The Future of Our Food: Maintain
Substantial Production through
Photosynthetic Machineries.
Engineering 2196 – Technical Communication
Source: http://www.foodinsight.org/newsletters/news-bite-ific-foundation-hosts-communications-workshop-food-production-emerging-market
Abstract
ENGR 2196 document scenario: This document proposes an engineering design project of an
innovation in photosynthetic machineries. I envision this document as a research proposal…. The
technical proposal would be reviewed by engineers or agriculturists interested in the future of food
and substantial production despite future climate changes. The Executive Summary is directed
towards production companies or managers of those companies who are interested in improving and
sustaining their work.
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Executive Summary
Engineering is essential in today’s life especially with the advancement in technology and food
production is one of the beneficiaries. Photosynthesis is a very important process in plant growth and
development and it becomes affected by the surrounding where the plants grow. With technology, it is
possible to speed up the photosynthetic process using machinery, which is good news for food
production. Photosynthetic machinery is capable of helping in increasing photosynthesis that as well
improves chlorophyll content in the plants. Increased photosynthesis means more production of food
artificially, which secures the future of its production. Further, the quality of the food produced will be
improved due to the growth enhancements that were added in the process. Plants produced with the
use of photosynthetic machineries are tolerant against stress conditions like saltiness and drought. This
means that plants produced by the machineries can survive elsewhere rather than where they are which
solves the problem of food production in dry areas or unfavorable soil composition.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 3
Problem Statement ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Initial Problem Description ....................................................................................................................... 5
Overall Analysis and Objectives ................................................................................................................ 6
Historical and Economic Perspectives ...................................................................................................... 7
Historical Perspective............................................................................................................................ 7
Economic Perspective ........................................................................................................................... 7
Candidate Solutions .................................................................................................................................. 8
Solution 1: Enhancing Seeds ................................................................................................................. 8
Solution 2: Development in Productivity of Aquaculture ..................................................................... 8
Solution 3: Smart Farming .................................................................................................................... 8
Solution Comparison ............................................................................................................................. 9
Proposed Solution ................................................................................................................................... 10
Major Design and Implementation Challenges....................................................................................... 11
Implications of Project Success ............................................................................................................... 12
Glossary ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
References .................................................................................................................................................. 14
List of Figures
Figure 1: Production of capture fisheries and aquaculture .......................................................................... 8
Figure 2: ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
Figure 3: ........................................................................................................................................................ 8
Figure 4: ...................................................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 5: ...................................................................................................................................................... 13
List of Tables
Table 1: Twelve Warmest Years (1880–2016) .............................................................................................. 7
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Problem Statement
The main engineering objective in the future production of food and sustainability is to provide
a tool for a new revolution in agriculture (Costa and Michele, 2011). It is not about how big the
machines that get used that matters, but how ideal use of tools and systems help in finding a lasting
solution regardless of the hardships that lay ahead without harming the surroundings. The engineering
tools and machinery involved in the production of food is at one time or another exposed to damage or
experiencing problems. The problems do not have to be technical but could as well be academic
(Frewer, Howard & Shepherd, 1996). Finding the right people for dealing with machine and tools
required to do certain jobs becomes a challenge because of the notion that engineering courses are
difficult. Technically, the machines and systems in engineering could experience breakdowns that affect
the expected outcome especially when it comes to food production. This means that the manual
approach of food production will be retained and engineering should not become depended on entirely.
Our food production need to adjust to global warming and climate changings and current machineries
are yet to be proven reliable.
Initial Problem Description
This project aims to help solve the problem of climate change and the world fast increasing
population effecting the future of food production. Global warming may have some positive affects like
increase production of some crops as in soybean, rice, and wheat. However, the changing climate would
distress the quality of the growing season and their lengths. In addition, farmers could experience
damage to their yields, caused by the mounting intensity of droughts, flooding or fires. Here is where
the photosynthetic process takes place. It rests on a set of complex protein molecules placed in and
around a vastly organized membrane. Through a sequence of energy transducing reactions. Food
biotechnology helps feeding our growing planet, while also carrying more than a few additional benefits
along the way, leading to higher yields. By enhancing the photosynthetic process, plants are being
engineered to grow in places where they would not survive before. Why botanists are interested in
enhancing the process in the first place? Light. Photosynthetic process is not as effective under shade
such as in a cloudy day. At the same time, the stomata must be open for gas exchange that results in
water loss. The dream is generating a plant that retains and close the stomata, while being able to
photosynthesis just as efficient. In addition, most plants will suffer if placed in direct sunlight for too
long; too much light can damage chlorophyll. The current photosynthetic machinery transforms light
energy into a stable form that can last for hundreds of millions of years
The yields of major food produces have contributed very significantly to a growing of food
supply over the past 50 years, which has until recently more than kept pace with climate change and the
increasing global demand. For the next generation, plant production will become the concentration of
global issues. For example, the source of feeding an extra billion mouths, to advancing an economy
currently trading on past sunlight, and uphold biodiversity in the face of climate change. However,
improved photosynthetic efficiency has played only a slight role in the incredible rise of productivity
achieved in the last half century, additional increases in crops potential will depend in a large part on
improved photosynthesis in the future. Increasing this efficiency is not a simple task, because it depends
on many different characteristics. For example, combining information regarding functional operation,
impacts on stress and growth responses, current and future limitations, and potential targets and
markers. This opportunity seeks to classify new knowledge and innovative concepts in order to simplify
the transition from basic to applied knowledge. The current photosynthetic machinery renovates light
energy into a steady form that can last for millions of years.
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Overall Analysis and Objectives
The main technical objective of this project is to create a more reliable solution that goes a step
beyond an alternative food production resource. It will explore ways to overcome restrictions and
limitations in photosynthesis that will then lead to ways of maintaining substantial production and
increasing the yield of important in some crops. The technique is increasing the capability of the plant
gene by increasing the expression that codes for the protein controlling that step, and engineer a
process from another organism that is more efficient. It would take numerous years to test the millions
of transformations of changes in the diverse components that could be changed in practice. However,
the high-performance computers can labor through these millions of combinations to identify those
changes that would probable give the greatest benefit. Improving the response driven by enzyme
“Rubisco”, which is a broadly recognised block in the photosynthesis pathway. By trying to allocation
parts from algae and bacteria into plants, this research proposal to make the atmosphere in the plants'
cells around Rubisco richer in carbon dioxide, which will permit photosynthesis to produce such as sugar
more efficiently. Together, these changes have the potential to more than double the yield potential of
our major crops. For this venture, using tobacco as a test crop is perfect. Tobacco can be engineered
more easily than our objective crops as a result of the well-developed transformation methods, easy
propagation and well-studied genomes. Once the most valuable constructs using tobacco is identified,
we can then engineer soybean, rice, wheat and possibly other food crops. Furthermore, Energy saving
methods in general will continue to play and increasing role in farming and food production.
Photosynthesis machinery consume and produce additional unused energy that can be put into a good
work like increasing biofuels in the same machinery. This artificial Photosynthesis System as efficient as
plants and can reduce CO2 level.
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Historical and Economic Perspectives
Climate change predictions have massively underestimated the role that clouds play, meaning
global warming possibly will be far worse than is presently projected, according to new research. Effects
of climate warming on natural and human systems are becoming increasingly visible across the globe.
For example, the shattering of past yearly records for global high temperatures seems to be a nearannual event, with the five hottest years since 1880 all occurring since 2005 (Harvey, 2016).
The following table lists the global combined land and ocean annually averaged temperature
rank and anomaly for each of the 12 warmest years on record (Global Climate Report - Annual 2016,
2017).
Table 1: Twelve Warmest Years (1880–2016)
Temperatures were record high across land surfaces. The global annual land surface temperature for
2016 was 1.43°C (2.57°F) above the 20th century average, surpassing the previous record of 2015 by
0.11°C (0.19°F). Not coincidentally, the single hottest year on record, 2016, also broke records for area
burned by wildfire in the United States (Harvey, 2016). Increased heat, drought and insect outbreaks, all
linked to climate change. This directly reduced agricultural yields and natural food production.
Moreover, there is the rising of sea levels due to thermal expansion and melting of glaciers and
ice sheets. the effect of sea level rise is composed of additional coastal protection and land lost,
estimates of which can be found in the engineering literature; the economic input in this case then
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includes not only the cost of dike-building and the value of land, but also the decisions about which
properties to protect. Greenhouse gas emissions are essential both to the world's energy system and to
its food production. Recent studies of the economic effects of climate change may be too optimistic
about the possibilities of adaptation and thus tend to underestimate the economic effects of climate
change (Stern, 2009). Another economic development that will affect the food production is expanding
world’s population. The world’s agricultural system faces a great balancing act. To meet different human
needs, by 2050 it must simultaneously produce far more food for a population expected to reach about
9.6 billion, provide economic opportunities for the hundreds of millions of rural poor who depend on
agriculture for their livelihoods, and reduce environmental impacts, including ecosystem degradation
and high greenhouse gas emissions (Searchinger, 2013).
Candidate Solutions
Solution 1: Enhancing seeds
Enhanced breeding has always been the case with agricultural progress and food production.
The genetic engineering is doing it work and attracting a lot of agriculture enthusiast. The strongest
breeding ideas and strategies will remain counting on conventional breeding, as they can take
advantage of contemporary biological approaches. Those approaches ease and speeds the identification
and selection of the arrangements of genes that produce higher yields, and validate the growths in this
breeding approach budget. Mainly because newly developed techniques can permit insertion of genes
in specific locations, decreasing the amount of trial and error necessary to produce crops with improved
traits such as drought resistance. Abiotic stresses, such as drought, salinity, extreme temperatures,
chemical toxicity and oxidative stress are serious threats to agriculture and the natural status of the
environment. Increased salinization of arable land is expected to have devastating global effects,
resulting in 30% land loss within the next 25 years, and up to 50% by the year 2050 (Wang, Vinocur &
Altman, 2003). This solution will work in the short run; the more fundamental crop enhancements from
genetic engineering, such as improved acceptance of nutrients and limiting losses of water, are unclear
and not fully certain as it will take years to come to fruition.
Solution 2: Development in Productivity of Aquaculture
On average, farmed fish are as effective at altering feed to food as cows and chicken, making
them a globally wanted source in the food market, if produced sustainably.
Figure 1: Production of capture fisheries and aquaculture.
Source (Diana, 2009)
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Capture production has stabilized at about 90 million metric tons of fish since the late 1980s, while
aquaculture has increased from about 12 million metric tons in 1985 to about 45 million metric tons in
2004. Aquaculture’s swift growing demand originally led to numerous environmental impacts. These
impacts are since then been handled and sustained; for example, to maintain the role of fish in diets,
aquaculture production will have to more than double from current levels by 2050. Even with enormous
progress in feeding efficiency, the industry still faces a static supply of fishmeal and fish oil, which could
limit future growth unless progress made in algae production or breeding plants to produce such oils
(Searchinger, 2013). Future production growth will demand increased fish’s weight, which in turn
involves more energy use to circulate and freshen water. Such growth will be possible leading other
environmental and social impacts; reducing these impacts will be quite a challenge.
Solution 3: Smart Farming
Limits on water accessibility and the present heavy use of fertilizer in most production farms
bound the existing ability to boost crops and yields by adding more inputs. These smart farming tactics
are hardly hanging in the sustainability standards set for this problem solutions. In the last two decades,
developed and up-graded use of agricultural equipment and technology in the broadest sense upheld a
high level of progress in food production even with less progress in agricultural contributions.
Internationally, the increased use of land, water, chemical, and other inputs contributed to roughly 70
percent of growth in annual agricultural output in the 1970s and 1980s, but less than 30 percent in the
1990s and 2000s (Searchinger, 2013). The main chances for improved farm’s managing contain extra
careful use of fertilizer, consideration to micronutrients, cautious selection of seed diversities adjusted
to local conditions, and enhanced weather forecasting to set up the right date and time for planting.
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Proposed Solution
Enhancing seeds by photosynthesis that will then lead to ways of maintaining substantial production and
increasing the yield of important in some crops.
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Major Design and Implementation Challenges
11
Implications of Project Success
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Glossary
Photosynthesis - a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy, normally from
the Sun, into chemical energy that can be later released to fuel the organisms' activities (energy
transformation).
Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) - a mechanism employed by plants and algae to protect
themselves from the adverse effects of high light intensity
Algae - a simple nonflowering plant of a large group that includes the seaweeds and many single-celled
forms. Algae contain chlorophyll but lack true stems, roots, leaves, and vascular tissue.
Greenhouse gas- a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, e.g.,
carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons.
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References
Costa, J. A., & Morais, M. G. (2011). The role of biochemical engineering in the production of biofuels
from microalgae. Bioresource Technology, 102(1), 2-9.
Frewer, L., Howard, C., & Shepherd, R. (1996). The influence of realistic product exposure on attitudes
towards genetic engineering of food. Food Quality and Preference, 15(1), 15-30
Harvey, B. J. (2016). Human-caused climate change is now a key driver of forest fire activity in the
western United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(42), 11649-11650.
State of the Climate: Global Climate Report for Annual 2016 (Rep.). (2017, January). Retrieved April 16,
2017, from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information website:
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201613
Stern, N. (2008). The Economics of Climate Change. The American Economic Review, 98(2), 1-37.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29729990
Searchinger, T., Hanson, C., Ranganathan, J., Lipinski, B., Waite, R., Winterbottom, R., ... & Heimlich, R.
(2013). Creating a sustainable food future: Interim findings. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC,
USA.
Wang, W., Vinocur, B., & Altman, A. (2003). Plant responses to drought, salinity and extreme
temperatures: towards genetic engineering for stress tolerance. Planta, 218(1), 1-14. Retrieved April 16,
2017, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00425-003-1105-5.
Diana, J. (2009). Aquaculture Production and Biodiversity Conservation. BioScience, 59(1), 27-38.
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Proposed Solution
• Based on the preceding comparison and other relevant factors, what is your
reasoning for selecting your one candidate as the proposed solution for this
project? Also, are there additional characteristics of the proposed solution we
should be aware of before approving it?
Aim for approximately 3 paragraphs in this section:
• Of your three candidates, propose one that you think the design team should
focus on if the project is approved and funded.
• Referring to the discussions or comparison table in the preceding subsection,
defend your proposed solution by explaining how it addresses the overall
objective, requirements, and constraints to the extent already known.
• Now that you have a favorite, describe any additional details that will bear on
the implementation challenges described next.
Major Design & Implementation Changes
• Concisely describe serious hurdles to be overcome in designing and
implementing your proposed solution.
Implications of Project Success
• Describe what may realistically be expected to happen if your project is
successful.
*Aim for approximately 2-3 full paragraphs for each section.
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