The Role of Process Chemistry in Providing Healthy Food for a Healthy and Growing Planet

摘要

Since the advent of plant cultivation more than 10,000 years ago, farmers have faced the challenge of harmful organisms that damage planted crops and effectively reduce the productivity and quality of food they harvest. Weeds compete with crops for essential nutrients and sunlight. Insects and fungi can weaken plants, decrease their productivity, and destroy food before it can be harvested. One needs to look no farther than the Great Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800s to find an example of the devastating impact that harmful organisms can have on agriculture and society. During this period, a fungus named Phytophthora infestans infected potato crops and led to starvation and death of more than a million people in Ireland. Fortunately, over time, new scientific knowledge has led to technologies that allow farmers to combat weed, fungus, and insect pest pressure. Estimates show that without crop protection inputs such as agricultural chemicals, host-plant resistance, and other nonchemical controls, 70% of current crop yields would be lost to pest damage. From 1960 to 2015, new innovations in chemistry, the Green Revolution of plant breeding and biotechnology, and the industrialization and globalization of agriculture have enabled farmers to nearly triple food production. During this same period the world population has doubled to 7.5 billion people, and even with the advances in technology that have increased crop yields, there are still almost 800 million people that are chronically hungry and 2 billion people that are undernourished. Furthermore, the world's population is estimated to grow to 10 billion by the year 2050. Feeding this growing population will require raising food production by more than 70%. Most of that increase is expected to come from higher yields and increased cropping intensity. Meanwhile, climate change—driven in part by greenhouse gases produced by farms—is aggravating soil damage and making global agricultural systems yet more fragile. To address the food security needs of the growing world population, modern agriculture must continually develop technologies that increase production while preserving the planet. Chemical crop protection solutions are one of several effective tools that farmers utilize to control harmful organisms. Modern active ingredients and products are much more selective and have fewer toxicological and ecotoxicological effects than many products developed decades ago. Combined with digital tools and precise methods for applying crop protection products, a new generation of scientists are pioneering an era of more sustainable solutions for farmers and the environment.