In Our "Did You Know" Series We Share Interesting Facts About Plant Science And Agriculture.

Recent innovations in plant biotechnology are making a critical contribution to the future of human health. These techniques have enabled scientists to use plants as “bio-factories” to produce antibodies against cancer and vaccines including for influenza, dengue and now COVID-19. This area of science is also used to help support the emergency need for diagnostic kits and antiviral drugs.

At this time of year, you may notice bare branches and white webbing on box hedges and trees. These are tell-tale signs that an invasive alien species, the box tree moth* has taken up residence. They were unintentionally imported to Europe on box plants from Asia. Box tree moth caterpillars can defoliate and even kill carefully tended trees and hedges in just a few days. This does not only damage private gardens, but also iconic hedges found in gardens like Versailles, or indeed in Tervuren Park near Brussels!

Faster uptake of innovative digital and precision agriculture technologies will rely on rural populations having access to broadband internet. This will be critical for achieving the Farm to Fork Strategy's objectives of reducing environmental impact as well as saving costs & resources. 

Crops produced in Europe could be significantly impacted by climate change. Higher temperatures could trigger migration of insects from warmer southern to colder northern countries. Insect pests already reduce staple grain crops (wheat, rice, and maize) by an estimated 5 to 20%. Further yield losses due to increased insect pressure could increase by 10 to 25% per degree Celsius of warming. Such a reduction in yields would risk food security, quality, and local food production, resulting in increased food prices.

Have you also seen people photographing their meal and wondered why? Could this hint at a deeper transformation of eating habits? Millennials (age 21-35) are more likely than older generations to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet and to buy products with a higher sustainability profile. A possible explanation could be that they see healthy and sustainable food as part of their identity. In addition, two thirds of EU consumers would be open to changing their food habits for environmental reasons but identifying sustainable food options remains a real challenge.

Nitrogen is essential for all living organisms. Its availability is one of the key factors determining agricultural productivity. Although nitrogen is present in large quantities in the air, it is not sufficiently available to crops. Farmers use fertilizers to make nitrogen available for their crops. However, nitrogen use efficiency is low as only about half the nitrogen applied through fertilizers is absorbed by crops. The rest remains in soil, leaches into ground and surface waters or is lost to the atmosphere as ammonia and/or nitrous oxide gas.

Today’s pet dogs were domesticated over thousands of years from wolves, thanks to selective breeding and domestication by man. The same selective approach was used to breed many of the vegetable varieties we eat today from naturally occurring wild species. For example did you know that cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts all originated from the same wild plant?

In our efforts to make things even better, we sometimes forget to look back and recognise what’s been achieved in the past.

Pesticides which are used by farmers to control pests and diseases can leave detectable traces of residues on crops when harvested.