Emerging plant diseases threaten many foods crops including those we eat for breakfast such as coffee, oranges, banana and potatoes. Plant pathogens cause global losses estimated to be as high as $33 billion per year. Jean Ristaino will discuss the latest research on P. infestans, the pathogen that caused the Irish famine and other plant diseases and their impact on global food security

Innovations in food processing, together with synthetic biology, genomics and data analytics is posed to disrupt the food protein market. The ripples could reach most areas related to food and agri-business globally.

Recent technology advances have re-ignited interests in broadly deploying engineered organisms in open environmental releases. Have learnings from the past been incorporated into current development and discourse, or are we setting up simply to re-plow the same ground?

The effort researchers waste in writing proposals may approach the total scientific value of the research that the funding supports. Could lost efficiencies be restored either by partial lotteries, or by funding researchers based on past scientific success?

This presentation will explore public attitudes about the Enviro-Pig, a new use of genetic engineering to reduce phosphorus content in hog waste streams