RICHLAND, Wash.--the earth's population is expected to surpass 6 billion near the turn of the century-and continue to expand at a rate of about 80 million annually for at least a dozen or so years thereafter.
To feed all those hungry inhabitants, the world will have to produce more food while paying even greater attention to other global issues such as natural resource management and environmental protection.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a leader in environmental and energy sciences, now is focusing its scientific and technological resources on these emerging problems of agriculture and food production.
"We have the scientific and technical expertise necessary to help bring about positive, significant changes in the way the world feeds itself," said Pacific Northwest's Doug Lemon, who heads the new Agriculture and Food Processing Initiative. "We have the right kinds of skills to help solve the problems."
In addition to increased demand for food, those problems include farming practices that contribute to environmental problems, food safety concerns and decreasing availability of land, water, energy and other resources used to produce crops.
According to Lemon, initiative activities will focus on finding ways to: enhance the stewardship of energy and environmental resources associated with agriculture and food processing increase the quantity, quality, and safety of the world's food supply improve the productivity and profitability of the agriculture and food processing industries enhance the responsiveness of industry to diverse and changing consumer needs.
"Two key areas our initiative will address are biotechnology, which can lead to healthier and more productive plants, and information technology methods that employ satellite and other technologies to help the farmer do a more efficient job of producing crops," Lemon said.
Other areas to be explored by the initiative include microbial ecology, foodborne pathogen detection and control systems, pollution prevention, value-added processes, environmental resource management and improved processing, storage and distribution systems.
Funding already has been identified for several projects, but Lemon and other staff assigned to the initiative will be seeking additional dollars--public and private--to get the effort fully on track.
Although the initiative is new, agriculture-related research at Pacific Northwest is not. In the 1970s and 1980s, the laboratory's Food and Agriculture Section conducted research and technology development in bioprocessing, hydroponics and other areas. At its peak, the effort involved up to 30 staff members and a $1 million budget. For a variety of reasons, the group's focus shifted to other research areas over the years, but some of the original staff remain at Pacific Northwest.
The laboratory's renewed interest in agriculture came in 1995. "The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Agriculture signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging cooperation in agricultural research activities," Lemon said. "That event added an agriculture focus to Pacific Northwest's process of exploring potential opportunities for applying the laboratory's research and development capabilities."
The effort is not starting from scratch. Some staff who were part of Pacific Northwest's earlier work in agriculture have signed on to the initiative. Also, an effort will be made to capitalize on the laboratory's research activities in seemingly unrelated fields. "For example, I think we can benefit from what has been learned in bioremediation. By simply refocusing knowledge and technologies, we may find agriculture-related applications," Lemon said, noting that DOE is very supportive of this approach.
Pacific Northwest's proximity to some of the most productive farmland in the world is another plus. "We're situated in a region where agriculture is important. We don't have to fly across the country to learn about the agriculture industry and its needs. It's right here," Lemon said. The Agri-Business Commercialization and Development Center in Richland, created in 1994 to commercialize Pacific Northwest technology, will serve as a conduit for interacting with the Northwest agriculture community.
Lemon emphasized the initiative will not address agriculture practices, food science, nutrition or other areas that historically have been strengths of land grant universities. "We want to bring additional research resources to this region, not take away from work that already is being done by Washington State University and other entities," Lemon said.
For more information on Pacific Northwest's Agriculture and Food Processing Initiative, write to Doug Lemon at P.O. Box 999, Mailstop K1-50, Richland, WA., 99352, or contact him by phone (509-375-2306) or E-mail (dk_lemon@pnl.gov).
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Release date: January 6, 1998
Contact: Tim Ledbetter
(509) 375-5953
PACIFIC NORTHWEST'S HISTORY IN AGRICULTURE SERVES AS A FOUNDATION FOR NEW EFFORT
RICHLAND, Wash.--Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's recently established Agriculture and Food Processing Initiative is not exactly a venture into new territory.
From 1973 to 1981, Pacific Northwest's Food and Agriculture Section employed as many as 30 staff and operated on an annual budget of up to $1 million. Initially viewed as an "experiment," in many ways the section was visionary and ahead of its time.
Pacific Northwest's involvement in agriculture and food processing is chronicled below.
1973
The Food and Agriculture Section is formed under the leadership of Lyle Perrigo.
Initial projects consisted of :
basic science--Efforts to convert animal manure into fuel oil evolved into a project known as "Fundamental Chemistry of Biomass Conversion," which lasted for over 10 years and was a mainstay of the section. Work in this area eventually led to new sewage sludge recycling and disposal techniques, successful collaborations with the Environmental Protection Agency and a Japanese firm and eventually the award-winning Sludge-To-Oil Reactor System (STORS).
hydroponics--The Laboratory developed soiless cultivation techniques for various clients who sought to grow food crops in areas where conventional agriculture was not practical.
deodorizing mint oil for the Washington Mint Commission--Market prices for
Washington's mint oil were discounted because of a unique odor in the mint. Pacific Northwest staff identified the source of the odor--hydrogen sulfide--and came up with an easy method to remove it.
Mid 1970s
The section continued to build on past successes and expand into new areas, such as bioprocessing (fermentation) and biomass-derived chemicals. Although not directly tied to the lab's agriculture research, a biomass conversion technique that successfully transformed sewage sludge into an asphalt substitute that could be used for road paving was developed by the section.
Other key projects during this period included:
- energy efficiency in irrigation
- alternatives to open field burning
- energy conversion of food wastes
- co-generation in food processing
- integrated farming concepts designed to recycle agricultural wastes into the production process.
1978-80
The section continued to seek out new markets and projects to replace declining demand in conventional areas, such as biomass and food production and processing. During this period, one of the successes was a series of projects aimed at extracting industrial chemicals, oils and biofertilizers from algae and seaweed. The work culminated with a major contract with a Japanese firm to produce a microalgal polysaccharide from a marine alga. Polysaccharides can be used as thickening agents in a variety of products.
Other highlights from this period included the section's entry into the emerging areas of genetic engineering and food irradiation.
Early 1980s and beyond
Late in its existence, the section devoted much of its energy to chemical, biochemical and fermentation-related projects, but also continued to make strides in genetic engineering, food irradiation and novel polymer development.
Changes in the business climate made it difficult for the section to survive as a separate entity and it was merged with other laboratory groups in the early 1980s, though agriculture-related research did not go away entirely.
In the late 1980s, the laboratory's connection with agriculture resurfaced in a significant way when Pacific Northwest and various local and regional groups came up with the idea for an agribusiness center. Early organizers recognized that Pacific Northwest's research and development activities could benefit the regional agriculture community, but that no mechanism existed for transferring technologies and ideas out of the lab and into commercial use. Their concept became reality when the Agri-Business Commercialization and Development Center was established in Richland in 1994.
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Background Information
Release date: January 6, 1998
Contact: Tim Ledbetter
(509) 385-5953
National lab to address agriculture and food processing issues
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Agriculture and Food Processing Initiative, established in late 1997, will apply the laboratory's significant research and development capabilities to a number of agriculture-related issues facing the nation and world.
Key focus areas of the initiative are:
- enhancing the stewardship of energy and environmental resources associated with agriculture and food processing
- increasing the quantity, quality and safety of the world's food supply
- improving the productivity and profitability of the agriculture and food processing industry
- enhancing the responsiveness of industry to diverse and changing consumer needs.
Many of the projects and activities that address elements of the initiative are under way. Some are extensions of existing research and development efforts at the laboratory that, given additional investment and a new focus, have the potential to deliver effective solutions for some of the problems facing the agriculture and food processing industries.
The following summaries highlight some of the initiative's activities:
Foodborne Pathogen Detection
Technologies that will help detect foodborne organisms that cause sickness in humans may be widely used within the next few years. Pacific Northwest's efforts are focusing on the creation of small, multi-functional detection units that can be deployed at various points along the food production supply chain.
As envisioned, and depending on the particular application, the units will use a variety of analytical techniques such as optical spectroscopy, nucleic acid analysis and mass spectrometry to identify quickly and measure bacteria and other pathogens present in the food processing environment.
Transgenic plants and yeast
Pacific Northwest researchers are working to perfect genetic engineering techniques and create plants capable of efficiently producing large quantities'up to many kilograms per acre--of industrial enzymes, feed supplements and other proteins. Industrially important enzymes such as cellulases, lipases and proteases, which are used in multiple chemical, industrial and consumer products applications, typically are expensive to produce using existing fermentation methods. By combining cost-efficient farming methods with cutting edge molecular biology techniques, crop plants may be developed to produce the enzymes for a fraction of the cost. Genetic engineering offers many other possibilities. For instance, Pacific Northwest staff believe they eventually can develop plants--potatoes, for example--that produce useful enzymes in the foliage but not in the tubers or fruit, ensuring two crops from one plant.
Efforts also are under way at Pacific Northwest to develop plants capable of manufacturing blood proteins. The proteins would be used as replacement therapies for a number of blood deficiencies in human patients, but would not transmit diseases associated with plasma purification.
On yet another front, researchers are trying to extend genetic engineering techniques to specialized yeast strains, which would feed on agricultural waste products and, in the process, produce industrial enzymes and food and animal feed supplements. A new mechanism known as a "shuttle vector," which transfers desirable gene sequences to the genome of a host micro-organism, was developed successfully by PNNL researchers in 1997, specifically for starch-degrading yeasts.
Value-Added Processes
Pacific Northwest researchers are exploring the potential of various food processing waste streams, byproducts and even agricultural crops to provide feedstock material for biomass conversion processes. In the past, research generally has focused on conversion of biomass to fuels, but in more recent years the emphasis has shifted to higher-value products such as chemicals. The laboratory will continue to build upon its work in "corn to chemicals," a cost-effective and environmentally friendly process that converts corn-derived glucose to chemicals used in the manufacture of polymers, clothing fibers, car bumpers and numerous other products.
In fact, Pacific Northwest currently is a member of a consortium of national labs and private firms seeking to develop improved methods for converting glucose to succinic acid, and then separating and cleaning the acid to make it amenable to the more precise catalytic hydrogenation processing technique.
Pacific Northwest researchers also are interested in developing methods for the conversion of cellulose to levulinic acid and then cyclic ether, a fuel-blending component. Such a process would make it possible to create chemical products from starches as well as sugars.
Remote Sensing
Imagine being able to quickly determine whether a crop needs more water, fertilizer or a dose of pesticide. Remote sensing, a non-invasive method for measuring a distant object, offers this possibility.
Pacific Northwest researchers are working on the development of airborne and handheld sensors that will monitor crop conditions quickly and accurately to identify stresses (water shortages, disease and pests) and ultimately improve productivity. As part of this work, algorithms that relate hyperspectral images of foliage to plant/crop stresses are being developed.
The laboratory's extensive background in arms control nonproliferation detection and monitoring will serve as a solid foundation for the remote sensing elements of the Agriculture and Food Processing Initiative.
ABCD Center
The Agri-Business Commercialization and Development Center, formed in 1994 and located in Richland, specializes in transferring Pacific Northwest-developed technologies out of the laboratory and into actual use.
In addition to technology commercialization, the ABCD Center helps "seed" new local and regional businesses in the agriculture sector.
The center is expected to play a key role by providing technical management support and serving as a delivery conduit for new technologies. In addition, the productive relationships the center has developed with local and regional agriculture communities are expected to provide the initiative with crucial feedback as well as collaboration opportunities.