DISCOVER
Volume 1 | Issue 1
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Agricu lt d&
e ur
Fo o
WHAT WE DO + WHY IT MATTERS
Simply put, researchers in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences are changing lives. With expertise in food and agriculture, environment and water, family and communities, health and wellness, and computing and data, their reach is both broad and deep. But uniting them is a commitment to solving real-world problems that affect people and places in central Illinois, the United States, and the globe. Here, we showcase a fraction of our world-class research in the area of food and agriculture, demonstrating tangible improvements to food security, agroecosystem health, sustainable livestock and crop production, and consumer behaviors.
HACKING PHOTOSYNTHESIS: THE RIPE PROJECT With current predictions putting the global population at 9.8 billion by 2050, it is urgent to dramatically improve yields of staple crops. Scientists with the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) project are engineering plants to photosynthesize more efficiently, with successes in the lab, greenhouse, and field already showing up to 40 percent increases in productivity. The RIPE team is now translating these successes to staple food crops, such as soybean, cassava, cowpea, and rice to evaluate their impact on food yield. Ultimately, the team is helping to feed the world with higher-yielding crops that will also increase farmers’ income and opportunities.
$83M $25 million: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2012) $45 million: Gates Foundation; FFAR; UK DID (2017) $13 million: Gates Foundation (2018)
OUTSMARTING AGRICULTURAL WEEDS Agricultural weeds represent a major cost to farmers, both in terms of chemical control and yield losses when control efforts fail. And failure is becoming more common in waterhemp, an important corn and soybean weed that has evolved resistance to multiple herbicides. By examining historical records from over 100 farms, Illinois crop scientists discovered management can make all the difference: Farmers tank-mixing multiple herbicides were 83 times less likely to battle resistant waterhemp than those rotating herbicides year-to-year. The scientists also demonstrated that farmers could knock down resistance with farm-to-farm coordination. Although it’s too soon to see a major reduction in resistance, many farmers are taking the new approach. * Hausman et al. 2016. Weed Technology
Potential yield loss in Illinois from waterhemp*
40%
70%
DISCOVER: FOOD & AGRICULTURE aces-research@illinois.edu
aces.illinois.edu/Discover_S19
REDUCING FOOD WASTE, INCREASING FOOD SECURITY The issue of food loss and waste is receiving increased attention around the globe, not only as a threat to food security, but in terms of its negative environmental and economic consequences. In the United States, the USDA puts food waste estimates at 30-40 percent of the food supply. Researchers have worked to understand the motivations behind food-wasting behavior, and what interventions may be successful in reducing food waste among certain populations. Knowing that young adults—18- to 24-year-olds—have a higher tendency to waste than other age groups, the researchers collected valuable information about the eating habits of college students, living on or off campus, and have piloted successful food waste interventions in campus dining halls. Further research on the eating habits of young adults is helping the researchers understand more about food insecurity rates among college students, information that can inform alleviation and prevention policies.
~35%
of the food supply is wasted
KEEPING SPERM VIABLE LONGER Modern livestock producers can’t leave breeding to chance. That’s why many use artificial insemination to improve genetics, reduce disease transfer, and increase the efficiency of farm operations. But the practice has its challenges, including the need to synchronize AI with ovulation, which can be difficult to detect. Illinois animal scientists have discovered how the female reproductive tract can store sperm after AI and are trying to develop a system that can increase sperm storage time and viability both inside and outside the animal. This would make the use of AI easier and more efficient. Their goal is to provide farmers with new reproductive management options that can supply the world with a healthy protein source at a low cost with minimal environmental impact.
SPERM VIABILITY
24-36 hours
2 weeks FUNDING SOURCES RIPE Project: $63 M Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; $15 M Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR); $5 M from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) Stephen Long, Crop Sciences | Don Ort, USDA ARS/Crop Sciences | Lisa Ainsworth, USDA ARS/Crop Sciences affiliate | Carl Bernacchi, USDA ARS/Crop Sciences affiliate Contact email: ripe@igb.illinois.edu Waterhemp: USDA NIFA AFRI Project, $500,000; Monsanto Co., $200,000; and the Illinois Soybean Association, $100,000 Adam Davis, Crop Sciences | Patrick Tranel, Crop Sciences Contact: asdavis1@illinois.edu Food waste: Funded in part by USDA-NIFA and the ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss Brenna Ellison, Agricultural and Consumer Economics | Shelly Nickols-Richardson, Food Science and Human Nutrition | Cassandra Nikolaus, Food Science and Human Nutrition Contact: brennae@illinois.edu Artificial insemination: National Institutes of Health - $1,086,037.00 David Miller, Animal Sciences Contact: djmille@illinois.edu