I went to the University of Swansea UK-IPM conference last week to speak about how we engage farmers in research and close the loop on feedback into the industry, in my view the missing piece in the puzzle when it comes to understanding the end user.
The relevancy of the collection of speakers at the New IPM conference at Swansea University for everyone working in the food system is thoroughly exciting and a lot of other conferences could learn a lot about the interconnectedness and whole food system approach that has exploded out of the original IPM focus. The things that got me most excited are as follows…
Gene silencing in apples, which stops the browning of the fruit and reduces juice waste. Similarly gene silencing is being used in soybeans to reduce saturated fat, improve fatty acid content, and improve stability for better longevity and less spoilage – two things that are really exciting in this space.
Following on from that, there’s also gene editing of microbes, modifying soil bacteria to boost nutrient uptake in crops, and you can certainly see the relevance there when it comes to nutrient density in the fresh produce we’re going to be consuming over the coming years.
There’s also the use of chemical lures to draw beneficial insects away from traditional field edges, where many butterflies and other insects like to hang out, into the centre of fields where there’s more of a homogenous crop, encouraging pest management in a more natural way without the use of sprays.
Welcome news too that potatoes have been found to contain carb-managing sugars that were previously undetectable in lab tests, so they aren’t actually the “bad guy” they’ve been cast as. Thank you to Robert Nash for identifying that.
What’s happening at the John Innes Centre is really exciting. They’ve developed purple tomatoes that extended the lifespan of cancer-prone mice by 30%, and they’re also working on a “sunshine tomato”, gene-edited for natural vitamin D fortification, to help resolve vitamin D deficiency in Europe through precision breeding.
It’s also interesting that consumer understanding of the term “regenerative” in relation to farming was under 10% across all age groups in the sample, except the over-65s, something I found particularly interesting as it’s a space we’ve worked in with consumers quite extensively.
There was a great presentation on a scheme we’ve worked closely with both ADAS and the Agri-Tech Centre on, identifying over 200 farmers now taking part…the ADOPT scheme is worth a look if you are a farmer with an idea.
We also learned from BioHub, based at the University of Swansea, that 90% of all innovative food products fail within their first two years.
Another one that stood out from the consumer space was a Mondelez sponsored research piece on multi-component foods and the effect on eating behaviours – lots of pictures of biscuits with different distributions of their toppings, looking at how that might impact satiety and eating behaviour in terms of over- or under-eating.
Finally, back to tomatoes, we found that China likes little pink tomatoes and America favours beefsteak tomatoes with not so much flavour.
And thanks to Jerry from the Soil Association for confirming what we already knew, that farmers don’t like links, they don’t do digital, and they still very much like paper regardless of age.
A couple of other bits that stood out to me: the use of fungi as a potential central part of our diets in future, and the recovery of micronutrients to replace synthetic ones – recycling within a supply chain using waste products that already exist.
It was also heartening to see so many social scientists in a space that’s traditionally been reserved for lab-based technicians, and to see how well the two worked together, the ideas complementing each other. That’s something I think we need to see more of at these kinds of conferences, to stop ideas being siloed.
Beyond all of these individual bits though, what I really took from it was how much this all plays into the whole food system in the work we do, and how we’ve got to stop treating these elements in silos. This was one of the first events I’ve been to where I thought integrated pest management was going to be the key focus, whereas actually it touched on so many other areas impacted by IPM that it really felt like it took a whole system view, covering a much broader picture of agriculture, while still being specific and niche enough in the scientific detail to keep the audience engaged.
My colleague Emma had attended in previous years, and she noted there was a lot more talk this time about working in a practical way with land use operatives and farmers than there had been before, which was the crux of my own talk, around how to engage farmers in research when farmers aren’t always the most open to taking part.
The subject of my talk was “Turning Eye Rolls into Insights”, and it covered how we’ve grown the Five Bar Gate panel into a community that’s genuinely engaged in research and willing to take part, because they feel part of the process being developed, not just a contributor to be exploited.
The science side from Emma….
And from Emma, our in-house agronomist, who was watching it all through a rather more scientific lens:
Richard Garnett’s session on RNAi and gene silencing was particularly interesting, especially the idea of developing this as a spray application. There was also a fascinating look at controlling varroa mite in honeybees, and, sticking with the genetics theme, gene-edited microbes fitted with genetic “switches” that kick in to convert ammonia when nitrogen levels are low.
Michelle Fountain’s talk on aphid control was another one I enjoyed. With so few active ingredients now available, multiple aphid species have become a real problem across a whole range of horticultural crops. Michelle talked about how encouraging early leaf drop in orchards could be used to confuse the female rosy apple aphid and prevent them returning in autumn.
Like Clare, I was also struck by the purple tomatoes and their link to longer life in mice – it’s the anthocyanins doing the work, so I’ve come away determined to get more purple fruit and veg into my diet.
James Fortune’s talk was another engaging session. As someone who spent years doing field trials, his stories about cutting open endless onions struck a real chord – I spent many days nearly in tears counting tillers or weighing roots, so at least he had onions to blame.
Karina’s talk on denitrification took me right back to my soil science days at university, although I must confess most of it went well over my head, but anything that helps support nutrient efficiency is going to be a good thing.
The session on fungal diversity was fascinating too, particularly how fungi thrive in nutrient-rich environments but can also grow on nutrient-poor media, and their potential both to break down plastic polymers and to be used as biocontrol products. The latter really interests me given my old job in biologicals.
All in all, a brilliantly varied few days, and, despite what Clare thinks, mostly well outside my comfort zone. It’s just as well we have a great network of clever people doing all the really complicated work!
It was a thrill to present at this event, even though it was highly intimidating, and it was wonderful to have Emma, our in-house agronomist, sitting next to me for much of it, explaining some of the more scientific terms and bearing with me as I asked ridiculous questions about drought-resilient plants.
We hope to be working closely with the organisers on the 2027 IPM symposium, so if this sounds like your kind of thing, please get in touch so we can help make sure a wider audience knows about this fantastic event.