Petri Dish: Food for thought: Is it time for a new “green revolution” in agriculture?

Recommended for an adult audience

Producing enough food for billions of people seems like an insurmountable challenge, but it’s not the first time humanity has had to innovate to feed our growing population. The history of agriculture is closely aligned to the rise and fall of civilizations. Leaps in production have happened more than once through innovation. Gene editing promises to make plants more resilient, require less fertilizer, and potentially boost yields, but it’s just the latest in a long line of interventions. We’ll explore how to think about the role of scientific innovation in meeting humanity’s needs.
 

Panelists Include:

• Feng Zhang, assistant professor, College of Biological Sciences. Feng Zhang studies ways s to improve plant productivity and quality through highly efficient, large scale genome editing and synthetic biology approaches.
• Zozan Pehlivan, professor, College of Liberal Arts. Zozan Pehlivan is an environmental historian of the modern Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, and Ottoman Kurdistan.

Registration is requested through Eventbrite. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Program starts at 6:15 p.m.

Register Here

The Petri Dish explores how biology affects our lives and what it means for our future. No PowerPoints. Just lively, curiosity-driven conversations on timely topics with University of Minnesota experts.

Hosted in collaboration with the College of Biological Sciences and the School of Public Health.