Agriculture and forestry

Ensuring food security is the most important task of agriculture. However, the sector is already suffering from the consequences of climate change and is under pressure to secure food for a growing world population. At the same time, it is partly responsible for a large proportion of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions and for the loss of biodiversity. A change in agricultural and food systems towards greater sustainability is the only way to master the challenges of the future.

Many building materials - whether concrete or insulating materials - are made from petroleum-based raw materials and are energy-intensive to produce. Large quantities of the climate-damaging greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced, particularly during the manufacture of the binding agent cement.

The market for alternative proteins in fish products and seafood is developing dynamically. The biotech start-up Pacifico Biolabs uses fungi to produce sustainable and nutritious fish alternatives - specifically, the foodtech company relies on the thread-like network of fungi, the mycelium, to transform biomass into innovative foods. With the help of its fermentation technology, the company, which was founded in 2022, aims to produce a wholesome alternative to fish products and seafood.

The cultivation of pure crops such as maize, when grown as a monoculture, is not always environmentally friendly. The nutrients are used very one-sidedly, so that the plants are more susceptible to pests and fertilizers and pesticides have to be applied. Combined cultivation with legumes such as peas and beans has long been considered a promising approach to making agriculture more sustainable.

In times of extreme climate change, plant diseases and pests are increasingly reducing yields worldwide. One of the most important food crops, wheat, is also affected. The fungal disease 'Wheat Blast' in particular has become increasingly widespread in recent years and could pose a serious threat to global wheat production. An international research team led by Munich agricultural scientist Senthold Asseng has now modeled for the first time how the devastating fungal disease will affect wheat production as a result of climate change.

Around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the way in which land is farmed and food is produced. Above all, meat consumption and the associated animal husbandry contribute to climate-damaging emissions and require a rethink in agriculture. A global report on the economics of agricultural and food systems shows how the global economy would benefit from a food transition.

Last summer, the EU Commission proposed exempting certain genome-edited plants from the scope of EU genetic engineering legislation and thus facilitating their market access. The planned relaxation only affects plants that have been developed using new genomic technologies (NGT) such as the CRISPR-Cas gene scissors and are considered equivalent to conventionally bred plants, i.e. do not contain any foreign genes. This category is called NGT-1 plants.

Whether heat, drought or flooding: Weather extremes put food crops such as wheat under stress and increasingly lead to crop failures. In addition to research into new resistant varieties that can withstand the effects of climate change and secure food supplies, diagnostic tools are needed to detect climate-related stress symptoms or diseases in plants at an early stage. Two imaging methods that have proven their worth in human medicine should also provide a remedy in agriculture in the future.

The agricultural and food industry is in a state of transition. Not only climate change, but also the increasing demand for healthy and sustainably produced products as well as new regulations and laws are forcing the industry to act. Specialists in the agricultural and food industry must therefore increasingly take international and interdisciplinary contexts into account. The Technical University of Munich (TUM) wants to address this development with a new Master's degree course in agriculture.

According to estimates, more than 900 million tons of residual biomass are produced throughout the European Union every year. Only a small proportion of this is recycled and fermented in biogas plants, for example. The majority, around 98%, ends up in, incineration plants or landfill sites. But this is now set to change.