Researchers say $100B needed for plant science R&D to meet food, fuel targets

Biofuels Digest
Jim Lane
June 22, 2012

In Washington, writing in The Scientist, Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Wolf Frommer and Tom Brutnell of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center said that a 10-year, $100 billion investment in food and energy science is required, in order to address the planet’s long term fuel and food needs.

The authors note a 2012 FAO estimate that 920 million people lack sufficient food to meet suggested daily caloric intake goals, and that global food production must increase 70 percent by 2050 to meet basic needs. The authors said that research in plant sciences, which has been shrinking, must be increased in the areas of crop yield, plant pathogens, water and fertilizer use — as well as the develop of plants that can produce sustainable biofuels.

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