The Future of Food: Genetic Improvement Meets Sustainable Agriculture

How do we feed a growing population and engineer crops that are resilient to climate change? How do we increase crop yields and fight crop diseases and pests while preserving our soils and water sources? The rapid advance of gene editing and other technologies has provided a new tool kit to address these questions and more, and they have already made an impact at a global scale, just at the moment when global-scale solutions are needed most.

Two IGI investigators, Brian Staskawicz (UC Berkeley) and Pam Ronald (UC Davis), discuss the latest advances in using genome editing and other genetic technologies to promote sustainable agriculture at scale, both promises and potential pitfalls, and how we move from lab to field safely and equitably.

On September 11, 2020, Brian and Pam sat in conversation with David Ackerly, Dean of the Rausser College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley, part of a special lecture series celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Plant and Microbial Biology Department.