Many people might not connect the high science disciplines of nanotechnology, information technology and biotechnology with healthy, ethical and sustainable food production, but Professor Robert Henry, Director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, an agricultural research institute based at the University of Queensland jointly supported by the Queensland Government, says these technologies are critical to future food production. But given the backlash to genetically modified foods (GM), how will consumers react to new technologies like gene editing, which has the potential to make GM redundant, and has many exciting applications across human health, plants and animals? Similarly, nanotechnology may create concerns among some consumers but it also has allowed our researchers to develop environmentally sustainable alternatives to the use of agricultural chemicals.
On 31 October, a panel consisting of world-leading scientists from QAAFI discussed high tech food and why consumers should be alert but not alarmed by the emerging new agricultural and food production sciences.
