We Can Empower Nature to Build a More Sustainable Planet
by Stephanie Batchelor, BIO
Our planet is racing towards an uncertain future. We’re already feeling the effects of climate change and its impact on our ability to support a growing world. Much of the climate conversation is focused on the negative effects of agriculture, but as the world’s population has swelled, so has the demand for healthy food and the need for sustainable solutions.
As we advance through another decade in the 21st century, we must find innovative ways to transform the way we grow and produce food so that we can begin to reverse course.
Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. Some argue that organic farming will lead us towards sustainability, but data tells us that 100% organic food production would hurt biodiversity and require an extraordinary amount of land to be cleared — land that has been so-far untouched.
Farmers and food producers alike need all tools at their disposal. Tools like synthetic biology. Using synthetic biology, we can boost nature’s ability to grow more food on less land and create food ingredients without harming the environment. For example, underneath the soil are millions of microorganisms working to provide the necessary nutrients to crops. Like a battery, these microbes are drained from the soil with each harvest. They must be replenished for the field to work properly again.
Farmers usually have two choices: clear new lands that are fertile—like what’s happening in the Amazon rainforest—or use fertilizers to supplement lost nutrients. Obviously, both have a significant environmental impact. With synthetic biology, we can give farmers another option and help the natural process of plant growth by engineering microbes to revitalize the soil. Farmers can then use previously depleted lands.
Synthetic biology also gives us new ways to sustainably develop food ingredients.Vanillin—one of the most popular synthetic ingredients in the world—makes up 99% of vanilla flavoring consumed but relies on coal and oil mining to produce. Through synthetic biology we can make vanillin that is molecularly identical to the bean without burning fossil fuels.
For its Impossible Burger, Impossible Foods uses synthetic biology to edit brewer’s yeast to produce hemoglobin—the protein that gives meat its mouth-watering taste and smell.
Companies are even using the technology to create bioplastics made from natural sugars found in agricultural residues and other byproducts of farming.
Every day I work with many of the synbio companies at the forefront of innovation. I’m inspired by the promise of the technology. But we can’t wait while the effects of climate change intensify. Tools like synthetic biology should be viewed as empowering the natural world, not hindering it.