Digital Agriculture Opportunities in Engineering Abe Stroock – Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Workshop - Oct. 9, 2018

Why? - the biology is inspiring (Stroock et al., ARFM, 2014)

Why? - the biology is complex Plant + Microbes + Pests + Ecosystem + Environment + Management + Consumer

Why? – global-scale sustainability challenges Emissions from Ag projected to increase by 80% by 2050 (Fengqi You, Johannes Lehmann, Jeff Tester,…)

Why? – the field is wide open (Stroock et al., ARFM, 2014) (Gray’s Anatomy, 1858)

Opportunity – a system of systems Nanotechnology Materials Science Biological Engineering Biotechnology Process Engineering Device Engineering Systems Engineering Applied Microbiology Operations Research Data Analytics Environmental Engineering ... biogeochem plant physiology hydrology irrigation cropping strategy fertilizer water non-point source pollution fuel Haber-Bosch N pumping markets government knowledge-networks data collection model prediction forecasting measurement management socioeconomics policy landscape energy balance mass balances weather biodiversity environment resources atmospheric GHG ocean nutrient-balance global energy markets global food markets modeling global climate global health Global Regional Farm

Example – finding the “water gene” Traits: water stress dynamics photosynthetic efficiency gene expression profiles infection response … Sensing nanoparticle: “aquaDust” wet dry 100 mm Piyush Jain (MAE) (Stroock, Gore, Riha, Melkonian)

Example – precision management of cow & herd (Giordano, Erickson, and Weinberger)

Example – taming dairy’s GHG emissions (Fengqi You, Johannes Lehmann, Jeff Tester,…)

What if – a system of systems we could perform metagenomic analysis in intact soil? we could measure and model all steps in development? we could optimize and automate all inputs on a farm? we could engineer robust agricultural ecologies? we could show consumers the full life cycle of their foods? …

We can – we’re neighbors