overview
Sustainable Development Impacts
The UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals call for global action to eliminate poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and futures of all people. At present, progress is being made in many places, but overall, the pace and scale of progress have not yet reached the level needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Within the decade starting from 2020, we must take strong actions to achieve SDGs by 2030.
Our project is committed to advancing the realization of the following four goals: Zero Hunger (SDG2), Quality Education (SDG4), Reduced Inequalities (SDG10), and Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG12).
However, this does not mean that our project doesn’t have an impact on other SDGs. For instance, it also addresses issues related to Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG8), Life Below Water (SDG14), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG17).
SDG 2
SDG#2 ZERO HUNGER
Why SDG#2?
Food is the most basic necessity of human life. Food security and food supply have a direct bearing on people’s quality of life and social stability. However, the global food crisis is growing, with about 9.2 percent of the world’s population facing chronic hunger and about 2.4 billion people without access to enough food in 2022. The ongoing food and nutrition crises have exacerbated child malnutrition and anemia among women in many regions, particularly in low-income and lower-middle-income countries.
The market for polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) is growing due to the increasing consumer demand for healthy foods and health care products. However, the rising price of raw materials such as fish oil is restricting the market in developing countries.
To achieve Goal 2, our projects focus on the following sub-goals:
- 2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
- 2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
- 2.4 By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
How?
Nutrition
The Sustainable Development Report 2023 states, “To prevent malnutrition in all its forms, adequate maternal nutrition must be ensured; Young children also need nutritious, diverse and safe food.”
EPA and DHA produced in Nodule Factory are functional lipid components that have multiple effects, such as promoting brain development, lowering cholesterol, and preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Timely and appropriate supplementation of these unsaturated fatty acids is especially important for infants, pregnant women and the elderly, as they have high nutritional value and can effectively prevent nutrient deficiency and low immunity caused by malnutrition.
In addition, Nodule Factory can reduce the cost of obtaining EPA and DHA, making them cheaper and more accessible, thereby helping more people meet their nutritional needs.
Agricultural Production
Nodule Factory can improve agricultural productivity from three aspects: soil, labor force and capital.
First of all, the application of rhizobia inoculants not only helps legumes fix nitrogen and promotes increased soybean yields but also fertilizes the field and provides fertile soil for crop growth, thus promoting increased yields of crops rotated and intercropped with legumes. Secondly, the improvement of the economic added value of soybean planting can promote the expansion of the scale of related industries, attracting more people to work and more enterprises to invest, so as to obtain sufficient labor and capital investment.
The increase in agricultural productivity will further stimulate the increase of agricultural output value and the expansion of agricultural scale. This not only means raising farmers’ income and boosting the economic development of rural areas, but also creating a large number of jobs, which can provide a source of income for people in poverty and help them improve their living standards.
Sustainability
The green and low-energy Nodule Factory is expected to replace part of the traditional fish oil enterprises with high energy consumption and severe pollution so as to reduce the fishing of deep-sea fish and protect the marine ecological environment. At the same time, energy conservation and emission reduction are achieved to help improve environmental quality. Additionally, it can reduce the application of nitrogen fertilizer, prevent soil pollution and improve the physical and chemical properties of soil, so as to help crops themselves resist foreign bacteria and improve disease resistance. It plays a significant role in maintaining the sustainability of agricultural ecosystems.
If we can produce soy products rich in EPA and DHA in the future, such as soy milk, soy oil, tofu and so on, then the intake of these nutrients will be easier so that people can get additional nutrients in their daily diet. Also, soy products are green, harmless and friendly to vegetarians and those with seafood allergies, so people have a higher acceptance of them. Furthermore, getting EPA and DHA directly from soybeans will also simplify the processing and reduce the oxidative loss of nutrients.
Impact
Positive Long-term Impact
(1) Society and Economy
Increased crop yields can help reduce food prices and help solve nutritional problems in poor areas.
In addition, the improvement of the economic benefits of soybean planting can help increase farmers’ income and promote economic development in rural areas. At the same time, poor areas can also obtain a stable income by planting soybeans, thus improving the living standards of local people.
The development of the soybean planting-related industry chain will give rise to a large number of job opportunities, thus helping more people to solve employment problems and safeguard their quality of life.
(2) Environment
Nodule Factory can help to reduce emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases to improve environmental quality. At the same time, it helps maintain the sustainability of the marine ecological environment and agricultural ecosystems.
Possible Harm
Nodule Factory may inhibit the development of the traditional deep-sea fish fishing industry, thus affecting the employment of some fishermen.
Stakeholders
1. Xiaoqiang Jiao - Professor of Agricultural Resources and Environment
From the communication with him, we learned that one of the reasons for the low standard of living of people in poor areas of Africa is the backwardness of agricultural development, which is due to the severe lack of nutrition in soil and the low utilization of nutrients, as well as the high cost of imported transportation leading to the high price of fertilizers.
In order to improve the local economy and agriculture, people could take advantage of the long hours of light in local areas and the high oil content of soybeans to develop a soybean oil business directly in the area, where soybean oil is extracted from soybeans, and the rest is used as feed.
However, the problem of yield is still difficult to solve due to poor soil.
But Nodule Factory can help plants fix nitrogen while boosting soil fertility. This can help increase the yield of not only legumes but also other crops through intercropping and crop rotation. Increased crop yields will be the key to solving nutritional problems.
At the same time, the use of root nodules to produce EPA and DHA can also bring added value to soybean cultivation, making it possible for poorer areas to improve their standard of living by cultivating soybeans for economic income in accordance with local conditions.
Contribute to 2.2 and 2.3.
2. Jinbiao Hu - Field Planting Technology Guidance Teacher
- Explained that the application of rhizobia inoculants in agricultural production can promote plant growth and it is more effective than the application of nitrogen fertilizer alone.
- Pointed out the rationality of applying nitrogen fertilizer in the process of crop growth, which helped us to determine the control conditions.
Contribute to 2.2.
3. Changfu Tian - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
- Described the scientific fertilization method, which helped us solve the problem of appropriate fertilization time and method, so as to improve agricultural output value while maintaining soil quality.
Contribute to 2.3 and 2.4.
↑see iHP for more details
4. Fish oil Consumers - Seniors
We gave a lecture on the knowledge of health care products to the elderly. After communication, we learned that many elderly people had misused or abused health care products due to insufficient knowledge about them, which eventually affected their health. This also led to the rejection of health products by many elderly people.
The products produced by Nodule Factory also have high nutritional value and are greener and healthier. After learning about this, the elderly expressed their approval of our project idea.
Compared with fish oil, soybean products rich in EPA and DHA are more easily accepted by more consumers. They are not only friendly to the elderly who are not receptive to health care products, but also very friendly to vegetarians and seafood allergy sufferers.
Contribute to 2.2.
5. DHA milk powder Consumer - Mother and baby
Timely DHA supplementation is important for both mom and baby from the time she is pregnant to the time she is breastfeeding. DHA intake is also incredibly important as the child grows.
One mother said, “When I was breastfeeding, I drank DHA-enriched formula and continued to breastfeed. After weaning, I also gave my baby DHA-enriched infant formula. Nowadays, moms are most concerned about the quality, nutritional content and safety of milk powder. If soy rich in DHA and EPA can be produced and is guaranteed to be safe, then eating soy or soy products is also a good choice for mom and baby, because it also gives the body a rich protein supplement.”
Contribute to 2.2.
SDG 4
SDG#4 QUALITY EDUCATION
Why SDG#4?
Synthetic biology is the future of human development and education is the key to achieve many sustainable development goals. Therefore, it is particularly important to popularize the knowledge of synthetic biology.
But now, educational inequality still exists seriously. For example, the unequal distribution of educational resources caused by different degree of economic development and the lack of opportunities for female to become educated. We carried out a series of educational activities and tried to realize the following goals, so that children in adversity could put on armor to protect themselves and break open a way through bramble and thistle.
- 4.1 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes.
- 4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education.
- 4.7 By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
How?
In light of the current situation and goals of education, we extensively carried out educational activities that covered both developed and less-developed regions, different age groups from kindergarten children to university students and even the elderly. The forms of these educational activities are diverse and abundant. We went to schools and communities to impart knowledge of synthetic biology. So far, we have developed UNO card games and web games, organized fluorescent night running and opened up laboratory to the public. These activities are designed to make it easy for people to gain knowledge about synthetic biology, understand the basics of biological laboratories and develop safety awareness through enjoyable and fun games. Furthermore, we paid close attention to students' mental health and initiated the Energy Bank Program. The specific implementation details are as follow.
Participatory Learning
1. iGEM version of UNO: We created UNO cards based on the fundamental knowledge of synthetic biology and we shared them with alumni, students doing education, and other iGEM teams. The name of the card game is "Mysteries of Synthesis". It can be played by 2-8 players, and its main rules are built around the inherent order of basic components in synthetic biology (promoters, RBS, target genes, terminators) within modules, while also incorporating laboratory safety awareness.
2. “Spot-the-Mistake” Web Game: We have developed a “spot-the-mistake” web game focused on laboratory safety. Players need to identify ten incorrect experimental operations to win the game. For example, one of the incorrect operations is failing to balance the centrifuge properly. Additionally, players can enjoy this game anytime on their mobile phone.
Website: “Spot-the-Mistake” Web Game
Feedbacks
1. The kids in schools of our volunteer teaching, alumni, and other teams all loved our card games. Some alumni even sent messages to encourage us to create more educational cultural and creative products.
2. Some players said that they still couldn't fully understand the rules after reading the instructions. So, we recorded a video explaining the rules. After watching it, they said they fully understood.
3. When we accompanied the children from primary school in Guangxi province to play the "spot-the-mistake" web game, many children said together, “Teacher! I think there's something wrong with the thing looking like a tree!"After asking carefully for a while, we realized that the "thing looking like a tree" actually referred to the rack for hanging pipettes. Amused by this childlike comparison, we realized that the children actually lacked understanding of basic laboratory items. Without this foundation, they could only guess when playing the game. Therefore, we should first teach a lesson on basic knowledge of laboratory instruments before playing the game. Alternatively, we should label the names of the instruments beside them so that children can recognize them during the game. In this way, children can better apply their basic knowledge to practice as well as enjoy the game. And the purpose of raising safety awareness in the game can be better conveyed to them.
Long-term Positive Impacts
iGEM version of UNO cards make profound knowledge of synthetic biology accessible and easy to understand. Even children of six years old could grasp the rules and enjoy the game. Through rounds of play, children subconsciously memorize the fixed order of components and learn college knowledge in a relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere at a young age. This represents an effective, engaging and high-quality educational approach. Moreover, as a multiplayer game, it quickly fosters a sense of friendship between the students and us, creating a harmonious atmosphere. Furthermore, our cards prove popular at family gatherings and friend reunions, allowing more non-biology majors to appreciate the charm of synthetic biology.
As players grapple with the challenges of the "spot-the-mistake" web game, their awareness of laboratory safety becomes deeply ingrained. The essence of mastering the game aligns closely with real-life demands, requiring a keen eye for details and constant vigilance to spot mistakes in the game and avoid them in practical operations.
Sustainable
Our card game and web game can serve as excellent educational tools for all future teams to utilize. Other teams can also unleash their creativity by enriching the rules based on the original ones, like adding more types of functional cards. And they can also expand the types of irregular operations and experimental scenes on top of the original "spot-the-mistake" web game, such as cell rooms, shakers, etc.
We believe that it is quite possible for us to inherit the UNO cards, because we ourselves serve as a prime example. As we engaged children in playing UNO cards, we also played a popular board game called "I Want To Do Research," made by CAU-China 2023. Our experience with continuously using the board game from previous teams has been very great, leading us to have faith that future teams will also achieve great results when using our card games. In fact, we have already passed on the UNO cards to the next generation of teams in our school.
Campus Education
We carried out educational activities in kindergartens, primary schools, junior high schools, senior high schools and universities across six provinces in China to popularize synthetic biology. In addition to offline teaching, we also took advantage of the Internet to teach students online through live broadcasts and prerecorded video lessons. And we also uploaded popular science courses onto the web. We took into account the different age groups and prepared lessons accordingly, adjusting the difficulty and depth of the courses. Below are some characteristic contents of courses for different age groups.
Kindergartens: Synthesize Big-butterfly
Firstly, we used an intuitive example of synthetically creating a butterfly to illustrate the application of synthetic biology. Then we encouraged children to unleash their imaginations and thought what they could create using synthetic biology. The children shared many fascinating ideas! For instance, they wanted to create longan that taste like lychee. And they also wished to transform the wings of mosquito to be as beautiful as butterfly wings, so that mosquitoes would no longer be annoying...
Primary School: “Match-the-face” Game
Before teaching how to use synthetic biology to modify the genes of bacteria, we designed a fun game called "Match-the-face". First, we handed out gene symbols and a face image without eyebrows and eyes to the students. Then, they were tasked with arranging the gene symbols in a specific order and exchanging their preferred eyebrows and eyes based on a reference chart. After that, they used glue to attach the eyebrows and eyes onto the face image, creating a personalized face of their liking.
Middle School: Designing Two Modules + Funny Microbiology Experiments
Considering the knowledge base of junior high school students, we did not delve deeply into the functions and molecular principles of each element in the circuit. Instead, we skillfully used analogy to help students understand easily. For instance, we compared the activation and inhibition states of a promoter to a traffic light: the activation state is the green light being on, allowing the subsequent genes to express smoothly, while the inhibition state is the red light being on, inhibiting the expression of subsequent genes. Furthermore, we compared toxins and antitoxins to poisons and antidotes respectively. After clearly explaining these concepts, we asked students to fill in the appropriate boxes with the two types of promoters.
High School: Designing Three Modules + Knowledge about Regulatory Circuits
Compared to middle school students designing two modules independently, high school students could take on the challenge of designing three modules. Moreover, we added the knowledge of logic gates, operators and other complex regulatory elements. We continued to use metaphor in our explanations, comparing each module to a sentence. In this analogy, the promoter corresponds to the verb "start," initiating the process. The target gene represents the function of the noun. And the terminator serves as the period, representing the end of the program.
College: iGEM Fluorescent Night Running
We organized an iGEM Fluorescent Night Running event at our school, attracting over 200 participants. We set up 10 stations across the campus, where participants needed to check in at each station and complete small games related to synthetic biology. By doing so, they could collect various elements necessary for synthetic biology circuits. Finally, at the finish line, they had to assemble the elements and provide an appropriate explanation to complete the race, winning the iGEM cultural and creative gifts as prizes.
Feedback
Because we taught in many places, we could improve the content of the next course based on the feedback from the children in the previous session and tested the effect of the improvement in the next session.
Initially, we thought that primary school students had already had a certain understanding of genes, so we focused our lectures on sharing cases of genetic engineering. However, we found that they were relatively vague about the concept of genes, which made it difficult for them to understand genetically modified organisms. The next time, therefore, when we taught primary school students in another location the next time, we designed the “match-the-face” game to help them better understand how genes function. Subsequent teaching classes in different places proved that this additional activity was highly effective, not only helping in comprehension of genetic engineering but also energizing the classroom atmosphere.
Moreover, during subsequent volunteering teaching, some children even stuck their puzzle faces onto their faces as masks and some even wore glasses, which was a creative idea. We loved this creativity very much and encouraged other children to try as well. Some students asked if they could create different hairstyles, but since we didn't prepare for that, we suggested using colored pencils for free decoration. To our surprise, this sparked a burst of creativity among the students, and the finished products were incredibly impressive! As a result, we continued to use the idea of decorating with colored pencils in the subsequent courses.
Once we taught in a middle school, we found that it was a bit challenging for them to design three modules. As a result, we adjusted the requirement and reduced it to two modules to lower the difficulty level. Furthermore, we simplified the structure of the modules, focusing solely on assessing their ability to apply promoters without involving elements such as terminators.
After teaching in high school, the class teacher provided us with feedback: "You've prepared thoroughly with rich content, but you could try to make your explanations more lively and engage more with the students through interactions." Taking this advice, we added the analogy mentioned above into our explanations and interspersed question-and-answer sessions to enhance the participation of students.
Our Fluorescent Night Running event was well-received by many people. Many passers-by, including teachers, children and foreign friends, were attracted to join in the activity.
Long-term Positive Impacts
We brought high-quality science education to boys and girls in six different provinces across the country, especially to the Dandelion Middle School, a charity school for migrant workers' children in Beijing, and the primary school in Zhanang County, Lhasa, Tibet. Due to economic restrictions, these children do not have access to abundant educational resources, so they are even more urgent to get education. Our volunteer teaching enabled these children to receive the same high-quality science education as those in environments which have rich resources, opening the door to science for them. For example, one little girl from Dandelion Middle School particularly stood out in our memory. She possessed maturity and poise beyond her age, also with creativity and willingness to try new things. We hope that scientific knowledge can become a powerful tool for all children, including her, to explore the world and seek a better life, breaking through economic restrictions in the future.
Furthermore, our uploaded online science popularization video courses can transcend the limitations of distance, imparting knowledge to boys and girls in all regions, establishing a permanent self-learning channel for them. So that we can make a contribution to the improvement of reducing the uneven distribution of educational resources.
The Fluorescent Night Running event promoted synthetic biology to the public in an interesting form, showcasing the charm of synthetic biology to more university students majoring in liberal arts and social sciences as well as foreign friends who are unfamiliar with this field.
Sustainable
We have established a good relationship with Dandelion Middle School. CAU-China has served as volunteers of Dandelion for two consecutive years and will continue to do so in the future. Meanwhile, we will also share the contact channels with other teams, believing that there will be more iGEMers at Dandelion Middle School in the future.
The Outdoor Sports Club of China Agricultural University sends volunteers to Tibet every year for teaching support. This year marked our first collaboration in the form of providing recorded video lessons, which turned out to be highly effective. We both sides looked forward to establishing a long-term partnership. We also extended invitations to other teams to join us in creating a series of online science popularization courses, aiming to bring knowledge and joy to the children in Tibet.
Every summer, China Agricultural University sends teaching teams to various parts of the country. This year, we had our first collaboration with the Guangxi Teaching Team, conducting online live classes. Both the teaching and learning experiences were excellent, filling us with a sense of happiness in imparting knowledge. Meanwhile, the children gained a sense of achievement in acquiring knowledge. Members of the Guangxi Teaching Team also praised our attractive lessons. Building on the success of this live class collaboration, we plan to reach out to more teaching teams from diverse locations next year and invite other teams to join in the live broadcasts, further enriching the content of our courses.
Activities Outside Schools
Children Community
We went to Chunshuguan Children Community and introduced the basic information of synthesis biology and the concept of sustainable development to the local children.
Elderly Community
We went to Jianguomen Elderly Community in Chaoyang District, Beijing, to hold a lecture for the elderly residents on health care products and the principles of synthetic biology in the production of them. We drew a comic book titled "The Four Steps to Understanding Health Products" about synthetic biology and we distributed printed copies of the comic to the elderly. After our presentation, some elderly participants raised questions about the nutritional benefits of health care products such as sea slug and edible bird’s nest, inquiring whether they truly live up to the claims made in advertisements. Based on our professional knowledge, we provided answers to these inquiries. Finally, we introduced our team's project: using synthetic biology to modify S.fredii, enabling them to produce the key component of fish oil, creating a novel and affordable health care product based on soybeans.
Energy Bank Plan
The 2022 Sustainability Report focuses on students' mental health, emphasizing that quality education should encompass all aspects of students' lives. Everyone has ever experienced moments of frustration... If only emotions could be stored in a bank like currency! With this vision, we established the Energy Bank Plan and initiated CAU-China's Little Tree Hole, where emotions were deposited. In this bank, we could save happy memories, as well as record difficult moments, allowing those who are also struggling to find solace and connect. Thus, these shared experiences would be transform into mutual energy. When emotions reach a breaking point, we could revisit the bank to draw strength and soothe our feelings.
We not only conducted online solicitations, but also incorporated offline solicitations during our volunteer teaching. We received numerous heartfelt submissions offline too.
Feedback
1. The children in the community were enthusiastic and the social workers highly appreciated our activities, looking forward to our next visit!
2. As we were leaving the elderly community activity room, many seniors were chatting at the door, and we joined in the conversation. We learned that many of them had little understanding of the actual effects of health care products before our lecture and had experienced blindly buying them. The seniors shared how salespeople would greatly exaggerate the benefits of health care products. Some also mentioned cases where acquaintances suffered from abdominal sclerosis due to excessive and blind consumption of multiple supplements, making surgery impossible and ultimately leading to death. These are all examples because of the lack of knowledge of health care products. Both the community leaders and the seniors felt that our presentation was extremely meaningful, as there is indeed much to learn about health care products. Only by using them reasonably and healthily can we maintain a healthy and strong body.
3. During the online solicitation process, we received many submissions from foreign friends as well. Despite their different cultural backgrounds, they expressed similar feelings and found resonance in the Little Tree Hole in various languages.
Long-term Positive Impacts
Our presentation inspired the social workers. Previously, the community mostly organized craft classes, with relatively few science courses. This science popularization event made the social workers realize the enthusiasm of the children for scientific knowledge.
Our lecture would be of great help to the elderly in their future choice of health care products. We believe that when they see health care products, they will recall the "Four-Step Guideline" that we explained, weighing their own physical conditions and whether these supplements meet national food safety standards. This, in turn, would provide a certain degree of safeguard for their health.
Adolescents may be more reluctant to express their feelings to those around them, leading to negative emotions. The anonymous tree hole of CAU-China provides them with a window to express their true selves and express their emotions. Here, they can find friends who share similar troubles, thereby avoiding the deterioration of their mental health.
Sustainable
The community warmly invited us to conduct more science popularization activities in the future. We also plan to carry out long-term and systematic science popularization. This Anti-counterfeit propaganda of health care products has made us deeply aware of the significant information gap faced by the elderly community, highlighting the necessity of presenting scientific knowledge in a way that is both simple and profound. Beyond health supplements, we can address more of the common confusions among the elderly, such as whether genetically modified foods are safe to eat, and create a series of comic books to scientifically answer questions and clear doubts in all aspects of their lives.
Our online mini-program will be permanently open to everyone, ensuring that the CAU-China’s Little Tree Hole will always be there for the children. Future teams can also use this platform to initiate submissions on other themes, creating a warm and intimate space for everyone to share.
Conclusion
This poem was written by a junior high school student from Dandelion Middle School. When the harsh realities of life come crashing down, fortunately, children still have the gift of learning. They can learn the "modern magic" of synthetic biology, which helps them to dream bravely and expect a bright future, believing in its mystical power to "turn trees into cotton candy," leading to lives filled with joy and happiness. Furthermore, they are taught the principles of sustainable development, which nurture in them a long-term perspective. They learn to remember the hardships transformed into theatrical performances, always preparing for potential challenges, ensuring the endless supply of "cotton candy" and keeping their smiles forever radiant.
Once reading this poem, we were deeply moved – to empower children with the confidence and ability to create a lasting and beautiful life, we can truly say that we have accomplished something meaningful!
SDG 10
SDG#10 Reduce Inequalities
Why SDG#10?
Inequality is a typical feature of today’s society.
Global inequalities based on income, gender, age, disability, religion, etc. still persist, threatening societies and hindering social cohesion and progress.
Therefore, we adopted a number of approaches, mainly targeting disability, gender and income inequalities, to focus on addressing one of the sub-goals of SDG#10: Reduce Inequalities, as follows:
- 10.2 By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
How?
Disability community
Disability community are those who have long-term physical, speech, hearing, mental, intellectual or multiple impairments. These impairments, in interaction with various barriers, may prevent persons with disabilities from participating fully and effectively in society on an equal basis with able-bodied persons.
The 2023 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report states, “People with disabilities experience high levels of discrimination, with one in three reporting such experiences, twice as many as people without disabilities.”
We were concerned about the positive therapeutic significance of the DHA and EPA produced by the project for various mental illnesses, so we focused on the mentally challenged groups. But we know that communicating with the disabled is a serious matter. The key is not to bring help to them, but to make more people aware of their existence. Therefore, before taking action, we consulted Ms. Mi Zhou, a psychologist from the Chinese Psychological Association to understand the methods and precautions of communicating with the disabled group, hoping that our work would be more scientific and effective.
↑see iHP for more details
Overall, we hope to reach:
For patients:
Eating disorders: innovation and progress urgently needed, published in the March 2020 issue of The Lancet, states that only about 20% of patients seek for help, often in advanced stages of the disease.
People subconsciously think that ADHD is only for children, so adults with similar conditions often attribute it to a lack of concentration and perseverance rather than a disease. But the reality is that college students can also have ADHD and should seek medical attention for it.
So we hope:
1.To help patients “recognize that their symptoms may be a sign of illness” by publicizing the condition.
2.To remove the stigma of being sick and prevent the avoidance of medical treatment.
For non-patients and the environment:
“Eliminate prejudice and discrimination, enhance understanding and humanistic care.”
We hope to enhance society’s understanding of the disabled community through publicity, eliminate people’s fear due to lack of understanding and put people in their shoes to realize their difficulties. In particular, people need to know more about illnesses that are not easily visible from the outside. For example, depression is not laziness, dyslexia is not stupidity and ADHD is not mischievousness.
At the same time, we also hope to help more people realize the loveliness and charisma of people with disabilities as human beings, so that discrimination can be eliminated little by little.
Alzheimer
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, the main features include progressive cognitive dysfunction and behavioral impairments, occurring primarily in old age or preadolescence.
China is currently facing a significant challenge with a substantial number of people suffering from dementia, accounting for a quarter of the global caseload, with an average of 300,000 new cases reported annually. The incidence of dementia in China shows a notable increasing trend with age: it reaches 8.26% for those over 75 and soars to 11.4% for those over 80. However, there is still a considerable amount of misconception about the disease among many individuals and even some medical professionals, leading to a very low diagnosis and treatment rate for AD in the country. As a result, it is crucial to raise awareness about the prevention of dementia across society and to give it the attention it deserves.
World Alzheimer’s Day is celebrated on September 21st every year. On this day in 2024, CAU-China published a tweet “World Alzheimer’s Disease Day｜Travelers in time, a ‘new day’ has come” on the public microblog “Zhongnong iGEM”. By comparing Alzheimer’s patients to “time travelers”, we aim to raise public awareness and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, so that more people will come together to understand, care for and accompany them on this journey through time and space.
Autism
Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder. The majority of patients begin to experience social interaction deficits, communication disorders and a marked interest in stereotyped and repetitive behavioral patterns during childhood.
It is estimated that about 1 in 100 children has autism worldwide. Care for people with autism requires action at community and societal levels to improve accessibility, inclusion and support.
The movie Stars of the Earth tells the story of an art teacher who helps a dyslexic child develop his art talent and eventually his paintings are appreciated by everyone. We were inspired by this story, hoping that the artwork of autistic children can be a bridge between each other and show the world their richness and joyfulness in the same way.
Manual teaching
Therefore, we went to Beijing Rainbow Rehabilitation and Enlightenment Center. We gave manual teaching of coloring painting and twisting sticks to autistic children, showing the pure inner world of them with simple paintings and handmade products.
“Children of the Stars” online art exhibition
We collected the children’s coloring and handicraft works, uploaded them to our WeChat public platform “Zhongnong iGEM” and held an online art exhibition, opening a window to their inner world. This allowed the world to see their inner colors and understand that their little world is also full of colors.
Dyslexia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Dyslexia and ADHD are both mental illnesses that occur frequently but are easily overlooked in our lives.
The word “Dyslexia” comes from the Greek, meaning “difficulty in reading words”, which is a perfect summary of the difficulties that people with dyslexia. In China, about 5 to 8 percent of school-age children suffer from dyslexia, which is a conservative estimate. It affects about 700 million people worldwide, with a global incidence of about 5%. The few families that do find problems usually experience similar twists and turns: children who have always been bright and clever can’t keep up when they enter school and repeatedly forget what they’ve learned. The parents came to the doctor and discovered the truth: the child had dyslexia, a mild congenital brain disorder that prevents them from recognizing words as normal.
ADHD is a brain disorder characterized by difficulty concentrating, concentrating and sitting still. Although the intelligence of children with ADHD is mostly normal, they are often accompanied by varying degrees of cognitive impairment and learning difficulties. However, in daily life, we often do not recognize children with ADHD, but stereotype them as naughty and troublesome. At the same time, people tend to overlook that adults can also have ADHD, which can also affect their study and work.
For these two very common but often overlooked disorders, we created posters in order to increase people’s understanding of dyslexia and ADHD groups and eliminate the inherent prejudice.
Eating Disorders
Eating disorders (ED) refers to a group of disorders characterized by abnormal eating behaviors and excessive preoccupation with food, weight and body size. It is also characterized by anxiety, depression or fear and extreme eating-related behaviors. These abnormal behaviors not only affect the mental health of the patients, but also have a serious negative impact on their physical health. Anorexia nervosa, in particular, has a mortality rate of 5-15%, which is the highest among all mental disorders.
Recognizing that people with eating disorders are often caught in a vicious cycle of “mental anxiety-anorexia-anorexia leads to self doubt-further anxiety”, we created a poster urging people with eating disorders to “live like a soybean, think like a root nodule!”
In the diagram, we compare ourselves to a soybean plant and food to root nodules. Food provides us with nutrients, just as root nodules help the soybean plant get nitrogen. The food stays with us throughout our lives, just as the root nodules stay with the soybean plant throughout its life. So, since soybean plant is not controlled by root nodules, let’s not be controlled by food or let root nodules grow into real “tumors”.
As shown in the picture, the front view is a person who is eating and then the soybean plant turn into a beautiful dress, which means “food feeds the root system”; the back view is a soybean plant and the root nodule is feeding its growth, which shows that “beauty lies in the power of life”. Through this poster, we hope to encourage patients suffering from eating disorders to let go of their preconceived notions about food and then use food to feed themselves and discover their own beauty.
Feedback
1. Rainbow Rehabilitation Center staff
Our teaching of autistic children was highly praised by the staff of the center and she was very grateful that we were able to bring these children things that they had never been exposed to before. But at the same time, she also pointed out that for autistic children, although they are 6-7 years old, their comprehension and hands-on skills may still be quite far from their peers. This suggests that we need to give more consideration to our work with special groups.
2. About autistic children
HP team member Hu Yingying recalled: “When I first came into contact with a girl, she never dared to look me in the eye, even when I kept trying to communicate with her. But after an afternoon together, when we were about to part, I waved goodbye to her and she suddenly turned around to look at me and smiled at me.”
Sex Inequality
In the latest edition of its Gender Social Norms Index report, the United Nations Development Programme found that nearly 90 percent of the world’s population, including women themselves, still hold some kind of prejudice against women, which is a situation that has not improved in the past decade.
Outstanding women
As an outstanding female researcher, Prof. Hongli Yuan’s personal experience can encourage more young women to overcome gender bias and pursue their research dreams.
In addition, she promoted the implementation of the “WeiGuang Plan”, which helped rural women break the label of gender inequality and made people realize that these rural women can also play their unique value.
“WeiGuang Plan” focused on developing rural women’s human resources by training local women in rural areas to become technicians who can guide local farmers on how to better use green agricultural products. It helps to improve the situation of rural women, thereby reducing gender inequality.
Team composition
Firstly, the leader of our team is a woman, who has very wonderful ideas and strong leadership. Secondly, 11 of the 23 people in our team are women and every group has the participation of female power. What’s more, the leaders of the Wet Lab and the Artistic Design Group are both girls. It can be said that women constitute a force in our team that is completely equal to that of men.
“She Power, She Universe”
Moreover, on March 8, International Women’s Day, we held a special event “She Power, She Universe” to let everyone see the power of women.
We invited female researchers to write a nice message to “her” on the letter paper and take away another “her” message, passing on “her blessing” and “her power” in this way.
We also invited female teachers to join the iGEM laboratory for a moss micro-landscape terrarium workshop. By assembling by hand, they created a delicate miniature world, adding a touch of green to their busy lives.
Feedback
Prof. Hongli Yuan
Prof. Hongli Yuan thought that our project is also very meaningful for promoting agricultural development in poor areas and if we can really realize the output of EPA and DHA in root nodules, it will greatly improve the economic benefits of soybean cultivation. This can not only provide employment opportunities and stable income for the rural poor, but also attract more young people to stay in the countryside and realize income generation in their hometowns, as well as allow children and the elderly to no longer stay behind and play a particular value of labor.
Origin and Economic Inequality
1. Help to address income inequality
The application of rhizobia inoculants can help increase crop yields and improve economic efficiency. Moreover, the output of EPA and DHA can further increase the economic added value of soybean cultivation, which provides a good reference for economic development in poor areas. So that people in poor areas can also earn a stable income by growing soybeans, thus improving nutrition and quality of life.
2. Help to address inequality of origin
Low incomes are an important cause of malnutrition, which in turn exacerbates low incomes, thus creating a vicious circle that is difficult to break. In this cycle, the well-being of families and societies is severely affected, leading to a situation from which children and adults may not be able to escape, thus passing on poverty and health problems from one generation to the next.
Our projects can help tackle origin inequality by reducing food prices and raising the incomes of the poor:
- The application of rhizobia inoculants can help to increase crop yields and thus reduce food prices, making essential food affordable to people in poor areas and allowing them to meet the most basic nutritional requirements, thus alleviating the problem of malnutrition.
- For the poor, the increase in family income can ensure prenatal and postnatal nutrition for pregnant women, so that the child, from embryo to fetus to baby, can receive adequate and affordable nutrition. This can prevent the growth and development of the child from being restricted due to insufficient intake of nutrients, which leads to problems such as low body weight, mental retardation, developmental deformities and a decline in immunity, thus affecting the child’s life in the future. In addition, infants and young children at critical stages of growth can also be provided with adequate nutrition, so that they are less likely to suffer from malnutrition as a result of eating a single type of food and insufficient nutritional intake due to their inability to afford a healthy diet.
- Higher household incomes can also provide poor children with better quality education and human capital, facilitating their future employment and increasing their economic productivity, thus improving their lives and lifting them out of poverty.
SDG 12
SDG#12 RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
Why SDG#12?
Resources are dwindling, while populations are swelling. Since the last century, economic growth and social progress have relied heavily on the environment. Humanity has enjoyed the wealth bestowed by Earth, creating our own treasures, yet returning waste to nature. Anthropogenic activities have caused a global surface temperature increase of 1.1℃ relative to preindustrial levels as of the end of 2020. A related research found that plastic pollution emissions are highest across countries in Southern Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and South-eastern Asia, with the largest amount (9.3 Mt year−1 [6.5–12.7]) emitted by India. The nine countries that make up the Southern Asia region emit a similar amount of plastic waste (15.1 Mt year−1 [12.1–18.7]) to the 51 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (13.3 Mt year−1 [12.0–14.7]), with Nigeria contributing to approximately one-quarter (3.5 Mt year−1 [2.7–4.6]) of the Sub-Saharan African burden. The situation in China is not so dire, but we still face the problem of reducing emissions. In 2019, 196 major and medium-sized cities in China generated 1.38 billion tons of general industrial solid waste. China is actively promoting the construction of "waste-free cities". It is imperative to change our consumption and production patterns.
Goal 12 is about ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, which is key to sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations. We take advantage of the famous symbiotic relationship between rhizobia and legumes to produce important DHA/EPA, which in itself is an excellent example of sustainability. So we believe N.Factory can facilitate the implementation of Goal 12.
Advantages of N.Factory
1. Engineered rhizobia
Nodules play an essential role in the symbiotic system between rhizobia and leguminous plants. They are not only nitrogen-fixing factories, capable of converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia that plants can directly absorb, thereby promoting plant growth and enhancing soil fertility, but they also have a variety of other functions, such as enhancing plant disease resistance and improving soil structure. However, after the harvest of soybeans, these rhizobia are often left in the soil and gradually die, failing to fully realize their potential and value. Our project ingeniously utilizes the growth characteristics of rhizobia to guide them to produce beneficial substances such as DHA and EPA, synchronized with soybean cultivation. This natural nodule structure achieves the so-called "Nodule Factory" effect, an astonishing smart automatic factory that effectively develops the "residual value" of nodules.
Legume symbiotic with rhizobia has an important position as food crops, but it still faces a series of problems. The core issues facing the current food crop market include market saturation, the lack of strong agricultural brands, and the resulting low profit margins. Low profit margins not only affect the economic incentives for farmers but also hinder investment in new agricultural technologies and innovations, creating a vicious cycle that is detrimental to the long-term development of agriculture. Therefore, enhancing the added value of grain crops by establishing brands, improving product quality, and refining market positioning is essential for breaking this cycle, increasing farmers' income, and promoting sustainable agricultural development. Our engineered rhizobia significantly enhances the added value of legume crops by endowing them with the precious nutrients DHA and EPA, laying a solid foundation for the creation of a distinctive agricultural brand. This brand-building effort helps to increase consumer awareness and loyalty towards agricultural products, allowing them to stand out in the fierce market competition. Moreover, this value-adding strategy aligns with the circular economy concept of Goal 12. The circular economy emphasizes the efficient use of resources and the minimization of waste, and our engineered rhizobia technology achieves sustainable agricultural production by enhancing the intrinsic value of crops and reducing dependence on external inputs.
It is precisely because of the benefits of our engineered rhizobia that we are excited about the prospects of green cultivation of legume plants, the formation of new production models and the establishment of an industrial chain. We have designed an industrial chain for our project, for details see the implementation section. In summary, our project can effectively support sub-goal 12.a “Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production”.
2. Produced DHA/EPA
(1) For producers
On one hand, the construction of Nodule Factory is able to reduce energy consumption, which is a good advantage to achieve sub-goal 12.3 “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses”. In the energy pyramid, it is an established principle that plants inherently possess more energy than animals due to the decremental nature of energy transfer. This hierarchical energy flow implies that harnessing nutrients from plants is more energy-efficient than obtaining them from animals. Our approach of using rhizobia to produce DHA/EPA, the main component of fish oil, specifically by attaching these microorganisms to leguminous plants, represents a more energy-efficient method compared to the extraction of fish oil from deep-sea fish. Should we achieve the future goal of transporting these nutrients directly into soybeans, it would further minimize energy expenditure, showcasing our commitment to sustainable and efficient agricultural practices. Additionally, given that our "Nodule Factory" is attached to leguminous plants, which can be cultivated on land, if we can achieve the cultivation of legumes near processing facilities, it would certainly reduce transportation costs significantly more than deep-sea fishing. This approach would also minimize losses associated with the transportation process.
On the other hand, our project can reduce the costs associated with fishing, enrichment, and processing. This is beneficial for businesses and humanity as a whole in achieving the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks. It also helps in significantly reducing their release into the air, water and soil to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment, which aligns with the objectives of sub-goal 12.4.
(2) For consumers
Our production of DHA and EPA through rhizobia is, for consumers, an obvious way to avoid marine pollution compared to the extraction of fish oil from the deep sea, which is a reflection of Goal 12.4.
If we can achieve the future goal of transporting nutrients such as DHA and EPA into soybeans, consumers will be able to supplement their diet with rich nutrients simply by eating soy products, which is great news for them. After all, compared to taking pills on a daily schedule, the dual benefit of satisfying hunger and supplementing nutrients at the same time through the consumption of soy-based foods is much easier to accomplish. This represents a form of reducing food loss as outlined in Goal 12.3.
(3) For society
Human society shares a common destiny. Our Nodule Factory can directly or indirectly reduce pollution in soil, oceans and air, as well as decrease the emission of solid waste, achieving an environmentally friendly approach. At the same time, by employing synthetic biology methods to efficiently utilize resources within the natural system, we are also meeting the Goal 12.3 of reducing food losses along production and supply chains.
We also outlined the industrial chain of our project on our implementation page, which will have a long-term impact on agricultural production models. As a anchor of technological innovation, we foster a consciousness of sustainable development, bridge the cultivation of industries, and actively collaborate in a concerted effort. Nodule Factory contributes to the thriving development of the bioeconomy. In the following text, you will see that we have linked this innovative production model with China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard in Africa, making a good effort towards Goal 12.8 “By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature”.
Beyond that, as we have described, our future aspiration is to transport the nutrients produced by rhizobia into soybeans, which is a method of obtaining food containing heterologous nutrients through non-GMO approaches. We believe that this endeavor, on one hand, can increase public acceptance and on the other hand, provide a novel perspective for future scientific research. This will make a significant contribution to Goal 12.8 and 12.a.
3. Fully Utilized Soybean Resources
(1) Apply rhizobia inoculants
Because our engineered rhizobia need to be applied to soybean fields to grow and function, our project has advanced the application process of rhizobia inoculants. Many existing soybean planting fields do not apply additional rhizobia, relying on the original rhizobia in the soil for nitrogen fixation, which does not actually achieve the best effects of rhizobia. Rhizobia inoculants, as an emerging type of microbial fertilizer, have been widely used and studied internationally. In Argentina, the use rate of rhizobia fertilizer has reached over 90%, saving a large amount of chemical fertilizer costs every year. Experiments in Brazil have shown that a new technology based on co-inoculation of soybeans with Bradyrhizobium japonicum spp. has increased nodule formation by up to 350% and increased grain yield by 80%, with an average increase of 8%, equivalent to an increase of 273 kg per hectare, in a five-year promotion activity. Demonstrations in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Henan, and other provinces of China over many years have shown that after the application of rhizobia inoculants to the soil, they can significantly improve the nitrogen-fixing ability of soybeans, increasing yields by 5-10% while reducing the input of chemical nitrogen fertilizers. In addition, the application of rhizobia inoculants also helps to reduce the use of chemical nitrogen fertilizers, decrease environmental pollution, and promote the sustainable development of agriculture, which is an effort towards Goal 12.4 “significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment”.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Action Plan for the Reduction of Chemical Fertilizers by 2025 points out the need to "scientifically apply organic fertilizers, promote the application of new types of fertilizers, advance the planting of green manure and the diversified return of straw to the fields, tap into the effectiveness of soil nutrients, and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers." Only by reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and applying fertilizers scientifically and rationally, as well as applying new types of fertilizers, can we better promote responsible consumption and production, thereby promoting sustainable development. The Guiding Opinions on Scientific Fertilization for Major Crops in Spring 2021 states, "It is advocated to return straw to the fields and scientifically apply organic and inorganic fertilizers. For high-yield soybeans and rice and bean crop rotation, it is advocated to mix seeds with rhizobia inoculants." Our project's final product, the engineered rhizobia, will be made into a form of rhizobia inoculants to be applied to the fields and exert its function, which is an innovative implementation of national policies and United Nations initiative Goal 12.1.1 “implementing policy instruments aimed at supporting the shift to sustainable consumption and production”.
(2) Reuse of soybean parts
In the Nodule Factory, both the plant residues produced and the nitrogen fixed in the soil can be recycled and reused by returning green manure to the field, which responds to the "further increase in the amount of organic fertilizer resources returned to the field" as outlined in the Action Plan for the Reduction of Chemical Fertilizers by 2025. In fact, given the symbiotic relationship, the establishment of the nodule factory itself is also a reuse of various parts of the soybean. We can metaphorically describe a soybean plant as an intelligent factory.
(3) Soybean: high-quality food crop
Notably, our project highlights the advantages of soybeans as food crop. They are nutritional powerhouses, boasting approximately 35% protein content, which is of high quality and includes all the essential amino acids that our bodies need. Soybeans are particularly rich in lysine, an amino acid that is often lacking in grains, making them an ideal natural complement to cereal-based proteins. They also serve as a significant source of functional nutrients in our diets. In addition to protein, soybeans are packed with minerals, vitamins, and bioactive compounds, including vitamin E, soy fiber, soy oligosaccharides, soy lecithin and soy isoflavones. Research indicates that consuming soybeans and their derivatives can lower the risk of developing various diseases, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions, breast cancer, stomach cancer, and osteoporosis.
In summary, our Nodule Factory makes full use of soybean resources. As an innovative case, it has facilitated the achievement of Goal 12.5 “By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse”.
Our specific measures
12.8 By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature.
12.A Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production. In order to expand the impact of our project on these two sub-targets, we carried out activities in the following three parts:
(1) China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard
How can we ensure that people in underdeveloped areas gain access to information and awareness about sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature? The model exploration of the "China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard" from China Agricultural University reaching out to empower small farmers in Africa is an excellent attempt towards this goal. To this end, we interviewed Associate Professor Xiaoqiang Jiao from the College of Resources and Environment at China Agricultural University.
We are pleased to obtain a lot of information about the China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard in the interview, finding possibilities for our project to help Malawi in Africa and other underdeveloped areas.
We learned about the tripartite cooperation between universities, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and local agricultural departments. Under such a cooperative model, universities provide technology, the United Nations organization provides international influence, and local agricultural departments promote the local agricultural system, forming a "multi-stakeholder agriculture" system. We can turn our engineered rhizobia into rhizobia inoculants, mass-produced by enterprises, and practically applied in the Science and Technology Courtyard in Africa. We plan to apply the rhizobia inoculants during the seedling stage of soybeans, which can ensure that the nitrogen fertilizer applied at sowing time is reduced to a certain concentration, which will not prematurely activate the expression of engineered rhizobia DHA and EPA, and also reduce the impact on rhizobia nitrogen fixation.
At the same time, we plan to draw on the experience of the Science and Technology Courtyard and adopt the leading farmer model. We will look for large farmers and cooperative leaders in the main soybean producing areas to drive small farmers to conduct experimental demonstrations. If the effect is good, it will naturally attract more people to participate, and through a certain period of time, the effect of leading farmers will be produced.
Associate Professor Xiaoqiang Jiao also encouraged our project, believing that in addition to the current cooperation in Malawi, we can also focus on countries along the Belt and Road with small farmer production models. The income increase and production model change brought by the rhizobial agent will help more people obtain sustainable development information and live a better life.
For more details of the interview Q&A, please refer to iHP-Xiaoqiang Jiao-Professor of Agricultural Resources and Environment.
In addition to Xiaoqiang Jiao, we also contacted Francina Lerato Kuwali, a 35-year-old student from Malawi studying at China Agricultural University. She is an agricultural extension worker. During the period of 2023-2024, she helped local farmers in Malawi achieved an extraordinary increase in corn production. Her research focuses on the effects of integrating maize and soya on soil quality, grain yield, and carbon stock.
Kuwali believes that our rhizobia inoculants can be applied in the fields to increase the yield and added value of soybeans. She said, "I think it needs to be tried out; there is no problem in trying it, it looks like a good project to me." Moreover, Kuwali believes that this project holds the hope of boosting the local economy and we can further cooperate.
For more interview contents about Kuwali, please refer to iHP-Francina Lerato Kuwali-Agricultural Extension Worker.
(2) The exploration of “WeiGuang Plan” business model and concept of the industrial chain
How can we ensure that our countries and other developing countries achieve more sustainable consumption and production patterns through our projects? We feel that our connection with businesses is crucial.
We interviewed Professor Yuan Hongli from China Agricultural University's College of Biological Sciences, who was also a tech consultant for Shandong Liangtu Biological Co., Ltd. This company renowned for its agricultural microbial technology applied in the "WeiGuang Plan" and known for its "one more step" model to boost farmer incomes.
Professor Yuan praised our Nodule Factory project and advised us on partnering with enterprises. She suggested completing lab experiments, obtaining a patent, and then transferring it to an enterprise for production scale-up. In terms of enterprise selection, Professor Yuan introduced us to the enterprise connected with “WeiGuang Plan”. This is an alumni enterprise with some of our university's biological agriculture experts serving as backbone members. Such an enterprise can be trusted in terms of scientific and technological level; as it knows what kind of technology is needed to support its products. In addition, Professor Yuan also highly approved of Liangtu Biology's "one more step" model. Simply put, this model is not only about cooperating with enterprises to develop scientific and technological achievements into green agricultural products but also about bringing technology to the countryside together with the enterprise, from the laboratory to the factory and then to the fields. “WeiGuang Plan” can “bring technology to the countryside”, fully developing the human resources of rural women. Young and middle-aged women are willing to learn new knowledge and skills; many of them have even become product agents, helping to guide production in several villages. They come from the fields and return to the fields. We are delighted to see the employment opportunities behind these two models and the prosperous prospects of agriculture; this is definitely a sustainable development method.
These models exemplify sustainable development, creating job opportunities and fostering agriculture. It aligns with our vision for the Nodule Factory to aid developing countries sustainably.
For more interviews, please see iHP-Hongli Yuan-Professor of Microbiology and Immunology.
(3) Other sustainable knowledge dissemination
See Goal 4 Quality Education for details of educational courses.
In addition to educational courses, we also focus on BioArt. The BioArt topic is centered on exploring, creating, showcasing artistic narratives of synthetic biology and its intersections with other disciplines, philosophies and approaches. We conveyed the concept of "thinking like Sinorhizobium" through the medium of BioArt, just as Jasper Johns said, "Art is the bridge between what is known and what is not known." This form is more accessible and understandable to the general public. We look forward to contributing to the path of sustainable development with our constructed "Nodule World."
Plants to root nodules are like the environment to humans. This implies establishing anti-violent, non-aggressive social relationships to achieve harmonious coexistence and continuous regeneration between humans and nature. We integrated this philosophy into our fashion design and shared this preliminary idea with Ye Ansheng, a junior majoring in fashion design, and she really liked the concept. Together, we created the following set of fashion garments.
Our fashion set is intricately aligned with the Sinorhizobium-legume symbiosis system, reflecting a deep connection with nature. The set is comprised of four distinct pieces: Root-nodule-shaped sleeves, Bodysuit, Skirt, and Double-layered boots.
(1) Root-nodule-shaped sleeves
The sleeves are crafted from the soybean's root, as nodules originate from the soybean roots. This choice of material reflects a combination of meticulous craftsmanship and natural elegance. The root, which would typically be left in the soil after soybean harvest, are repurposed for artistic creation. When the garment is no longer needed, it can be biodegraded by microorganisms in the soil, forming an excellent case of sustainable development. The intricate soybean root structure creates the appearance of nodules on plant roots, similar to how sleeves fit the human body, offering a bold artistic expression.
(2) Bodysuit
The bodysuit is crafted from soybean fibers, featuring a stylish and root-nodule-inspired brown color scheme that is both soft and contoured to the body's curves. Soybean protein fibers are not only soft but also possess significant antibacterial properties. Most importantly, they are completely degradable, making them an extremely eco-friendly new type of protein fiber. Wear it and feel the warmth of the soybean.
(3) Skirt
The skirt is also crafted from soybean fibers, spun into thicker, rope-like strands and woven into a mesh skirt with a strong design aesthetic. This mesh skirt is reminiscent of a fairy trail in a green field or a sheer veil in the morning light, creating a visually striking interplay of light and shadow. It combines the natural beauty of soybean fibers with the geometric beauty of the mesh, perfectly balancing the heavy and dense feel of the upper body.What a magical stroke!
(4) Double-layered boots
These boots are designed with a double-layer structure, symbolizing protection and guardianship. The inner layer is made from the crushed brown-yellow leaves of soybeans, mixed with a certain proportion of gelatin, glycerin and water. This is a new kind of gelatin-based bio-material. By transforming the waste of soybean leaves into treasure, the boots, once discarded, will degrade, showcasing our arc of wisdom.
The outer layer is adorned with lace made from soybean fibers, balancing the color and enhancing the sense of depth and spatiality, while also representing another application of sustainable materials.
It's worth mentioning that all four pieces of our collection are detachable, which means consumers can wear them individually or mix and match as they wish. This approach to styling embodies the concept of sustainable development and is a form of responsible production. Every consumer has their own dressing needs, which can change with objective factors such as temperature, as well as subjective factors like personal taste. Therefore, the various combinations of the four detachable pieces enhance their versatility and sustainability.
Positive long-term impacts
Our project will have a sustainable long-term impact on the construction of Goal 12.
Economy: Nodule Factory project reduces the use of chemical fertilizers and increases the use of high-fertilizing rhizobia inoculants, thereby lowering the cost of agricultural production and enhancing the economic benefits of agriculture. At the same time, the project also adds value for the manufacturers of the agents, creating cost reductions and efficiency increases for both parties. Furthermore, for companies producing fish oil, it can also reduce costs and achieve a win-win situation for all three parties.
Society: The implementation of the project requires the joint efforts of farmers, enterprises, and the government, which helps to raise public awareness of sustainable agriculture and biotechnology. Through education and training, it can enhance farmers' understanding of scientific fertilization and biological nitrogen fixation techniques, promoting social acceptance and application of modern agricultural technologies. Additionally, the successful implementation of the project may provide a scientific research platform for the production of anaerobic substances. The project also encourages the establishment of non-aggressive, anti-violent social relationships, promoting harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Dr. Isabel Rimanoczy, convener of the PRME Sustainability Mindset Working Group, emphasized the importance of cultivating conscious behavior in the next generation. A sustainable mindset is reflected in behaviors, thoughts, and ways of acting, which helps to build a more harmonious and sustainable society.
Environment: Nodule Factory project reduces the use of chemical fertilizers, which can reduce environmental pollution and protect soil and water resources. Biological nitrogen fixation, as an environmentally friendly source of nitrogen fertilizer, helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. Moreover, the project contributes to the protection of biodiversity and the health of agricultural ecosystems by improving soil fertility and crop yields.
In conclusion, the implementation of Nodule Factory helps to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of responsible consumption and production. By improving the efficiency of resource use and reducing the generation of waste, it promotes the coordinated development of the economy, society, and environment.
Sustainability
Our Nodule Factory serves as an open-source and open-access platform with strong sustainability. In our project, we have used rhizobia to produce EPA and DHA, drawing inspiration from fish oil to find nutrients that can be produced in a microaerophilic environment. In addition to EPA and DHA, the Nodule Factory is also capable of producing a variety of anaerobic substances. We have constructed a sophisticated regulatory pathway, and by simply replacing the PUFA gene cluster, the Nodule Factory can produce more substances, even addressing some of the challenges associated with the production of anaerobic substances. The application cost of this platform is low, and with our efforts, it can also be combined with mature business models in the future, making it highly implementable.
We are delighted to bring such an open platform to the iGEM stage. The openness and inclusiveness of iGEM make it possible for our concept to be modified and innovated by more teams, and even to collaborate with enterprises to create factories with real commercial value.
Harms
Nodule Factory may have some negative impacts in the process of achieving Goal 12. Issues may arise from the correct application methods, appropriate dosages, and storage stages of the engineered rhizobia used by farmers. To avoid biosafety risks, it is necessary for relevant companies to clarify the usage methods. This unique soybean cultivation model also requires the support of the government in terms of finance and laws and regulations. The change of the model needs the joint promotion of the whole society.In summary, as the wheels of history roll forward, technology is always updating and iterating, which requires the joint efforts of all mankind.
Other SDGs
SDG#14 LIFE BELOW WATER
Why SDG#14？
The oceans are the most prominent feature of our planet, covering nearly three-quarters of its surface. They are vital to the survival of our Earth. The planet cannot survive without a healthy ocean, just as a person cannot survive without a healthy heart and lungs. We humans, as the owners of the planet, must stand united in recognizing and fulfilling our responsibility to the oceans.
However, the 2023 UN Sustainable Development Report shows that development in Life Below Water (SDG14) is not advancing at the rate or scale needed to reach the goal. To reverse these trends, rapid and concerted global action is imperative. Therefore, CAU-China has made efforts to solve the problems existing in SDG14, aiming at the following points:
However, the 2023 UN Sustainable Development Report shows that development in Life Below Water (SDG14) is not advancing at the rate or scale needed to reach the goal. To reverse these trends, rapid and concerted global action is imperative. Therefore, CAU-China has made efforts to solve the problems existing in SDG14, aiming at the following points:
14.1 By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.
14.4 By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics.
How?
14.1 Our project will reduce Marine pollution mainly in the following two aspects:
01 The processing of fish oil.
Fish oil processing in industrial production is a part of “fish production processing”. According to Environmental, health, and safety guidelines for food and beverage processing by the World Bank, environmental problems in fish products processing projects mainly include the following aspects:
- Solid waste
- Wastewater
- Energy consumption
- Emissions to air
Among them, in terms of wastewater, fish product processing requires a large amount of water, and the wastewater generated by fish product treatment contains a large number of organic components, which is great pollution to the oceans.
Our project produces the effective constituent of fish oil by the way of nodule factory, which can effectively reduce the pollution of the oceans.
02 The application of fertilizer.
In agricultural production, the extensive use of chemical fertilizer has a significant impact on the oceans, especially the imbalance of soil nutrient structure and water eutrophication are becoming worse and worse with the increase of fertilizer input.
Another advantage of the nodule factory is that the nodule has the function of nitrogen-fixing. Soybean, as a kind of leguminous plant, is a widely grown crop in the world. Leguminous plants have the unique structure of nodule. It is just based on this special feature of soybeans so that we choose soybeans as the object of our project, modeling the nodule of soybeans.
We hope that the nodule factory can increase added value to soybeans, so that farmers can gain more incentives to grow soybeans. As a result, the nitrogen fixation effect of soybeans and the promotion can be used and the intercropping or rotation planting methods planting methods can be promoted. This will reduce the application of chemical fertilizer when planting plants other than legumes to a certain extent and finally, reduce the pollution of the oceans due to excessive fertilization.
14.4 Our project will reduce the problem of overfishing in the following aspect
Fish oil is made from oily fish such as cod, mackerel, sardines, tuna, and anchovies. Because anchovies are rich in EPA and DHA, about 38,000 tons of anchovy fish oil enter the market each year, according to The Global Organization for EPA & DHA Omega-3s (GOED). Moreover, most Omega-3 fish oil supplements are made from Peruvian anchovies. According to statistics, Peru catches more than 4 million tons of anchovies every year. Consumer’s demand for fish oil is spurring companies to scale up their operations, which are already worth billions of dollars, increasing the risk that anchovies will be overfished, putting more pressure on Marine ecosystems.
According one of the vice presidents of Oceana Perú, "We catch millions of tons of anchovies every year, making Marine ecosystems more vulnerable to El Nino and climate change."
CAU-China hopes to use the nodule factory to produce DHA and EPA. If it is successful and put into production, it can alleviate the market demand for high-quality DHA and EPA fish oil to some extent, thereby reducing overfishing and damage to Marine ecosystems in the production process.
Feedback from stakeholders
In Zhuozhou, Hebei province, we interviewed senior agricultural machinery engineer Zhao Qiang. He gives us some instructions on fertilizer application and the methods of planting crops.
"When planting soybeans, the method is to ‘meet the stubble’, which refers to the planting method of ‘soybean-wheat-soybean’. In this way, soil nutrients can be used efficiently and the occurrence of soybean wilt can be avoided."
Zhao Qiang’s words give us confidence in using nodule factory to alleviate pollution of the oceans.
SDG#17 Partnerships for the goals
Why SDG#17?
“The path to greatness is never lonely, together we journey, achieving what's lofty.” “Do not go gently into that good night.” Goal 17 is dedicated to revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for action by all countries – developed and developing – to ensure no one is left behind. It requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society. As a team participating in iGEM, we are honored to be part of the iGEM community. We have discovered a world brimming with vibrant young minds who share our focus and echo our concerns.
Let’s concentrate on this year's CAU-China project—Nodule Factory. To implement the concept and technology, it is essential to engage in dialogue and cooperation with experts from various fields, including botanists, microbiologists, and agricultural scientists. Through these exchanges, we can assess the feasibility and practicality of our project, and explore solutions to potential technical, economic and social challenges in its promotion. Additionally, spreading the concept of symbiosis is crucial for the dissemination of Nodule Factory. This includes raising public awareness of the importance of biological nitrogen fixation and garnering support for sustainable agriculture. Education, media advocacy, and community events can enhance public understanding and acceptance of this cutting-edge technology. In summary, we recognize that our project requires multidisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration and communication, as well as widespread dissemination and feedback. Only by building upon collective efforts can we unleash its immense potential for sustainable agriculture.
Our Network of Partners
1.iGEMers
Aligning with Goal 17.16, "Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial resources to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries," we have established partnerships with multiple competing teams.
2024.9.7
We participated in the "2024 iG20 SDG Meetup," an event coordinated by the iGEM Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Synthetic Biology Industry-Academia-Research Forum (iGBA) and jointly hosted by the iGEM teams from the University of Macau (UM-Macau), South China University of Technology (SCUT-China-S), Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai (BNUZH-China), and Northwest University (NWU-China-A). The conference featured distinguished guests such as Mr. Bao Yuhan as the liaison officer and Human Practices project coordinator of the iGEM Foundation, and Isaac Nana Kofi from the Macau Greater China Association.
During the meeting, we presented our project's initiatives and contributions towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and listened intently to the reports from other teams. Mr. Bao's address at the conference was particularly impactful and enlightening. He highlighted the distinctiveness and significance of the SDGs and expressed his satisfaction that we were focusing on Goal 17, which may embody a more profound vision of unity. Mr. Bao also emphasized the philosophy underpinning the SDGs, which revolves around environmental, social, and economic development. This prompted us to reflect on the environmental, social, and economic implications of each sub-goal we have chosen and to consider the impact we have made and the further actions we can take to create lasting effects in these three dimensions.
In conclusion, the conference facilitated profound exchanges with other teams dedicated to the SDGs and deepened our understanding of the core principles of sustainable development. It has provided us with valuable insights that guide our ongoing work towards the SDGs.
2.Enterprise
We are honored to have interviewed Professor Hongli Yuan from the College of Biological Sciences at China Agricultural University, who also serves as a corporate science and technology consultant for Shandong Liangtu Biological Co., Ltd. Liangtu Biology focuses on the innovative application of agricultural microbial technology, and many of their microbial fertilizers have been used in “WeiGuang Plan”. They have also created a "one more step" model, which is an innovative exploration of transforming achievements into increased income for farmers.
During our conversation with Professor Yuan, we learned a great deal. She believes that our Nodule Factory is an excellent project and has offered us some advice on establishing partnerships with enterprises. First, we need to complete our experiments and proof in the laboratory. Then, if we want to move towards enterprises and production, we should apply for a patent certificate. After selecting an enterprise, we can transfer the patent and let the enterprise take the remaining "two steps."
In terms of enterprise selection, Professor Yuan introduced us to the enterprise connected with “WeiGuang Plan”. This is an alumni enterprise with some of our university's biological agriculture experts serving as backbone members. Such an enterprise can be trusted in terms of scientific and technological level; as it knows what kind of technology is needed to support its products. In addition, Professor Yuan also highly approves of Liangtu Biology's "one more step" model. Simply put, this model is not only about cooperating with enterprises to develop scientific and technological achievements into green agricultural products but also about bringing technology to the countryside together with the enterprise, from the laboratory to the factory and then to the fields. “WeiGuang Plan” can "bring technology to the countryside," fully developing the human resources of rural women. Young and middle-aged women are willing to learn new knowledge and skills; many of them have even become product agents, helping to guide production in several villages. They come from the fields and return to the fields. We are delighted to see the employment opportunities behind these two models and the prosperous prospects of agriculture; this is definitely a sustainable development method. Helping more impoverished areas in a sustainable way is also the future we hope for our Nodule Factory.
For more interviews, please see iHP-Hongli Yuan- Professor of Microbiology and Immunology.
3.Educational institution
Dandelion Middle School is the first middle school in Beijing approved by the government specifically for the children of migrant workers. It is a privately-funded, non-profit, public-welfare civilian school. This summer vacation, we accomplished a lot of educational work at Dandelion Middle School, for more details, see Goal 4 Quality Education.
We have established a good relationship with Dandelion Middle School, and CAU-China has been a volunteer there for two consecutive years and will continue to do so in the future. At the same time, we will also share the contact channels with other teams. We believe that Dandelion Middle School will have more iGEMers in the future, and we believe that this kind of experienced cooperation will go further.
『Your eyes are so sparkling; we want to come to you and shake your hands.』
4.School association
The Outdoor Sports Club of China Agricultural University was established on December 4, 2003. Each year, it organizes activities such as rock climbing, orienteering, and mountain climbing, adhering to the club spirit of " enduring hardship, unity and cooperation, daring to win, and bravely climbing to new heights." From July 31 to August 9, 2024, the team went to Wulong Village and Zhuoyu Village in Zhanang County, Shannan City, Tibet Autonomous Region, to carry out a 10-day teaching support activity. During this period, we provided synthetic biology related courses for the children through online live streaming, for more details, see Goal 4 Quality Education.
The Outdoor Sports Club of China Agricultural University goes to Tibet for teaching support every year. This year is our first time cooperating by providing recorded video courses, and the effect is very good. Both sides look forward to establishing a long-term cooperation. We have also invited other teams to produce a series of online science popularization courses together, to convey the beautiful vision of knowledge to the children in Tibet.
『Your smiling faces are so bright; we want to embrace you across thousands of miles.』
5.Non-Governmental Organization
The "Science and Technology Backyard" is a concept that integrates "science and technology with rural courtyards". It is a platform where university faculty and students, along with scientific researchers from institutions, go to "farmer's courtyards" to engage in scientific research and serve the agricultural, rural, and farmer communities. The aim is to drive rural entrepreneurship with technological innovation, essentially writing high-quality papers on the vast land of rural areas, and using scientific achievements to help farmers increase their income and wealth.
In 2019, the China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard project was officially launched with the support of organizations such as China Agricultural University, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The main purpose of the project is to create a model that can be shared in Africa, help local farmers get, understand and apply technology, and have a certain impact on the green transformation of African agriculture.
We are honored to have interviewed one of the leaders of the China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard project, Xiaoqiang Jiao, an associate professor at the College of Resources and Environmental Sciences of CAU. From him, we gained more information about the Science and Technology Backyard in Africa. We also consulted with Francina Lerato Kuwali, an agricultural extension worker. These consultations allowed us to understand a lot of practical knowledge and see the possibility of the Nodule Factory being implemented through the means of the Science and Technology Backyard. We also gained recognition from the consultees and see the possibility of cooperation.
Xiaoqiang Jiao-Professor of Agricultural Resources and Environment
Mr. Jiao shared the operational model of the China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard and the current state of production in Malawi with us. The high costs of import and transportation make fertilizers in Malawi quite expensive. Moreover, there is a scarcity of processing factories, with the majority of soybeans being utilized for oil extraction, resulting in a limited industrial chain. However, Malawi boasts excellent natural conditions with extended sunlight hours, high oil content in soybeans and low land rental fees, which facilitate production activities. It is under these circumstances that our university has established a partnership with Malawi, leading to the establishment of the China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard. Mr. Jiao believes that our rhizobia inoculants could be effectively used in Malawi, potentially increasing income of local farmers. He also suggests adopting the current model of leading farmers to enhance the efficiency of implementation. Furthermore, we aspire to assist more low-income countries, and Mr. Jiao advises us to consider countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, beginning with those where small-scale farmers are predominant.
Mr. Jiao was optimistic about our project and introduced us to Francina Lerato Kuwali, a 35-year-old student from the China Agricultural University in Malawi. She is an agricultural extension worker who manages to triple the local corn yield compared to the average and is in the process of implementing the maize-soybean intercropping technique.
Francina Lerato Kuwali-Agricultural Extension Worker
Kuwali thought there was a good chance that our rhizobia inoculants could increase the yield and additional value of soybeans. She was very interested in our project and she also thought that it could bring economic value to local people if we succeed in using S. fredii to produce the main components of fish oil. She also confirmed our idea about transporting DHA from root nodules to soybean, believing that it could increase the income of local farmers. She believes that the idea has great academic research value. In summary, our project is worth a try.As she said, “I think it needs to be tried out. There is no problem in trying it and it looks like a good project to me.”
For more interviews, see the iHP page.
In addition to establishing Multi-stakeholder partnerships, our learning, exploration, and model construction regarding the “WeiGuang Plan” and the Science and Technology Backyard have also met other sub-goals within SDG#17. For instance, the business model of these two mature projects has contributed to sub-goal 17.3, which is to “mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources”. As the Science and Technology Backyard itself is a mature and outstandingly contributing system, we are honored to have engaged in exchanges, learning and reflection, which has contributed to sub-goal 17.5, “adopting and implementing investment promotion regimes for least developed countries”; sub-goal 17.6, “enhancing South-South and international cooperation on and access to science, technology, and innovation, and enhancing knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms”; sub-goal 17.9, “enhancing international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the Sustainable Development Goals”; and sub-goal 17.15, “respecting each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development”.
Sustainability
Currently, we have established a good cooperative relationship with the Dandelion Middle School and the Tibet Teaching Team of the Outdoor Sports Club, and we warmly welcome the participation of other iGEMers. We are delighted to establish such a sustainable cooperation platform.
“WeiGuang Plan” and the China-Africa Science and Technology Backyard that our school is involved in are also long-term cooperation platforms. We are delighted to see the potential for our projects to be implemented through these two avenues during the interview. In the future, we will actively collaborate, transform results through alumni enterprises, assist more people in rural areas of our country and underdeveloped regions of the world, and welcome partners who share our vision.
Positive long-term impacts
Our project will have a sustainable long-term impact on the construction of Goal 17 and the sustainable society.
Economy: In the long-term development perspective, partnerships not only enhance the ability to mobilize resources but also improve the efficiency of technology deployment, which has a significant positive impact on the sustainable growth of the economy. By establishing solid cooperative relationships, all parties can share resources, knowledge, and technology, thereby achieving the optimal allocation and utilization of resources.
Society: Through education and training, we bring passion and sincerity to the learners. Also, the concepts of sustainability and coexistence to the people, which can enhance social equity and inclusiveness. At the same time, we attempt to complete a more mature cycle of dissemination-feedback-improvement-re-dissemination through our network of partnerships, which is supported by the rules of policies and also provides practical examples for the formulation of future rules.
Environment: Our project has expanded the application areas and populations of rhizobia inoculants through a partnership network, which has a positive long-term impact on environmental protection. At the same time, the resource management and allocation that come with the partnership are also an important part of environmental protection and hold significant meaning.
References
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals website (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment) Statement: "The content of this wiki page has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or member states."
- United Nations. "Sustainability." United Nations, n.d., www.un.org/sustainability.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2021). Summary for policymakers. In Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (pp. 1-29). Cambridge University Press.
- Cottom, J. W., Cook, E., & Velis, C. A. (2024). A local-to-global emissions inventory of macroplastic pollution. Nature, 633, 101-108.
- Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China. (2020). 2020 Annual Report on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste in Large and Medium-sized Cities.
- Prando, A. M., Barbosa, J. Z., de Oliveira, A. B., Nogueira, M. A., Possamai, E. J., & Hungria, M. (2024). Benefits of soybean co-inoculation with Bradyrhizobium spp. and Azospirillum brasilense: Large-scale validation with farmers in Brazil. European Journal of Agronomy, 127112.
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China. (2022). Action Plan for the Reduction of Chemical Fertilizer Use by 2025.
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China. (2021). Guidance on Scientific Fertilizer Application for Major Crops in the Spring of 2021.
- The World Bank. (2007). Environmental, health, and safety guidelines for food and beverage processing.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals web site: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment
Statement: The content of this publication has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States.