Projections show that the world population will grow to more than 9 billion people by 2050. Goals 2 and 3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals embrace the provision of sufficient and nutritious food for the growing population to promote human health and wellbeing. Major crops such as cassava, maize, potato, rice, and wheat are rich in starch and together they provide more than 60% of the carbohydrate calories consumed worldwide, but they have a poor micronutrient content. People for whom these crops are the primary staple food receive enough calories, but they are often malnourished because these staple foods do not contain enough of the necessary vitamins and minerals such as iron for a healthy diet. To date, 1.6 billion people worldwide suffer reduced productive capacity due to iron-deficiency anemia. Achieving higher micronutrient content for health and nutrition is often not possible with available breeding germplasm, especially in rice. We are employing genetic engineering and genome editing strategies to increase the iron and vitamin content of polished rice grains for improving human health. For example, we increased iron and zinc in rice grains to dietary relevant levels, and combined iron and zinc with essential vitamins. Multi-year field trials and feeding experiments with these biofortified rice lines demonstrate that the micronutrient traits are stable and bioavailable.

In this lecture, Johanna Frühwald will explore the critical intersection of finance, fossil fuels, and climate action by giving insights into the work of the German environmental and human rights NGO, Urgewald. Founded in 1992, Urgewald has become a global leader in tracking the financial flows that support destructive industries and advocating for transformative change. The presentation will spotlight Urgewald’s pioneering data-driven campaigns, including the development of the Global Coal Exit List (GCEL) and Global Oil & Gas Exit List (GOGEL)—the most comprehensive publicly accessible databases on the fossil fuel industry. These tools are used by hundreds of financial institutions to shape investment decisions and policies. Moreover, insights from a current campaign in collaboration with the Filipino organization Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED), targeting the massive expansion of gas infrastructure in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, will be shared.

The talk will cover the following topics: - Introduction to deep-sea biology (oceanography, ecology, biodiversity); - What are ocean minerals? (types, history/summary of scientific knowledge about them); - Human interest in ocean minerals (history of interest, proposed applications, methods of extraction, management of resources); - Potential environmental and social impacts of ocean mineral extraction; - Do we need deep-sea minerals? (mineral supply and demand and the development of technology); - A way forward (drafting of regulations and reaching consensus).