Teagasc Science Week 2020

Science Week 2020 took place from November 8-15 as part of ‘The Festival of Farming and Food – SFI Science Week at Teagasc’. The core theme for the week was ‘Science Week - Choosing our Future’ focusing on how science can improve our lives in the future, and in the present. The week explored how science can help us to make positive choices that will impact the environment, our health, and our quality of life. Changes based in scientific evidence that we make today can hugely improve our future life, but also right now. 

View content from the week below

• Monday - Sustaining Plant Diversity into the Future
• Tuesday - Soil Health is our Wealth
• Wednesday - Sustainable Farming: Farm to Fork
• Thursday - Back to the Future
• Friday - A Taste of the Future

Sustaining Plant Diversity into the Future - Monday 9th, November

On Monday the focus was on highlighting some remarkable plants and initiatives for a plant-filled future. If you missed anything on the day of this event, the video is available below.

Questions and Answers for this event are available to view here: Q&A - Sustaining Plant Diversity into the Future

Panelists - Q&A

Topics Discussed

The Cohesions Tension Theory - Matthew Jebb

This involves the dicussion of how water can travel up trees without problems.

Tree Grafting - Paul Fitters

Grafting and budding are horticultural techniques used to join parts from two or more plants so that they appear to grow as a single plant. Paul Fitters will dicuss how garfting is used to create new trees.

The Importance of Palm Oil - Felicity Gaffney

This topic will cover the importance of palm oil and what can be done to make its production more sustainable.

DNA Extraction - Colin Kelleher

DNA extraction and how the process can be used to map relationships  and origins of plants is discussed.

Alloe Ferox Plants - Charlotte Salter

Here we discuss how Alloe ferox sap is extracted and why this plant is so important for the livelihoods of many people in South Africa.

Soil Health is our Wealth - Tuesday - 10th November

On Tuesday the focus was on soils and the importance of protecting soil health from degradation for human wellbeing.

If you missed anything on the day of this event, catch up by watching the recording below!

Soils are diverse and multifunctional living ecosystems, underpinning most of our food and fibre production, but also other critical natural services for society, including the re-cycling of nutrients, atmospheric CO₂ sequestration and water regulation. As soils are a limiting resource, protecting soil health from degradation is critical for human wellbeing. Join us  to hear about  soils and their impact on society. RTÉ’s Damien O’Reilly brings us on this virtual event.

Panelists - Q&A

Topics

Soils (and their functions) impact Societies – Luis Lopez-Sangil
History is full of examples of humans benefitting from healthy soils, but also how soil degradation can lead to dire consequences. Luis introduces us to the importance of the main soil functions for human wellbeing.

Food production – Guylain Grange
95% of food and fibre production for humans is literally based on soils. A healthy soil improves food productivity and makes it more resilient to environmental threats, from Climate Change to fertilizer shortages. Guylain shows us a good example of how farmers can manage soil health.

Carbon Sequestration - James Rambaud
Do you like fizzy water? James explains visually why it’s important to capture carbon (CO2) from the atmosphere and lock it up in the soil through plant photosynthesis and land management.

Nutrient & Waste Recycling – Ian Kavanagh
Food production generates lots of waste byproducts… why not transforming a problem into a solution? Ian tells us about the opportunity for farmers to use waste & food residues to return lost nutrients back in the loop, increasing soil fertility.

Biodiversity - Speaker Aoife Duff
There are literally billions of soil microorganisms in a handful of healthy soil, and they are essential for sustaining life on Earth, and many of the soil functions. Aoife and colleagues show us different techniques soil scientists use for identifying good (and bad) microorganisms in soils.

Water regulation – Ognjen Zurovec
Did you ever think that the water we drink has been filtered through soils? Soils have different ability to purify and retain water, which has direct implications on how an area cope with flash-floodings downstream and summer droughts. Oggy will guide us through the mechanisms involved, giving graphic examples of the relation between soil and water!

Land management - Lilian O’Sullivan
Soils are diverse, and each soil type has a different ability to carry out each of the functions above. Lilian will show us the effort put by researchers at Teagasc Johnstown Castle to develop information and management tools, available to the society, for taking the best decisions to protect our soils’ health. 

Sustainable Farming: Farm to Fork - Wednesday - 11th November

On Wednesday the event focused on how we can grow dairy farming sustainably as well as understand how new technologies are being incorporated into food science.

If you missed anything on the day of this event, catch up by watching the recording below!

This event focused on how we can grow dairy farming sustainably as well as understand how new technologies are being incorporated into food science. Pre-recorded broadcasts: grass measuring, milking, and food processing, VISTAMILK SFI research centre. RTÉ’s Damien O’Reilly brings us on this virtual event.

Choosing Our Future

This short video features seven people who are in a variety of different careers in the Irish dairy industry. Find out about the different career paths that each of them took to their current exciting and rewarding career! 

Panelitst - Q&A

Topics

Grass Growth – Deirdre Hennessy

Deirdre Hennessy will begin the webinar by describing some interesting facts about grass and how it grows.

Cows & their digestive system – Ellen Fitzpatrick

PhD student Ellen Fitzpatrick’s goes on to tell us what cows like to snack on and how their digestive system works.

Grazing – Emer Kennedy

Emer Kennedy describes grazing and just how much grass a cow eats in a day. Emer also tells us how much milk a cow produces in her lifetime.

Genetics – Alan Twomey

Alan Twomey explores the fascinating world of genetics and how important it is for the dairy herd.

Methane Gas – Ben Lahart

Ben Lahart tells us about methane and why it’s important to research this important greenhouse gas.

Milk & Nutrients - Nanik Puwanti, Charlotte

Researchers Nanik and Charlotte tell us about some of the important nutrients found in milk and how we make cheese from milk. 

Back to the Future - Food Fermentation - Thursday - 12th November

On Thursday the focus was on taking food fermentation into the future, with next generation DNA sequencing, food microscopy, virtual reality, robotics and even 3D printing.

If you missed anything on the day of this event, catch up by watching the recording below!

Food fermentation is one of the oldest food preservation methods going back hundreds of years. The Festival of Farming and Food live is taking food fermentation into the future, with next generation DNA sequencing, food microscopy, virtual reality, robotics and even 3D printing. Multi award-winning broadcaster, Jonathan McCrea brings us on this virtual event.

Panelists - Q&A

Topics

How do we study microbiology and fermented foods today– Liam Walsh

Liam introduces lactic acid bacteria- the bacteria most commonly associated with food fermentation and what we can learn from sequencing the microbes in our fermented foods.

Food- What’s beneath the surface?- Deirdre Kennedy

Deirdre introduces the National Food Imaging Centre at Teagasc Moorepark and how they use microscopes and virtual reality to investigate food structure.

If food fermentation is the world’s oldest food processing method- what about the newest?- Ricardo Uribe Alvarez and Behrad Mozafari

Ricardo and Behrad introduce their research on 3D printing and robots- bringing the some of the world’s oldest foods like cheese and coffee “Back to the Future!”

A Taste of the Future - Friday - 13th November 

On Friday, the focus was on Teagasc research & how it is changing the direction of that food journey.

If you missed anything on the day of this event, catch up by watching the recording below!

Plants, Mushrooms, Insects, Algae, Big Data – all are features on the journey of food from the farm to your plate. Then your senses get involved and your choices can affect health and sustainability. Our story highlights Teagasc research that’s changing the direction of that food journey, and gives you a Taste of the Future! Multi award-winning broadcaster, Jonathan McCrea brings us on this virtual event.

Panelists - Q&A

Topics

The Plant Clinic & All about Mushrooms– Speaker Brian McGuinness

Brian shows us his work in diagnosing diseased plants for the horticulture industry, how mushrooms are grown and introduces us to some exotic ones that may be in our future diet.

Insects – Crop pests – Speaker Michael Gaffney

Micheal shows us some Insect Towers in Ashtown and talks us through how his research is finding out about insect habits. This will help to reduce the amount of pesticides sprayed on crops, helping to protect the good insects.

The other Insect Story - Insects as food - Speaker Carlos Alvarez

Carlos introduces his research on how we could be getting some of our protein from insects in the future. Anyone for a cricket burger?

Seaweeds for Health – Speaker Maria Hayes

You probably think seaweed (algae) is just that slimy stuff washed up on the beach? Maria shows us how it can be a source of food ingredients that can add health benefits to our diet and even help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Sensory Analysis –how does your food taste? - Speaker Carol Griffin

Carol will tell us what sensory science is and how useful it is - what is a taste panel? How do taste panels work? What can they tell us?

The Sustainable Diet – Speaker Sinead McCarthy

We get a lot of mixed messages about what we should eat – what’s good for us and what’s good for our planet. Sinead will talk us through how to make our diet nutritious, healthy and sustainable.