A team of European scientists conducted a two-year, extensive analysis on
the future of food, nutrition, agriculture, and health. The study is a part
of the global InterAcademy Partnership project comprised of 130 science
academies. The findings of the study were published in a report by the
European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC).

For plants and animals in agriculture, the report presented the following
recommendations:

For livestock, determining how to capitalize on genomics research for food
production and for animal health and welfare. This includes the rapidly
advancing science of genome editing and the increasing significance of
characterizing genetic material conserved in gene banks.

For the oceans, improving the knowledge base for sustainable harvest and
culturing of lower trophic level marine resources and exploring the
potential for biomass provision to diminish pressures on agricultural land,
freshwater and fertilizers.

For crops, progressing understanding of the genetics and metabolomics of
plant product quality. This also includes capitalizing on the new
opportunities coming within range for the targeted modification of crops
using genome editing.

For plants as well as for animal science, it is important to protect wild
gene pools and to continue sequencing genetic resources to unveil the
potential of genetic resources

[www.easac.eu]
NSA_report_complete_Web.pdf