Planetary Health

Food & Agriculture

Sonalie Figueiras
Green Queen Media

As global population projections reach an estimated 10 billion by 2050, the agricultural sector, currently a principal contributor to climate change, faces the imperative of metamorphosis. Conventional agronomic practices grapple with sustainability issues, demanding an epoch of greener, innovative, and prolific methodologies. Biotechnological interventions have initiated improvements in crop yields, but the urgency for more profound innovations persists. Synthetic biology is emerging as a vanguard, enhancing soil vitality and diminishing dependency on deleterious fertilizers. Concurrently, genetic manipulation techniques engender crops resilient to climatic adversities such as thermal extremes, water scarcity, and pestilence. Beyond vegetative produce, advances like cellular agriculture and precision fermentation posited sustainable protein acquisition paradigms, underscoring synthetic biology's budding potential in sculpting our alimentary future.