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The agro-ecosystem is under enormous pressure due to rapid population growth, increasing global food demand, increasing fresh water withdrawals and energy consumption, excessive food waste, inefficient use of agrochemicals, environmental degradation and climate change. Nanotechnology offers opportunities to make food production more sustainable by providing better sensors for monitoring physical, chemical, or biological properties and processes; technologies for controlling pathogens to increase food safety and minimize food waste; improved membranes and sorbents for distributed water treatment and resource recovery; novel materials for timed and targeted delivery of agrochemicals; and, new materials for monitoring and improving animal health. This tutorial review provides an overview of the nanotechnology opportunities of greatest potential determined through an NSF-funded interdisciplinary workshop of ∼50 experts from the U.S. and the EU in the areas of nanotechnology, energy, water, agriculture, systems engineering, data integration and analysis, and social science. This paper also presents examples of selected specific opportunities and the remaining scientific and engineering challenges that must be overcome to realize the benefits of nanotechnology across the farm to fork continuum.

Nanotechnology is no longer in its infancy and has made significant advances since the implementation of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) in 2000. Incorporation of nanotechnology in many fields including information technology, medicine, materials, energy, catalysis and cosmetics has led to an increase in engineered nanomaterial (ENM) production, and consequently, increased nanomaterial use. In comparison, the generation of concrete and consistent evidence related to the environmental health and safety of nanomaterials (NanoEHS) is lacking. The main factors contributing to the slower progress in NanoEHS versusconventional EHS are related to the complexity, property transformations, life cycles and behavior of nanomaterials even in carefully controlled environments. Therefore, new systematic, integrated research approaches in NanoEHS are needed for overcoming this complexity and bridging current knowledge gaps. A workshop on “NanoEHS: Fundamental Science Needs” brought together scientists and engineers to identify current fundamental science challenges and opportunities within NanoEHS. Detailed discussions were conducted on identifying the fundamental properties that are critical in NanoEHS, differentiating between conventional and NanoEHS studies as well as understanding, the effect of dynamic transformations on nanometrology, role of dosimetry and mechanistic data gaps in nanotoxicology. An important realization that even simple nanoscale materials can be complex when considering NanoEHS implications was noted several times during the workshop. Despite this fact, a number of fundamental research areas to further the scientific foundation to address NanoEHS needs are suggested.

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