From newly nutritious crops to cries of “Frankenfood,” the application of biotechnology to agriculture for years has spawned promise and controversy. Now, as nanotechnology is poised to follow biotech’s lead and spill from public and private labs into the mass market, many questions abound.
One – what can nano learn from bio? – is the subject of a two-day international conference sponsored by the Michigan State University Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards. The conference begins Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center on the MSU campus. Registration is required and press passes are available.
The conference features participants who themselves have been part of the biotech controversy. Presenters and panelists represent industry and non-governmental organizations, such as Shell’s Research and Technology Center and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Other participants include scholars from several countries who have conducted research on the debate over transgenic crops, animal biotechnology and genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly a billionth of a meter. Potential agrifood-focused nanotech applications include food that adjusts its nutritional content for an individual’s needs, filters that remove toxins and adjust food flavors, and packaging that senses when contents are spoiling.
The conference is part of a four-year MSU project on the social and ethical dimensions of agrifood nanotechnology, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Conference sponsors include the NSF, Michigan Small Tech Association, National Center for Manufacturing Sciences and the Converging Technologies Bar Association.
The MSU Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards studies equity, fairness and transparency of food and agricultural standards at the local, national and international levels. The institute also hosts free monthly agrifood and nanotechnology brownbag seminars.
More information on the conference, including registration details, is available on the Web at www.carrs.msu.edu/nanoconference/. For information on obtaining press passes, contact Geoff Koch at (517) 432-0924.