Biomimicry and the agro-industry: when life takes care of itself
France is the 5th largest agri-food exporting country in the world. The agro-industry occupies 1st place among the industrial sectors. And yet, the issues concerning it are multiple and crucial. For example, 23% of greenhouse gases emitted worldwide by humans are due to agriculture. It is of prime importance that the sector begins its transition to new cultivation methods in line with sustainable development.
DIAGNOSTIC
Since the end of the 20th century, global agriculture has been at the heart of many challenges: producing more in order to feed a growing population, reducing resource consumption, preserving biodiversity and the environment, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protect the health of consumers, and reduce toxic waste.
To meet these challenges, the development of new, more economical and more efficient technologies is a promising avenue, as is better management of the crops' environment.
Biomimicry is a research and development approach which consists of drawing inspiration from the ingenuity of life to meet the needs of industries. It is very relevant to help the agro-industry make a sustainable transition!
Biomimicry and the agro-industry:
Bioxegy explains to you why biomimicry is very relevant to meet these challenges.
Nature is the result of 3.8 billion years of R&D, the fruit of evolution and natural selection. Current living beings are therefore very adapted to their environment, because their mechanisms, functions and properties have persisted where others have disappeared.
However, living things have colonised very different environments, and face extremely varied challenges: heat conservation, detection, communication, reduction of friction, production and conversion of energy, reduction of mass, mechanical resistance, transportation of food etc. Drawing inspiration from it is therefore very relevant to responding to the challenges of the agro-industry, many of which are very similar to those of the living.
It is possible to draw inspiration from living things in several ways: at the level of living beings as such, but also behaviors, and ecosystems as a whole. The possibilities are almost endless!
For example, the resilience of ecosystems is a very important source of inspiration to consider for implementing sustainable crops. We can thus develop alternatives to pesticides by drawing inspiration from the defense system of plants against parasites.
Below, a set of particularly relevant technical areas in the agro-industry, to which biomimicry can perfectly respond:
In the agro-industry, biomimetic areas of interest apply
in the following areas:
Resilient and adaptive materials
Robotics
Data processing
Detection and Optics
Energy
Green chemistry
Flow management and optimisation
