“The Phytobiomes Roadmap builds on the premise that innovative and sustainable approaches to food, feed and fiber production will be achieved through integrating knowledge of agricultural system at multiple scales. The success of this systems approach will require international collaborations of scientists with diverse expertise who can collect and interpret data that integrate interactions among organisms and their environments. It is such an exciting time to be an agricultural scientist!”
Jan Leach
University Distinguished Professor, Colorado State University
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“By bringing together all ongoing initiatives from diverse scientific disciplines and connecting the dots between fundamental science and application, we aim to provide growers with practical tools with which each farmer manages his/her own crop biomes for maximum efficiency, sustainability, and profitability”
Kellye Eversole
Executive Director, Eversole Associates
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“The last decade has been an exciting time to be a microbiologist, as new technologies are allowing us to probe deeply into vast microbial communities in soils, plants and animals. These tools are like a new telescope that is bringing the blur of these communities into sharp focus. The Phytobiomes Roadmap provides a vision of integrating the many diverse components of agroecosystems, including the environment, all of the macroorganisms, and this new frontier of microorganisms, into a systems-level understanding. This Roadmap provides a framework for generating this understanding and translating it into practices that will support sustainable agricultural productivity into the future.”
Gwyn Beattie
Professor, Iowa State University
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“The phytobiomes initiative builds upon the exciting advances in our understanding of the complex networks of interaction that support plant productivity. The Phytobiomes Roadmap provides a clear vision and a `to do’ list that will engage scientists from diverse disciplines in building our capacities to sustainably manage phytobiomes to support global food, feed, and fiber needs. It has been a privilege to be a part of this process!”
Linda Kinkel
Professor, University of Minnesota
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“We are at a crossroads in history where there are now many powerful approaches to understand the complex interactions involving the many organisms and the physical and chemical world in which plants grow. The Phytobiomes Roadmap will serve as a call to the international research community to recognize the needs and opportunities to further develop and apply this science to attain more productive and sustainable agricultural systems. I am excited at the prospects that our new-found knowledge of crops will result in a new paradigm in agriculture that enables us to continue to meet future demands for food and fiber.”
Steven Lindow
Professor, University of California Berkeley
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“We believe the goals of the Phytobiomes Roadmap will help achieve our grand challenge to sustainably improve the human condition for a growing global population in a changing environment.”
Ellen Bergfeld
CEO of American Society of Agronomy,
Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America
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“The phytobiomes initiative’s whole system approach represents the visionary thinking required to solve the pressing problems that face agriculture. Like the Soil Health Institute, the phytobiomes initiative is what the agriculture research sector has been needing for a long time. We appreciate the broad approach and foresight they bring. In addition, the phytobiomes initiative strives to understand the fundamental workings of our natural systems so that we can improve agricultural productivity, while being good stewards of these resources. Their research will produce critical outcomes and shape agriculture globally for generations to come.”
Bill Buckner
Board Chairman, Soil Health Institute
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“Coordinating deep, cross-disciplinary approaches to elucidating, manipulating and ultimately harnessing the phytobiome is a critical approach to enabling science to meet the world’s increasing demands for food, feed, fiber and fuels in a sustainable manner.”
Steve Evans
Fellow, Dow AgroSciences
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“Understanding the interactions among plants, microbes and the environment is crucial to develop and maintain a sustainable crop productivity. The phytobiomes initiative, by using cross-disciplinary approaches, will bridge basic research to novel and viable agricultural solutions. I believe the outcome of the Phytobiome research will fill a technical gap, essential to shaping new and sustainable farming systems.”
Magalie Guilhabert-Goya
Head of Global Crop Efficiency, CropScience Biologics Research, Bayer
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“The American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) supports the vision and strategies described in the Phytobiomes Roadmap. Plants (row crops or pastures) are the main sources of feed for livestock and poultry. ASAS believes that a comprehensive understanding of phytobiomes will improve the productivity and efficiency of crop production and pasture-based grazing systems thereby ensuring sustainable livestock and poultry production systems to meet the growing global demand for animal-sourced foods.”
Deb Hamernik
President-Elect, American Society of Animal Science
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