Future Foods

The agriculture industry must adapt to environmental changes and growing population demands by focusing on nutritious and affordable foods that can sustain us into the future. We are investing in research to enhance plant and animal health, optimize productivity, and ensure food security and accessibility through innovative future foods.

Opportunity

Everyone has a vested interest in food. It is the fuel that feeds and nourishes our bodies. Among the many considerations of food consumers are nutritional quality, taste, safety, and product cost. The agriculture industry depends upon reliable, high-yielding plant varieties and animal breeds and inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, feed/nutrients, and pharmaceuticals to maintain a net-positive financial rate of return. However, there is an ever-increasing interest in food that is grown locally and sustainably, and in the face of a changing and unstable environment, an explosion of new technologies, and an ever-increasing world population, there is a critical need to ensure the availability of nutritious food products that are resilient to environmental stressors wherever they occur. Research must be focused on the critical factors that affect plant health, including soils, roots, microbiomes, pests, and seed genetics, while maintaining desired nutrition and palatability. For animal production, disease detection and prevention, pharmaceutical discovery, optimized productivity and nutrition, and alternative protein sources are major drivers of research efforts. Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences (CAS) has already invested critical resources in food production and protection, food processing, food access, food security, and economics. We must continue to recognize that many current plant and animal production practices have been developed to optimize yield under conditions that are limited and cannot withstand the stressors of a changing environment. The college can bring together expertise across relevant disciplinary domains to address future food needs to sustainably enhance nutrition, resiliency, and accessibility.

Framing Question

How might Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences be recognized as a leader in developing future foods by:

• identifying novel plant and animal traits that confer resilience to biotic and abiotic stressors and that provide high-yielding, nutritious, and flavorful food products;
• fostering novel approaches for animal and plant production that minimize environmental impact, promote animal welfare, enhance food safety, and minimize disease transmission;
• establishing ways to process these plants and animals into delicious, affordable, safe, and healthy foods?