Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Food Production

This session focuses on emerging technologies for the farm or for the production plant that enhance the quantity or quality of primary food production. Papers may be related to the following topics: agricultural biotechnologies to increase yield, reduce water use, or decreases reliance on pesticides and herbicides; formulation of seed coatings and other agricultural chemical delivery systems that improve transport or performance; precision agriculture technologies including sensor networks to assess plant health in the field, and mechanization to deliver water, nutrients and other inputs to specific locations. Submissions are also welcomed related to food and ingredient production in a biotechnology setting, such as metabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce lipids, nutrients, proteins and other food-related compounds for food, feed, or supplements, and advances in biotech research tools including novel strain construction, directed evolution, high-throughput screening, and assay development. Emerging production technologies may also include the development of functional foods with improved nutrition, longer shelf life, or alternate nutritional sources for developing economies.