single trash island, this depiction is misleading. There’s no solid surface that humans could walk around on, rather the patch consists of bobbing congregations of plastic propelled by the oceans currents. The debris is actually concentrated in different clusters, with two particularly large eastern and western Pacific patches. What matters though is that it is growing—fast. Scientists believe that the Great Garbage Patch is increasing at an exponential rate. Each year, an estimated 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of additional plastic enters the Earth’s oceans. Since around 60 percent of it is more buoyant than sea water, it remains afloat, a shifting, amorphous sea of debris quietly throttling the ecosystem. As horrifying as the visual image of millions of pieces of discarded plastic waste bobbing on the waves is, the more disturbing element is the one lurking out of sight. Closer inspection of these garbage clusters reveals what appears to be a murky soup near the surface—in reality, millions upon millions of plastic particles less than five millimeters in diameter. Currently, much of the fate of the ocean—and by extension, the planet—rests on how humans tackle this ever-growing problem. Now, tech innovators are wondering if artificial intelligence could pinpoint new strategies. Sea of PlasticThe main reason that plastics are such an environmental hazard is that they can take up to 500 years to decompose. In the intervening time, they have a nasty tendency to accumulate in an ecosystem—and in the bodies of the living creatures that inhabit it. According to a 2022 study conducted in Australia and New Zealand, 75 percent of wild fish species examined contained microplastics. That contamination extended more or less all the way up the food chain. Oysters and other simple bivalves contain microplastics. Far more worrying are larger, predatory fish like tuna, swordfish, salmon, and bluefish. Since all of these species ingest the microplastics of the smaller fish that they eat, the build-up can be considerable. One study in 2022 found that a can of tuna can contain hundreds of microplastics. The Human and Environmental CostsNo one quite knows the long term impact of microplastics in human bodies, largely because the research is all relatively new. It is possible that these tiny particles could simply remain inert in our bodies, but scientists are concerned about a range of possible symptoms running the gamut from cancer to asthma. So far microplastics have been found in blood donated to hospitals, in the lungs of patients undergoing surgery, and in placentas. Some microplastics are so small they have the ability to enter human cells. Aside from humans, microplastics have the potential to wreak havoc on all sorts of marine life. One particularly troubling example is that a 2022 Stanford study found that humpback, fin and blue whales consume as many as 10 million pieces of microplastics in a day. Krill, the small creatures that these species feed on, eat the microplastics, which are then eaten by the whales. As with humans, no one knows yet what the long term effect may be on marine mammals. Seeking A.I.-Driven SolutionsPart of the problem with microplastics is how much we still just don’t know. To increase the amount of data we have in order to effectively combat the problem, scientists at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara engineered an A.I.-driven online tool that helps delve into the potential impact of current legislation on the world’s plastic problem. “Finally solving the plastics crisis means a win for the environment, a win in our fight against climate change, and a healthier and more just future for all people,” said Douglas McCauley, director of BOSL and an associate professor at UC Santa Barbara in an interview with the UC Santa Barbara Marine Institute. At present, A.I. models are being used to detect microplastics in wastewater, food, and in soil, with encouraging results. One of the leading large language models (LLMs) on the job is PlasticNet, which can recognize microplastics based on how they transmit and absorb lightwaves. Thus far, it has been able to correctly identify 11 kinds of microplastics 95 percent of the time. PlasticNet does more than provide information; it allows humans to do something about it. A sizable portion of the microplastics in the rivers and oceans come from wastewater. By helping wastewater treatment plants spot them sooner, it enables them to act to prevent as many of them from leaching out into the environment. There’s also hope that A.I. might be able to help reduce the overall volume of microplastics. In 2022, researchers at the University of Texas Austin revealed an A.I.-designed enzymes that could effectively break down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics within 24 hours. Hydrolase can reduce plastic to its molecular components, allowing it to be truly repurposed and recycled. While this research is still relatively new and not yet ready to be fully scaled up, the potential impact is enormous. PET packaging makes up around 50 percent of the global plastic waste. It’s used for all sorts of single-use plastics, from water bottles to disposable food containers. In an interview with Forbes, Hal Alper, one of the lead researchers, said, “The possibilities are endless across industries to leverage this leading-edge recycling process…  Through these more sustainable enzyme approaches, we can begin to envision a true circular plastics economy.” At present, only about 10 percent of our plastics are recycled—and those disposed of in other ways, as we are learning, often never truly go away. There is an enormous amount of work to be done to free our oceans of the mounting deluge of plastic, but these sorts of innovative strategies provide hope.
0 Comments   7/30/2024
Could GMO crops help protect us against climate change?
Could GMO crops help protect us against climate change?
By now, it is common knowledge that climate change due to global warming is one of the most urgent issues facing humanity. A 2023 report by the World Health Organization found that 3.6 billion people live in areas that are vulnerable to climate change. At present, humans have warmed global temperatures to between 1.2°C and 1.3°C above pre-industrial levels. Many prediction models estimate that our planet will hit 1.5°C of warming—the limit set in the 2015 Paris Agreement—by 2050. The consequences are already looking dire for the world and its food supply. Heatwaves and droughts may cause crops in some places to wither, while floods may drown whole harvests in coastal regions. Given that the global population is set to hit 9.7 billion by 2050, the need for stable food sources is going to be all the more urgent. At this point, tackling climate change has to involve a two-pronged approach. Scientists are racing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and find ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere. While minimizing the impact is critical, however, we still have to contend with the reality that a certain amount of global warming is already happening and we have to deal with the consequences. To address both, some scientists have been looking into an unorthodox solution: genetically-modified crops. GMOs have a long, complicated history and can be a justifiably divisive issue within the scientific and farming communities. There is certainly cause for caution. Nevertheless, research is promising that some of these new plant varieties might be able to fight food insecurity in the future.  The Controversy Around GMO CropsGMO crops are nothing new. In 1983, scientists created antibiotic-resistant petunias and tobacco plants. By 1990, commercial farmers in China were growing genetically-modified, virus-resistant tobacco plants. And by 1994, a GMO tomato called the Flavr Savr hit the U.S. market. Today, a staggering 92 percent of corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified. China has also approved GMO corn and soybeans for widespread commercial use.  But skepticism around GMOs remains high, in large part because if scientists are not immensely careful, their work could have unforeseen consequences. Rigorous testing and research is required to ensure that GMO crops do not contain unintended toxins or allergens. In the 1990sIn 2015, more than half of the countries in the European Union opted to ban GMO crops.  How Plants Could Help Sequester CarbonOne of the incentives for developing safe, genetically-enhanced plants is their potential to be able to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Presently, agriculture is one of the many factors driving climate change. Part of this has to do with methane released by cattle and other grazing livestock, but another part is simply because most commercial crops capture less carbon than forests, mangroves, or other wild spaces. Since roughly 38 percent of the Earth’s land surface area is devoted to agriculture (and about one third of all greenhouse gas emissions come from our food system), that adds up. Replacing even a modest portion of those crops with more carbon-efficient plants could make a huge difference. To that end, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that by genetically engineering plants with deeper, sturdier roots, they were able to lock away considerably more carbon. The key to the puzzle lies in a naturally occurring compound called suberin, which helps keep root systems from decaying and returning carbon to the atmosphere.  Meanwhile, the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) received US$11 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to pursue CRISPR gene edits to plants that allows them to capture and store more carbon in their root systems. Results so far are promising.  Providing a More Secure Food Supply Biotechnology may also play a crucial role in the future in creating crops resilient enough to withstand the challenges of climate change. As seawater seeps into previously inland regions, salinity levels may rise to the point where our traditional crops can no longer survive. Not all plants are quite so vulnerable to salt levels, however. Halophytes are plants that thrive in marshlands and other saltwater environments. When scientists at UC Davis transferred genes from halophytes into rice, wheat, and barley, they managed to produce much more salt-tolerant varieties. This also offers hope that, in the future, farmers may be able to grow rice in regions where it would be impossible now.  According to researchers at UC Davis, farmers in Southeast Asia already lose enough rice to feed 30 million people each year to flooding—a number almost guaranteed to rise with the sea levels. To combat this, Pam Roland, a plant-geneticist and Professor of Plant Pathology at UC Davis, and her team developed a disease-resistant variety of rice that can survive two weeks of floods. It also happens to boast a 60 percent higher yield. For many of the farmers in Bangladesh and India receiving this hardier rice, a successful harvest is a matter of survival. In a 2021 interview with WBUR, Roland said that this GMO rice, “disportionately benefits the world’s very poorest farmers who have had the most flood-prone lands for generations.” ​​ Vehement anti-GMO protesters have often used the image of Frankenstein to describe GMO plants and, at first glance, it might seem apt. Yet that fails to capture the nuance of the situation. There are a large number of ways in which plants can be genetically modified—and some of the modifications are far less drastic than many people might think. Roland’s flood-tolerant rice, for instance, uses genes from an ancient variety of rice from India. While it would not have occurred through traditional plant-breeding methods, it nevertheless is drawing on the wisdom and heritage of much older sustainable farming practices. It’s a perfect example of why sometimes to embrace new, challenging developments, we also must look to the past.
0 Comments   9/8/2024
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