29-12-2012, 05:51 PM
Nanotechnology in Agriculture and Food
[attachment=45857]
Introduction
The current global population is nearly 6 billion with 50% living in Asia. A large proportion
of those living in developing countries face daily food shortages as a result of environmental
impacts or political instability, while in the developed world there is a food surplus. For
developing countries the drive is to develop drought and pest resistant crops, which also
maximize yield. In developed countries, the food industry is driven by consumer demand
which is currently for fresher and healthier foodstuffs. This is big business, for example the
food industry in the UK is booming with an annual growth rate of 5.2%1 and the demand for
fresh food has increased by 10% in the last few years.
The potential of nanotechnology to revolutionise the health care, textile, materials.
information and communication technology, and energy sectors has been well-publicised. In
fact several products enabled by nanotechnology are already in the market, such as antibacterial
dressings, transparent sunscreen lotions, stain-resistant fabrics, scratch free paints
for cars, and self cleaning windows. The application of nanotechnology to the agricultural
and food industries was first addressed by a United States Department of Agriculture
roadmap published in September 2003.2 The prediction is that nanotechnology will
transform the entire food industry, changing the way food is produced, processed, packaged,
transported, and consumed. This short report will review the key aspects of these
transformations, highlighting current research in the agrifood industry and what future
impacts these may have.
What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, or
molecular clusters into structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly
different properties. Nanotechnology can work from the top down (which means reducing
the size of the smallest structures to the nanoscale e.g. photonics applications in
nanoelectronics and nanoengineering) or the bottom up (which involves manipulating
individual atoms and molecules into nanostructures and more closely resembles chemistry or
biology).
The definition of nanotechnology is based on the prefix “nano” which is from the Greek word
meaning “dwarf”. In more technical terms, the word “nano” means 10-9, or one billionth of
something. For comparison, a virus is roughly 100 nanometres (nm) in size. The word
nanotechnology is generally used when referring to materials with the size of 0.1 to 100
nanometres, however it is also inherent that these materials should display different
properties from bulk (or micrometric and larger) materials as a result of their size. These
differences include physical strength, chemical reactivity, electrical conductance, magnetism,
and optical effects.
Nanotechnology in the Food Market
Nanotechnology has been described as the new industrial revolution and both developed and
developing countries are investing in this technology to secure a market share. At present
the USA leads with a 4 year, 3.7 billion USD investment through its National Nanotechnology
Initiative (NNI). The USA is followed by Japan and the European Union, which have both
committed substantial funds (750 million and 1.2 billion, including individual country
contributions, respectively per year).3 The level of funding in developing countries may be
comparatively lower, however this has not lessened the impact of some countries on the
global stage. For example, China's share of academic publications in nanoscale science and
engineering topics rose from 7.5% in 1995 to 18.3% in 2004, taking the country from fifth
to second in the world.
Nanotechnology in Agriculture
The EU’s vision is of a “knowledge-based economy” and as part of this, it plans to maximise
the potential of biotechnology for the benefit of EU economy, society and the environment.
There are new challenges in this sector including a growing demand for healthy, safe food;
an increasing risk of disease; and threats to agricultural and fishery production from
changing weather patterns. However, creating a bio economy is a challenging and complex
process involving the convergence of different branches of science.
Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the agricultural and food industry with
new tools for the molecular treatment of diseases, rapid disease detection, enhancing the
ability of plants to absorb nutrients etc. Smart sensors and smart delivery systems will help
the agricultural industry combat viruses and other crop pathogens. In the near future
nanostructured catalysts will be available which will increase the efficiency of pesticides and
herbicides, allowing lower doses to be used. Nanotechnology will also protect the
environment indirectly through the use of alternative (renewable) energy supplies, and
filters or catalysts to reduce pollution and clean-up existing pollutants.
Precision Farming
Precision farming has been a long-desired goal to maximise output (i.e. crop yields) while
minimising input (i.e. fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, etc) through monitoring
environmental variables and applying targeted action. Precision farming makes use of
computers, global satellite positioning systems, and remote sensing devices to measure
highly localised environmental conditions thus determining whether crops are growing at
maximum efficiency or precisely identifying the nature and location of problems. By using
centralised data to determine soil conditions and plant development, seeding, fertilizer,
chemical and water use can be fine-tuned to lower production costs and potentially increase
production- all benefiting the farmer.8 Precision farming can also help to reduce agricultural
waste and thus keep environmental pollution to a minimum. Although not fully implemented
yet, tiny sensors and monitoring systems enabled by nanotechnology will have a large
impact on future precision farming methodologies.
Smart Delivery Systems
The use of pesticides increased in the second half of the 20th century with DDT becoming
one of the most effective and widespread throughout the world. However, many of these
pesticides, including DDT were later found to be highly toxic, affecting human and animal
health and as a result whole ecosystems. As a consequence they were banned. To maintain
crop yields, Integrated Pest Management systems, which mix traditional methods of crop
rotation with biological pest control methods, are becoming popular and implemented in
many countries, such as Tunisia and India.
In the future, nanoscale devices with novel properties could be used to make agricultural
systems “smart”. For example, devices could be used to identify plant health issues before
these become visible to the farmer. Such devices may be capable of responding to different
situations by taking appropriate remedial action. If not, they will alert the farmer to the
problem. In this way, smart devices will act as both a preventive and an early warning
system. Such devices could be used to deliver chemicals in a controlled and targeted
manner in the same way as nanomedicine has implications for drug delivery in humans.
Nanomedicine developments are now beginning to allow us to treat different diseases such
as cancer in animals with high precision, and targeted delivery (to specific tissues and
organs) has become highly successful.
Other Developments in the Agricultural Sector due to
Nanotechnology
Agriculture is the backbone of most developing countries, with more than 60% of the
population reliant on it for their livelihood. As well as developing improved systems for
monitoring environmental conditions and delivering nutrients or pesticides as appropriate,
nanotechnology can improve our understanding of the biology of different crops and thus
potentially enhance yields or nutritional values. In addition, it can offer routes to added
value crops or environmental remediation.
Particle farming is one such example, which yields nanoparticles for industrial use by
growing plants in defined soils. For example, research has shown that alfalfa plants grown
in gold rich soil, absorb gold nanoparticles through their roots and accumulate these in their
tissues. The gold nanoparticles can be mechanically separated from the plant tissue
following harvest.18
Nanotechnology can also be used to clean ground water. The US company Argonide is using
2 nm diameter aluminium oxide nanofibres (NanoCeram) as a water purifier. Filters made
from these fibres can remove viruses, bacteria and protozoan cysts from water.19 Similar
projects are taking place elsewhere, particularly in developing countries such as India and
South Africa. The German chemical group BASF’s future business fund has devoted a
significant proportion of its 105 million USD nanotechnology research fund to water
purification techniques. The French utility company Generale des Eaux has also developed
its own Nanofiltration technology in collaboration with the Dow Chemical subsidiary Filmtec.
Ondeo, the water unit of French conglomerate Suez, has meanwhile installed what it calls an
ultrafiltration system, with holes of 0.1 microns in size, in one of its plants outside Paris.
[attachment=45857]
Introduction
The current global population is nearly 6 billion with 50% living in Asia. A large proportion
of those living in developing countries face daily food shortages as a result of environmental
impacts or political instability, while in the developed world there is a food surplus. For
developing countries the drive is to develop drought and pest resistant crops, which also
maximize yield. In developed countries, the food industry is driven by consumer demand
which is currently for fresher and healthier foodstuffs. This is big business, for example the
food industry in the UK is booming with an annual growth rate of 5.2%1 and the demand for
fresh food has increased by 10% in the last few years.
The potential of nanotechnology to revolutionise the health care, textile, materials.
information and communication technology, and energy sectors has been well-publicised. In
fact several products enabled by nanotechnology are already in the market, such as antibacterial
dressings, transparent sunscreen lotions, stain-resistant fabrics, scratch free paints
for cars, and self cleaning windows. The application of nanotechnology to the agricultural
and food industries was first addressed by a United States Department of Agriculture
roadmap published in September 2003.2 The prediction is that nanotechnology will
transform the entire food industry, changing the way food is produced, processed, packaged,
transported, and consumed. This short report will review the key aspects of these
transformations, highlighting current research in the agrifood industry and what future
impacts these may have.
What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, or
molecular clusters into structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly
different properties. Nanotechnology can work from the top down (which means reducing
the size of the smallest structures to the nanoscale e.g. photonics applications in
nanoelectronics and nanoengineering) or the bottom up (which involves manipulating
individual atoms and molecules into nanostructures and more closely resembles chemistry or
biology).
The definition of nanotechnology is based on the prefix “nano” which is from the Greek word
meaning “dwarf”. In more technical terms, the word “nano” means 10-9, or one billionth of
something. For comparison, a virus is roughly 100 nanometres (nm) in size. The word
nanotechnology is generally used when referring to materials with the size of 0.1 to 100
nanometres, however it is also inherent that these materials should display different
properties from bulk (or micrometric and larger) materials as a result of their size. These
differences include physical strength, chemical reactivity, electrical conductance, magnetism,
and optical effects.
Nanotechnology in the Food Market
Nanotechnology has been described as the new industrial revolution and both developed and
developing countries are investing in this technology to secure a market share. At present
the USA leads with a 4 year, 3.7 billion USD investment through its National Nanotechnology
Initiative (NNI). The USA is followed by Japan and the European Union, which have both
committed substantial funds (750 million and 1.2 billion, including individual country
contributions, respectively per year).3 The level of funding in developing countries may be
comparatively lower, however this has not lessened the impact of some countries on the
global stage. For example, China's share of academic publications in nanoscale science and
engineering topics rose from 7.5% in 1995 to 18.3% in 2004, taking the country from fifth
to second in the world.
Nanotechnology in Agriculture
The EU’s vision is of a “knowledge-based economy” and as part of this, it plans to maximise
the potential of biotechnology for the benefit of EU economy, society and the environment.
There are new challenges in this sector including a growing demand for healthy, safe food;
an increasing risk of disease; and threats to agricultural and fishery production from
changing weather patterns. However, creating a bio economy is a challenging and complex
process involving the convergence of different branches of science.
Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the agricultural and food industry with
new tools for the molecular treatment of diseases, rapid disease detection, enhancing the
ability of plants to absorb nutrients etc. Smart sensors and smart delivery systems will help
the agricultural industry combat viruses and other crop pathogens. In the near future
nanostructured catalysts will be available which will increase the efficiency of pesticides and
herbicides, allowing lower doses to be used. Nanotechnology will also protect the
environment indirectly through the use of alternative (renewable) energy supplies, and
filters or catalysts to reduce pollution and clean-up existing pollutants.
Precision Farming
Precision farming has been a long-desired goal to maximise output (i.e. crop yields) while
minimising input (i.e. fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, etc) through monitoring
environmental variables and applying targeted action. Precision farming makes use of
computers, global satellite positioning systems, and remote sensing devices to measure
highly localised environmental conditions thus determining whether crops are growing at
maximum efficiency or precisely identifying the nature and location of problems. By using
centralised data to determine soil conditions and plant development, seeding, fertilizer,
chemical and water use can be fine-tuned to lower production costs and potentially increase
production- all benefiting the farmer.8 Precision farming can also help to reduce agricultural
waste and thus keep environmental pollution to a minimum. Although not fully implemented
yet, tiny sensors and monitoring systems enabled by nanotechnology will have a large
impact on future precision farming methodologies.
Smart Delivery Systems
The use of pesticides increased in the second half of the 20th century with DDT becoming
one of the most effective and widespread throughout the world. However, many of these
pesticides, including DDT were later found to be highly toxic, affecting human and animal
health and as a result whole ecosystems. As a consequence they were banned. To maintain
crop yields, Integrated Pest Management systems, which mix traditional methods of crop
rotation with biological pest control methods, are becoming popular and implemented in
many countries, such as Tunisia and India.
In the future, nanoscale devices with novel properties could be used to make agricultural
systems “smart”. For example, devices could be used to identify plant health issues before
these become visible to the farmer. Such devices may be capable of responding to different
situations by taking appropriate remedial action. If not, they will alert the farmer to the
problem. In this way, smart devices will act as both a preventive and an early warning
system. Such devices could be used to deliver chemicals in a controlled and targeted
manner in the same way as nanomedicine has implications for drug delivery in humans.
Nanomedicine developments are now beginning to allow us to treat different diseases such
as cancer in animals with high precision, and targeted delivery (to specific tissues and
organs) has become highly successful.
Other Developments in the Agricultural Sector due to
Nanotechnology
Agriculture is the backbone of most developing countries, with more than 60% of the
population reliant on it for their livelihood. As well as developing improved systems for
monitoring environmental conditions and delivering nutrients or pesticides as appropriate,
nanotechnology can improve our understanding of the biology of different crops and thus
potentially enhance yields or nutritional values. In addition, it can offer routes to added
value crops or environmental remediation.
Particle farming is one such example, which yields nanoparticles for industrial use by
growing plants in defined soils. For example, research has shown that alfalfa plants grown
in gold rich soil, absorb gold nanoparticles through their roots and accumulate these in their
tissues. The gold nanoparticles can be mechanically separated from the plant tissue
following harvest.18
Nanotechnology can also be used to clean ground water. The US company Argonide is using
2 nm diameter aluminium oxide nanofibres (NanoCeram) as a water purifier. Filters made
from these fibres can remove viruses, bacteria and protozoan cysts from water.19 Similar
projects are taking place elsewhere, particularly in developing countries such as India and
South Africa. The German chemical group BASF’s future business fund has devoted a
significant proportion of its 105 million USD nanotechnology research fund to water
purification techniques. The French utility company Generale des Eaux has also developed
its own Nanofiltration technology in collaboration with the Dow Chemical subsidiary Filmtec.
Ondeo, the water unit of French conglomerate Suez, has meanwhile installed what it calls an
ultrafiltration system, with holes of 0.1 microns in size, in one of its plants outside Paris.