Exercise 2: Food for the future

Our environment provides food, but food security, sustainability and nutritional
quality are urgent issues.

Please answer questions on TWO of the following three articles. (All are of equal
value.)
o Maintaining useful crop varieties (Gruber)
o Feeding people in water-stressed countries (Sarant)
o Meat substitutes (Heffernan)

Gruber K (2017). The living library. Nature 544, S8

1. What are vulnerabilities of our supply of domesticated food crops? [5]

- Dependency on a handful of crops is problematic and we have inadvertently
lost some of their most valuable properties
- Climactic conditions affect crops
- Pests cause 30-40% of our crops to be lost and some may call for much
stronger pesticides
- Nutritional content is declining
- Edible products are not able to absorb or synthesize a corresponding amount
of nutrients

2. Describe (with examples) benefits of breeding crop with wild varieties. [13]
3. Describe problems in breeding new varieties, and attempts to address them. [4]
4. What is the potential of developing traditional crops? [3]

Sarant L (2017) Space to grow. Nature 544, S14

Food shortages and population increases are placing many countries in peril. Using
Egypt as an example, indicate suggested solutions with strengths and weaknesses of
each. [25]

Heffernan O (2017). A meaty issue. Nature 544, S18

1. What is the problem with meat? [5]

2. Whats in a vegetarian beef burger? [2]
3. What resource savings are described in an Impossible Burger compared to a beef
burger? [3]
4. What are claimed advantages of growing meat (bovine muscle cells) in a
bioreactor? [6]
5. What are advantages of adding insects to diets? [7]
6. What are challenges of adding insects to diets? [2]
Medsci101G Assignment 2: Robbie de la Vega
Section 1: Maintaining Useful Crop Varieties: Gruber K (2017)

In our society today, maintaining useful crop varieties is vital for sustaining life.