Biomass for Resilient Foods

Dear Colleagues,

As supply chain disruptions caused by the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate destabilization caused food prices to soar, the entire global community was reminded of the fragility of our food system. The conventional agriculture-based global food production system is dependent on consistent environmental conditions such as sunlight, temperature and precipitation, all of which can be severely affected by both natural and anthropogenic factors. Climate destabilization is already increasing the risks of concurrent severe weather events [1] that reduce our food system performance [2], while also increasing the probability of simultaneous shocks that would create a multiple bread-basket failure [3]. 

To better prepare for potential future global food system shocks, we can develop resilient local food systems. Several studies have suggested that biomass could be converted to human-edible food in emergencies and provide a means to feed the global population when food stores are depleted [4,5]. To explore the potential of different means of converting waste biomass to human-edible resilient food for both emergencies, as well as a means of reducing food insecurity for the poor, this Special Issue explores a range of topics including:

• Agricultural crop residues as resilient foods.
• Algae as resilient foods.
• Alternative foods.
• Biomass.
• Biomass processing machines and equipment.
• Bioreactors.
• Biorefineries.
• Economics of resilient foods.
• Forestry residues as resilient foods.
• GIS analysis of biomass feedstocks.
• Leaf protein concentrate as resilient foods.
• Microbial biomass as resilient foods.
• Nutrition of biomass used as resilient foods.
• Resilient foods.
• Seaweed biomass as resilient foods.
• Single cell protein (SCP) as resilient foods.
• Toxicity testing of biomass.
• Wood processing residues as resilient foods.

Prof. Dr. Joshua M. Pearce
Guest Editor

1. Masson-Delmotte, V., Zhai, P., Pirani, A., Connors, S.L., Péan, C., Berger, S., Caud, N., Chen, Y., Goldfarb, L., Gomis, M.I., Huang, M., Leitzell, K., Lonnoy, E., Matthews, J.B.R., Maycock, T.K., Waterfield, T., Yelekçi, O., Yu, R., Zhou, B., 2021. Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC, Cambridge University Press.
2. Bailey, R., Benton, T.G., Challinor, A., Elliott, J., Gustafson, D., Hiller, B., Jones, A., Kent, C., Lewis, K., Meacham, T., Rivington, M., Tiffin, R., Wuebbles, D.J., 2015. Extreme weather and resilience of the global food system: Final Project Report from the UK-US Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience. UK: The Global Food Security Programme, London.
3. Gaupp, F., Hall, J., Mitchell, D., Dadson, S., 2019. Increasing risks of multiple breadbasket failure under 1.5 and 2 °C global warming. Agric. Syst. 175, 34–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2019.05.010
4. Denkenberger, D.C., Pearce, J.M., 2014. Feeding Everyone No Matter What: Managing Food Security After Global Catastrophe. Academic Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
5. Denkenberger, D.C., Pearce, J.M., 2015. Feeding everyone: Solving the food crisis in event of global catastrophes that kill crops or obscure the sun. Futures, Confronting Future Catastrophic Threats To Humanity 72, 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2014.11.008

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