Innovations in biotechnology play an increasingly important role in providing food for a growing population. Common applications of biotechnology in genetically modified crops are to reduce food losses to pests through the production of novel pesticides and to enable post-emergence application of herbicides through incorporation of herbicide-tolerance traits. However, the adoption of biotechnology leads to new challenges in ensuring the safety and sustainability of agricultural practices, including the potential off-target movement and impacts of agrochemicals produced by or used on genetically modified crops. Herein, we will present our collaborative efforts to apply the principles of environmental chemistry and engineering to enable the safe and sustainable use of emerging agricultural biotechnology. We will first define the current adoption of biotechnology in agriculture and discuss the potential for environmental chemistry to address emerging challenges in this area. Next, as a case study, we will detail current issues related to off-target drift of dicamba and other chlorophenoxy herbicides from tolerant crops to non-tolerant vegetation. Since the release of dicamba-tolerant crops, total herbicide drift complaints in the U.S. have tripled in recent years. We will summarize the efforts to-date to understand and prevent dicamba drift, in particular focusing on the use of chemical formulations to restrict dicamba volatilization. We will highlight remaining knowledge gaps regarding the chemical processes that occur in these formulations that may alter dicamba volatility. Overall, this presentation will provide our perspectives on how environmental chemistry and engineering can be positioned to address new multidisciplinary challenges arising from the rapid and ongoing development of biotechnology products in agriculture.

Assessing the safe and sustainable use of emerging agricultural biotechnology: A case study on herbicide drift from herbicide tolerant crops

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.