Microbial biotechnology to assure national security of supplies of essential resources: energy, food and water, medical reagents, waste disposal and a circular economy

Abstract

The core responsibility of governments is the security of their citizens, and this means inter alia protecting their safety, nutrition and health. Microbiology and microbial biotechnology have key roles to play in improving supply security of essential resources. In this paper, we discuss the urgent need to fully and immediately exploit existing microbial biotechnologies to maximize supply security of energy, food and medical supplies, and of waste management, and to invest in new research specifically targetting supply security of essential resources.

A Road to Microbiology Literacy (and More): an Opportunity for a Paradigm Change in Teaching

“…The increasing deficits and asymmetries of availabilities of essential resources among and between peoples are a significant cause of regional conflicts, some of which can lead to global instability ( 11 ). Even for high-income countries, pandemics and wars can create major disruptions in supply chains of essential goods and services, disruptions that in the future should be minimized by adequate preparedness ( 12 ). The changes in human behavior needed to mitigate these crises are profound and require acceptance by society; such acceptance needs society to understand both the causes of the calamities and the potential mitigating options, including microbiological options, and their consequences.…”

Microbiology education and human stewardship of Planet Earth: The generational contract

“…But this evening, since we have already written about the Journals (Timmis & Timmis, 2017, 2018a, 2018b) and my vision of the future of environmental microbiology and microbial biotechnology research (Timmis, 2018; Timmis et al, 2022), rather than discuss the journals, I should like to say a few words about ‘Microbiology education and human stewardship of Planet Earth’.…”

“…Microbes are centrally involved in global warming, both as producers and consumers of greenhouse gases (Cavicchioli et al, 2019), in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles and eutrophication, and in organismal health and resilience to stresses, and they offer a diverse range of powerful mitigation strategies in the context of planetary boundaries and global warming. And, given meaningful targeted support for urgent research, would offer considerably more mitigation options (e.g., see Timmis et al, 2022). However, such strategies are not adequately considered in potential mitigating policies.Problem We are faced by an unprecedented number of humanitarian crises such as extreme weather events caused by global warming, the Covid pandemic, growing resistance of microbial pathogens to antibiotics (AMR), starvation and lack of clean water in parts of the world, an obesity epidemic, increasing mental health problems, pervasive persistent pollutants and endocrine disrupting chemicals and so forth.…”

“…However, such strategies are not adequately considered in potential mitigating policies.Problem We are faced by an unprecedented number of humanitarian crises such as extreme weather events caused by global warming, the Covid pandemic, growing resistance of microbial pathogens to antibiotics (AMR), starvation and lack of clean water in parts of the world, an obesity epidemic, increasing mental health problems, pervasive persistent pollutants and endocrine disrupting chemicals and so forth. Again: microbes play key roles in all of these crises, either as causes or potential solutions (Timmis et al, 2022). And again: we are failing to fully exploit the potential of microbes to contribute to solutions, such as accelerating replacement of polluting agrochemicals with non‐polluting agrobiologics, which directly relates to SDGs 6, 12 and 14—protection of waters from pollution, and SDG 15—‘halt biodiversity loss’. Problem Problem 4, which is the key overarching problem, is the combination of idecisioning by policy makers, policy conflicts, and insufficient knowledge of causes of and potential solutions to crises .…”

Environmental Microbiology is 25!

“…Juan Luis has not only been a dedicated editor handling Research Articles, but has simultaneously been Minireview editor and Special Issue editor, with all the creativity, dedication and huge additional workload this entails: among an eclectic group of super editors, he is the hero. His contribution to the development of the journals is outstanding and it has been an exceptional pleasure to work with him over the years (and to co-author strident Editorials on the need to exploit microbes to protect our soils and other resources: Timmis, Ramos & Verstraete, 2022). With his experience, creativity, dedication and impressive leadership skills, he will take EMI and EMIR to new heights.…”