Agriculture & Food Systems Institute

Programs: Center for environmental risk assessment (cera) - the purpose of the center's applied research and capacity building programs is to develop and apply sound science to the environmental risk assessment of agricultural biotechnologies so their contributions to sustainable production of food, fuel and fiber may be safely realized. This includes projects developed to: (1) improve systematic approaches to the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified plants; (2) characterize the receiving environment for the purpose of improving environmental risk assessment; (3) rationalize environmental risk assessment in the context of limited releases to the environment. The center is additionally engaged in capacity building with a focus on developing and/or participating in strategic, longer term programs that seek to support and strengthen regulatory and scientific communities involved in the environmental risk assessment of agricultural biotechnologies. Publications: garcia-alonso, m. , hendley, p. , bigler, f. , mayeregger, e. , parker, r. , rubinstein, c. , satorre, e. , solari, f. And m. A. Mclean. 2014. Transportability of confined field trial data for environmental risk assessment of genetically engineered plants: a conceptual framework. Transgenic research 23:1025-1041; roberts, a. , devos, y. , raybould, a. , bigelow, p. , gray, a. (2014). Environmental risk assessment of ge plants under low-exposure conditions. Transgenic research 23:971-983; carstens, k. , cayabyab, b. , de schrijver, a. , gadaleta, p. G. , hellmich, r. L. , romeis, j. , storer, n. , valicente, f. H. , wach, m. (2014). Surrogate species selection for assessing potential adverse environmental impacts of genetically engineered insect-resistant plants on non-target organisms. Gm crops and food5(1): 11-15; low-level presence in seed: a science based approach to expedited environmental risk assessment - workshop proceedings. (2014). Ilsi research foundation, washington dc. Workshops, conferences and symposia: meeting on the genetic basis of unintended effects in modified plants, january 14-15, 2014, ottawa, canada; workshop on building an effective and sustainable biosafety regulatory system, january 29-31, 2014, kampala, uganda; workshop on era of products derived from novel plant breeding techniques, february 10, 2014, paris, france; meeting of the oecd harmonisation of regulatory oversight in biotechnology working group, february 11-13, 2014, paris, france; workshop on the risk assessment of gmos, march 6-7, 2014, nyeri, kenya; oecd workshop on the biology of the mosquito aedes aegypti, may 6-9, 2014 mexico city, mexico; environmental risk assessment workshop: non-target organism testing, june 23-27, 2014 ames, iowa; risk analysis: role of science in gmo decision-making, june 30-july 4, 2014, trieste, italy; workshop on inspection and monitoring of confined field trials, july 10-11, 2014, asunci n, paraguay; meeting of the expert working group for llp in seed, july 24-25, 2014 santiago, chile; 3rd annual national biosafety conference, august 13-14, 2014, nairobi, kenya; the biosafety research in pakistan grants program workshop, september 14, 2014, colombo, sri lanka; 2nd annual south asia biosafety conference, september 15-16, 2014 colombo, sri lanka; isbgmo13: plenary session on advancing era of gmos to address biosafety in a global society, november 11, 2014, cape town, south africa; regional conference on risk assessment of gm crops, december 1-5, 2014, manila, the philippines; office of the gene technology regulator study tour, december 1-5, 2014. Canberra, australia.

center for integrated modeling of sustainable agriculture and nutrition security (cimsans) - the purpose of cimsans is to assemble the open data and modeling methodologies required to produce comprehensive and credible assessments of how climate change and resource scarcity will impact "sustainable nutrition security" - our ability to meet growing demand for safe, affordable, and nutritious food in a sustainable manner. Although agricultural production has increased significantly, it is not keeping pace with demand. As climate change intensifies, this will increase the risk of hunger and under-nutrition, including micronutrient malnutrition, through direct and indirect causes. Cimsans' objectives are accomplished through the development of public-private partnerships including academic, industry and government scientists in the fields of economic and crop modeling, as well as nutrition and public health. These partnerships are currently manifested as three active working groups advancing methodologies to address cimsans' overall mission: 1) improved modeling working group, 2) open agricultural data working group and 3) sustainable nutrition security working group. In 2014, cimsans focused attention on how to define and assess sustainable nutrition security, publishing a white paper, "assessing sustainable nutrition security: the role of food systems," generated with the help of over 200 scientists from around the world. This work is closely aligned with the susfans proposal funded by the european commission's horizon 2020. Cimsans also hosts, sponsors, and co-organizes a variety of scientific events. These include independent symposia; workshops; hands-on scientific training; and sessions held as part of the program of larger scientific and professional meetings. In 2014, cimsans sponsored the following events: 1) a "model improvement summit" at purdue university with a group of partners: agricultural model intercomparison and imporvement project (agmip), u. S. Department of energy pacific northwest national laboratory (pnnl), ibm, ifpri, university of illinois, and the u. S. Department of agriculture (usda). The 80 participants at the workshop defined some 50 improved modeling proposals, which were developed using surveys completed by hundreds of scientists from around the world; 2) the geoshare pilot project workshop, held at purdue university. Geoshare is a "big data" sharing effort that provides a platform for sharing open data that will be useful in assessing sustainable nutrition security. As with all cimsans projects, there were a variety of co-hosts for this important discussion, including agmip, ifpri, massachusetts institute of technology, nestl , potsdam institute for climate impact research (pik), university of bonn, university of british columbia, usda and others; 3) the u. S. White house office of science and technology policy (ostp) partnered with cimsans to raise awareness about the need to share open data and models for building climate resilience of global food systems, culminating in a round-table event hosted by the white house on july 29, 2014. Cimsans and other public and private-sector groups made commitments to this goal. Publications: di gustafson, jw jones, ch porter, g hyman, md edgerton, t gocken, j shryock, m doane, k budreski, c stone, d healy, n ramsey. (2014). Climate adaptation imperatives: untapped global maize yield opportunities. Int. J. Agric. Sustain. Doi 10. 1080/14735903. 2013. 867694; t acharya, j fanzo, d gustafson, j ingram, b schneeman, plus 21 other contributing authors. (2014). Assessing sustainable nutrition security: the role of food systems, ilsi research foundation, washington dc; t hertel, n villoria, p hendley, d gustafson, m latulippe. (2014). Geoshare workshop synthesis. Ilsi research foundation, washington dc; j nelson, k boote, d gustafson, m latulippe. (2014). Improving food system sustainability modeling: workshop overview. Ilsi research foundation, washington dc; workshops, conferences and symposia: call to action on climate change and food security, july 29, washington dc; bmgf next generation agricultural systems models, august 12-14, seattle wa; iufost 2014, august 18-21, montreal; workshop on climate change and agriculture in the midwest, september 4-5, st. Louis mo; geoshare post-pilot workshop, september 10-11, west lafayette in; workshop on improving food system sustainability modeling, september 11-12, west lafayette in; isgp: focus on food security and the environment; october 5-8, ithaca ny; taskforce on impact of extreme weather on global food security, october 20-23, chicago, il; 2nd international conference on agricultural and rural development in se asia, november 12-13, manila.

center for safety assessment of food and feed (csaff) - the purpose of csaff is to promote science-based approaches to the safety assessment of foods and feed with a strong emphasis on improved knowledge dissemination and capacity building. The center is engaged in capacity building activities with a focus on providing in-depth training in the conduct of food and feed safety assessment studies related to genetically engineered plants and their products. This includes providing training for government officials who review food safety dossiers as well as for scientists from academic and government agencies who may be responsible for the conduct of laboratory tests related to food safety assessment. Workshops, conferences and symposia: meeting of the oecd task force for the safety of novel foods and feeds, february 6-7, 2014, paris, france; food/feed safety assessment of gm crops: from theory to practice, march 10-14, 2014, accra, ghana; safety assessment of foods derived from genetically engineered plants: phase i, may 19-23, 2014, new delhi, india; safety assessment of foods derived from genetically engineered plants: phase ii, september 15-19, 2014, newark, delaware.

annual meeting, branch activities, rsia, and chhp