TY - JOUR
T1 - Nanotechnology for sustainable food production
T2 - promising opportunities and scientific challenges
AU - Rodrigues, Sónia M.
AU - Demokritou, Philip
AU - Dokoozlian, Nick
AU - Hendren, Christine Ogilvie
AU - Karn, Barbara
AU - Mauter, Meagan S.
AU - Sadik, Omowunmi A.
AU - Safarpour, Maximilian
AU - Unrine, Jason M.
AU - Viers, Josh
AU - Welle, Paul
AU - White, Jason C.
AU - Wiesner, Mark R.
AU - Lowry, Gregory V.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The agro-ecosystem is under enormous pressure due to rapid population growth, increasing global food demand, increasing fresh water withdrawals and energy consumption, excessive food waste, inefficient use of agrochemicals, environmental degradation and climate change. Nanotechnology offers opportunities to make food production more sustainable by providing better sensors for monitoring physical, chemical, or biological properties and processes; technologies for controlling pathogens to increase food safety and minimize food waste; improved membranes and sorbents for distributed water treatment and resource recovery; novel materials for timed and targeted delivery of agrochemicals; and, new materials for monitoring and improving animal health. This tutorial review provides an overview of the nanotechnology opportunities of greatest potential determined through an NSF-funded interdisciplinary workshop of ∼50 experts from the U.S. and the EU in the areas of nanotechnology, energy, water, agriculture, systems engineering, data integration and analysis, and social science. This paper also presents examples of selected specific opportunities and the remaining scientific and engineering challenges that must be overcome to realize the benefits of nanotechnology across the farm to fork continuum.
AB - The agro-ecosystem is under enormous pressure due to rapid population growth, increasing global food demand, increasing fresh water withdrawals and energy consumption, excessive food waste, inefficient use of agrochemicals, environmental degradation and climate change. Nanotechnology offers opportunities to make food production more sustainable by providing better sensors for monitoring physical, chemical, or biological properties and processes; technologies for controlling pathogens to increase food safety and minimize food waste; improved membranes and sorbents for distributed water treatment and resource recovery; novel materials for timed and targeted delivery of agrochemicals; and, new materials for monitoring and improving animal health. This tutorial review provides an overview of the nanotechnology opportunities of greatest potential determined through an NSF-funded interdisciplinary workshop of ∼50 experts from the U.S. and the EU in the areas of nanotechnology, energy, water, agriculture, systems engineering, data integration and analysis, and social science. This paper also presents examples of selected specific opportunities and the remaining scientific and engineering challenges that must be overcome to realize the benefits of nanotechnology across the farm to fork continuum.
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U2 - 10.1039/c6en00573j
DO - 10.1039/c6en00573j
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85017555179
SN - 2051-8153
VL - 4
SP - 767
EP - 781
JO - Environmental Science: Nano
JF - Environmental Science: Nano
IS - 4
ER -