The Biotech Podcast Harry B Houston

In the first episode of this new season on food security we first look at what lessons we can draw from the history of agriculture and how we might expect it to change as we look into the future.

Dr Helen Anne Curry is an Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge.

A third of global food is produced by smallholder farms. High tech innovations will always make the big headlines, but if want to truly provide for the future then we must also empower those most at risk with more frugal strategies. 

Professor Jaideep Prabhu takes us through his views on how we can do more with less in this latest episode of the The Biotech Podcast.

As agriculture scales up it brings a host of problems. Larger tractors lead to soil compaction and lack of precision, more workers are required to ensure harvests come in on time and food waste is reduced, and corners are cut more often with increased use of herbicides and pesticides. Using autonomous vehicles can help solve many of these problems. 

Kit Franklin, co-creator of Hands Free Hectare and Hands Free Farm, takes us through the automation of agriculture and how we will soon get used to seeing it in our everyday lives.

Many crops currently grown in the developing world are limited by their nitrogen potential rather than their water or light potential. Difficult supply chains and high costs make using nitrogen fertilisers difficult in these regions and the use of these fertilisers brings about its own issues. 

Professor Giles Oldroyd aims to engineer nitrogen fixation into many crops, allowing them to utilise the abundant source of nitrogen straight from the air and therefore improve yields whilst reducing nitrogen leaching. 

As exciting technologies emerge, we need to ensure that policies and regulations are in place to ensure practices remain safe, sustainable and help the transition towards a circular economy.  Dr Ian Hodge, professor of rural economy at Cambridge, describes how we can manage agriculture in the future; from offering subsidies to introducing carbon credits. 

Dr Leroy Hood is a world renowned biotechnologist, geneticist and author. From the future of medicine to the human genome project, Lee tells about his fascinating life and his views for the scientific future.

Full synopsis:

0:00 - Introduction
2:24 - P4 medicine - what it is and how it will play a role in the future
17:10 - Systems Biology - A new approach for biological research
25:15 - Thriving in the future of Biology
30:25 - Noise in biology
37:04 - Neuroplasticity and coronavirus
38:37 - The institute of systems biology
42:34 - Future novels
43:24 - Developing scientific tools - How they has affected Lee and how to go about developing them
01:05:10 - The human genome project 
01:12:24 - Book recommendations and advice