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Precision Agriculture Precision Agriculture for #ZeroHunger 2030 for #ZeroHunger 2030 www.israelagri.com www.israelagri.com World Food Day 2019 Precision Agriculture: towards October 2019 #ZeroHunger World by 2030 Summary

The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture,

The Robert H Smith Food and Environment, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

4 About the Robert H. Smith Faculty of 14 Novel PeptideBased Agents for Agriculture, Food and Environment, Management of Bacterial Plant Diseases The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Saul Burdman, Dr. Zvi Hayouka

6 Food and Nutrition - 16 A Warning Sign: The Impact of The Yin and Yang of Life Environmental and Food Contaminants on Cow Reproduction 8 All You Want to Know About Nutrition Dr. Dorit Kalo, Alisa Komsky-Elbaz, Prof. Zvi Roth

10 From the Vineyard to The Bottle 19 Reducing Food Waste to Prevent Hunger Prof. Zohar Kerem and Improve Diets: Does Donated Agricultural Surplus Improve the Diet of 12 Circadian Rhythms and Food Food-Bank Users? Prof. Oren Froy Prof. Aron M. Troen

2 World Food Day - October 2019 22 The Study of Food Impact on Physiology and Health Prof. Efrat Monsonego-Ornan, Janna Zaretsky, Shelley Griess Fishenheimer, Tamara Shmul, Reut Rozner, Roni Sides, Svetta Pen

24 The wild side of climate-resilience wheat Prof. Zvi Peleg, Dr. Nimrod Schwartz, Dr. Guy Golan, Harel Bacher, Elisha Hendel, Yoav Sharaby Photo: Greg Solomon 26 Honey Bees Balance Their Nutrition Prof. Sharoni Shafir

28 Pollination Services by Wild Pollinators Dr. Yael Mandelik

Precision Agriculture & FoodTech Technology 30 "Precision Agriculture is The Only Way to Sustainable Farming" An interview with Naty Barak, Netafim

32 Irrigation Decision Support from Outer Space An interview with Hovav Lapidot, Manna Irrigation

34 Biohumigat for Greenhouse Table Grapes - to be One Step Ahead of Everyone Yakov Henig, Gat Fertilizers

36 Grasshoppers: Sustainable, Healthy Protein to Feed a Hungry World Dror Tamir, Hargol FoodTech

37 Innovative Technology to Reduce Damage of Plant Fungus and Leaf Disease Yaniv Kitron, BotanoHealth

38 The Crucial Role of The Secondary Nutrients in Sustainable Agriculture Dr. Patricia Imas, ICL Fertilizers

3 The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, change scenario knowing that the available land for farming Food and Environment is the only institute of higher education is decreasing, water resources are declining, and that the in Israel which offers university degree in Agricultural Sciences. majority of the population will be based in cities. To meet these As one of the world’s leading faculties of sustainable agriculture, challenges, we at the Smith’s Faculty of Agriculture promote food sciences and environmental conservation, the Faculty advance teaching and research programs. offers academic programs leading to B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. Agroinformatics is a new and unique teaching program which degrees in Agriculture, B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Nutrition and provides undergraduate students with theoretical and practical a degree in Doctor of Veterinary Medicine by the Koret School knowledge of modern computational approaches. It is an of Veterinary Medicine. interdisciplinary field of knowledge that combines the world The Smith’s Faculty of Agriculture aims to help the local and of agriculture, food and the environment with the world of global societies to eliminate hunger and malnutrition while mathematics, computer science, physics and engineering. preserving our natural resources. As the only college of Today, modern technology makes it possible to obtain data Agriculture in Israel, we are committed to train and educate the from sensors located in the field, from macro- and micro- next generation of world-class experts in agricultural sciences. level imaging, genome analysis and more. The only way to use this information effectively is by developing new ways for The challenges we need to meet are enormous - The world’s storage and organization, processing and analyzing. For that population is expected to increase to ~10 billion by 2050. In we use mathematical algorithms, models, computer software, order to continue the current food demand ("business as usual"), statistical tools and mechanical learning. By doing so we have the global agricultural sector will have to increase the food the opportunity to connect millions of pieces of information to a supply by ~70%. This must be done under an uncertain climate complete picture which allows you to identify and learn patterns

4 World Food Day - October 2019 even before they are visible and shown. At a later stage, this knowledge enables the development of new technologies and advanced agricultural practices, which can provide food security to the growing population while keeping the environment and natural resources safe.

The Agroinformatics program is open for students who wish to expand their knowledge in modern computational approaches and to acquire both theoretical and practical capabilities in the field. The program provides its’ graduates a variety of computational abilities. Starting from a strong mathematical background which is combined with basic and advanced programming skills, on to knowledge in writing models and The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment’s research performing simulations followed up by statistical tests, and activity is focused under four central research themes: the capability of analyzing “Big Data” such as bioinformatics, Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture - the physiology of image processing, remote sensing, precision agriculture, the production and the reciprocal relations of the agricultural and mechanical learning. Graduates of the Agroinformatics growth with its environment; genetics, evolution, breeding program have a significant advantage, both in their integration and agricultural genomics; biotechnology, cell biology and process within the employment market and in obtaining organism biology; applied ecology, preservation of nature and opportunities for studying advanced degrees in leading management of open fields. institutions both in Israel and abroad. Animal Health and Husbandry - animal physiology; biology The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and of reproduction processes; feeding of ruminants; animal Environment is strongly involved in the innovation ecosystems immunology; environmental physiology of animals. and is dedicated to enhancing local and international For more information: collaborations. The AgTech and FoodTech challenges are The Department of Animal Sciences formidable and urgent, and one of the important ways to overcome these challenges is to join forces across disciplines. Koret School of Veterinary Medicine Our faculty members are thus involved in multiple themed centers at the Hebrew University, including Cannabinoids Nutrigenomics and Functional Food - biochemistry and Research Center, CIDR Center for Interdisciplinary Data Sciences microbiology of food; the chemistry and physics of the Research, Nano-Center and more, aiming to bring the most production process and food preservation; nutritional values creative solutions to the Food and Ag challenges. Combined and physiology from the single cell level to the whole organism; with the proactive and open policy of the Yissum TTO office, functional foods and probiotics; nutrition and metabolistic the long standing legacy of scientific innovation at the Faculty diseases. is continuing to strive to create scientific breakthrough research Read more about: for the global challenges. The Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition

One of the Faculty’s exciting initiatives, is the student Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources - entrepreneurial club FaculTech. Today, our community is investigation of the soil-water-plant-atmosphere continuum home to over 850 students and alumni. Together with the in relation to water uptake, fertilization and pollution; HUJI Innovate Center of the Hebrew University, the AgFood environmental microbiology; fungus-bacteria-plant relations; Venture Creation Studio program was inaugurated. Several synthetic biology of the microorganism; development of new interdisciplinary teams worked for several months in this solutions to agricultural pests; pollination quality improvement program. One of the teams matured into the award winning in different growths, narrowing usage of pesticides; agroecology Kinoko startup for food of tomorrow, based on mushrooms and and preservation of nature; environmental economics and lentils. management of natural resources; economy of the agricultural sector and agricultural policy; water resource economics; food products marketing, development initiatives in agribusiness. Read more about: The Department of Entomology The Department of Environmental Economics and Management The Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology The Department of Soil and Water Sciences

5 Food and Nutrition - The Yin and Yang of Life

The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen

The Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition Institute focuses on biochemistry, food sciences, and nutrition. directed by Prof. Oren Froy engages in a wide range of cutting- The research ranges from basic to applied science and often edge research endeavors dedicated to studying the effects of combines interdisciplinary collaborations among scientists nutrients on health at the molecular, cellular, and physiological from the faculty and from all over the world. levels, as well as the molecular composition, physical and chemical properties and technological aspects of foods. Food In addition, the Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and safety and food security are also the main research goals of the Nutrition awards degrees at both the undergraduate and Institute. graduate levels with high admission standards. Each year 170 students are awarded bachelor’s degrees (70 in Biochemistry According to an age-old saying, a person is what he eats. The and Food Science and 100 in Nutritional Science), 40 are Institute fosters a multidisciplinary research environment that awarded master’s degrees, and 100 are enrolled in both the combines biochemical and medical expertise in nutrition and Masters and PhD programs. Every other year, the Institute holds metabolism with an understanding of the chemistry, physics, an International MSc Nutritional Sciences Program, hosting microbiology and technology of food and food components. students from all around the world. The staff includes 13 research scientists and 3 full-time teaching members. The Institute researchers and their research topics are: Prof. Oren Froy: Molecular analysis of the biological clock This outstanding Institute offers well-equipped facilities and in mammals. Effect of food on the biological clock. Obesity, laboratories, state-of-the-art equipment, information resources metabolism and diabeses & the biological clock. Meal timing. and friendly and dedicated team. When combined with the The circadian clock and ageing. beauty of the Faculty, the Institute is an exciting and pleasant place to study and conduct research. The relatively small campus Prof. Betty Schwartz: Elucidation of the nature of interaction enables staff and students from the Institute to interact with between nutrients and genes involved in mechanisms other people in the Faculty in a stimulating and professional associated with cellular homeostasis, especially those environment. governing the maintenance & health of the gastrointestinal tract. Visiting scientists, exchange students, and post-doctoral fellows from around the world enhance the important exchange Prof. Oren Tirosh: Elucidation of cellular and molecular action of of new ideas in the Institute. Research and studies in the dietary antioxidants. Understanding the physiological beneficial

6 World Food Day - October 2019 Prof. Ido Braslavsky: Biophysics, Food Biophysics, Ice Physics, Cryopreservation, Ice binding proteins, Antifreeze protein investigation with fluorescence microscopy and microfluidic devices, 3D printing of food materials.

Prof. Masha Niv: Taste perception and behavioral effects. Molecular recognition, genotype-sensory interactions and structure-taste relations of bitter and sweet compounds. Prediction of taste based on chemical structure, sensory evaluation, classification of bitter molecules.

Prof. Zohar Kerem: Health promoting natural products from edible plants (the seven species): extraction, separation, structure elucidation, and characterization of modes of action. Special emphasis on saponins and polyphenols.

Dr. Roni Shapira: Molecular characterization of regulating elements involved in bacteriocin production in lactic acid bacteria. Using bacteriocins in food systems for shelf life extension and controlling pathogens.

Dr. Zvi Hayouka: Food-borne and other infectious enteric diseases are significant sources of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The high demand for minimally processed, easily prepared and ready-to-eat ‘fresh’ food products poses a major challenge for food safety and quality.

Dr. Ido Goldstein: Regulation of gene expression in the liver and how this regulation affects liver biology. Gene regulatory or pathological deleterious effects of reactive oxygen species networks that mediate the liver’s response to nutritional status (ROS) in cellular and biological systems. such as fasting, ketogenic diet, iron overload etc. Prof. Aron Troen: Homocysteine, Folate, vitamin B12 and one-carbon metabolism. Cerebral blood flow & metabolism Dr. Aliza Stark: Nutrition education and health promotion in age-associated cognitive decline; Nutritional prevention of to improve dietary habits in Israel. Populations include cerebrovascular disease & dementia. soldiers, Ethiopian families, schoolchildren and the mentally handicapped. Clinical Nutrition Projects including developing Prof. Efrat Monsonego-Ornan: Nutritional and environmental the Nutrition Care Process in Israel. aspects of bone development; Cellular mechanisms underlying the effects of the western diet components and mechanical Dr. Anna Aronis: Dietary supplements in health and disease. loading on the process of endochondral ossification. Nutritional assessment of specific population groups in hospitals.

Prof. Hagai Abeliovich: Starvation-induced membrane dynamics Dr. Merav Fichman: Implementation and application of in eukaryotic cells. Membrane trafficking and mitochondrial computational methodologies for the design of new and quality control in baker’s yeast. Metabolic engineering of improved natural and food compounds. Exploring structural yeast for the production of plant secondary metabolites in the features in proteins responsible for ligands activity and specificity. production of functional foods.

7 All You Want to Know About Nutrition

The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen

The School of Nutritional Sciences, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"Tell Me What You Eat and I’ll Tell You Who You Are" all, based on knowledge obtained by scientists, using accepted (Jean-Anthelm Berrier-Severin) scientific methods, in studies conducted at the best universities in the world. Our lives are largely conducted around food: joys, routines, relationships, loves and professional choices. Food relates to Proper nutrition is our first defense against diseases and every facet of our lives, and from a professional point of view our energy source for life and activities. Health problems it is related to teaching, research, nutrition education and the caused by inadequate nutrition can be many, and when they definition of this profession in the world. affect an entire generation of children and adolescents, they What is the nutritional profession? "Science that deals with can reduce learning abilities, thus jeopardizing their future, food in relation to physiological processes that depend on its propagating generations of poverty and malnutrition, with absorption and use by the body (growth, energy creation, tissue serious consequences for the individual and society. While repair, etc.). Nutrition also deals with the outcomes of deficiency young children are most vulnerable to malnutrition, the right to related diseases and diets". This is a scientific profession first of adequate nutrition is universal. However, still now, problems of

8 World Food Day - October 2019 malnutrition, specific deficiencies and obesity are present in all Researchers and lecturers at the school study various aspects of countries and cross social and economic strata. nutrition with an interest in the basic understanding of physiological, biochemical, cellular, and molecular processes applied through Emerging challenges, such as climate change, environmental human studies, preclinical models in animals and cell systems. We sustainability, etc., are changing the food systems and raising are all united under the goal of striving for excellence in education, questions about how to feed the growing world population patient care, research and community service. in sustainable ways. Furthermore, uneven economic growth, social changes, and other factors shape the food and nutrition We live in a period of extraordinary progress in the basic systems, and as a result, the prevalence of overweight, obesity sciences. It is clear to us today that a better understanding of and associated diseases. the field of nutrition will enable the prevention of most chronic diseases in modern society. However, all scientific achievements The School of Nutritional Sciences was established in 1969 to will have no effect if they are not applied to community service. educate clinical dieticians and nutritionists and to promote Accordingly, students and lecturers are trying to develop a research in the field of nutrition sciences. Almost all of the better understanding of the barriers associated with the transfer leaders in the field of nutrition in Israel are graduates of our of nutritional knowledge. One of the goals of the School of school, starting with senior officials in the Ministry of Health, Nutritional Sciences is to position itself as the clear leader in hospitals community’s facilities, and many others who lead the education of nutritionists, dietitians and food scientists of research and nutrition in Israel and around the world. tomorrow. Students who complete undergraduate, graduate and doctoral studies will acquire the most advanced and updated The Degree in Nutritional Sciences is a bachelor in Life Sciences skills required for research, academic teaching positions, work (BSc). It lasts 6 semesters, and includes basic studies in life in the various health frameworks in industry and in government sciences and social sciences, and studies in nutrition of health institutions. We look forward to seeing you among the leaders and disease. A student who completes all his/her undergraduate in the field of nutrition in Israel and around the world. degree in nutrition science may join the clinical nutrition training program by the Ministry of Health. School of Nutritional Sciences Website

9 From The Vineyard to The Bottle

The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen

Prof. Zohar Kerem [email protected]

The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

At the heart of every exhilarating wine are years of knowledge, experience and hard work. The keys to creating your next bottle of wine are true passion for knowing and understanding soil, climate and local conditions, and readiness to spend many long days in cultivating it.

Our new academic program, MSc in Viticulture and Enology is the first of its kind in Israel, and the only one from the Mediterranean to East Asia. This program is bringing together traditional and modern worlds. Intended for wine connoisseurs, newcomers, those already working in the industry and innovators and entrepreneurs, it aims to support and educate a new generation of skilled wine professionals who desire to take their place among the world’s experts.

The MSc in Viticulture & Enology from The International School of Agricultural Sciences at Rehovot campus of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is designed to impart the wine knowledge comprehensively and in depth, from the vineyard to the bottle. The course has Prof. Zohar Kerem as the academic head of the program, a world-renowned researcher in food chemistry, wine quality and olive oil. His team studies the influence of novel agronomic and production traits on wine Class of 2016-18 visits Chateau Lafleur, guided by Mr. Omri Ram composition and the influence of grapevine diseases on the quality of wine; and develops innovative analytical tools for determining composition, tastes and aromas in wine. programs in other wine-producing countries, with a special emphasis on the Israeli landscape and industry. The program The two-year Master’s program will begin in spring, 2021, and is tailored to learn from the many various, and closely located will give students the same knowledge and skills as leading Israel’s climate regimes and soils.

10 World Food Day - October 2019 An example is the study of the wide assemblage of grape varieties Students who successfully fulfill the program will earn a Master in Israel, presenting different adaptions both evolutionary and of Science (MSc) degree in Viticulture and Enology from The engineered to manage pests and diseases, limited precipitation Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Graduates may participate in a and global warming conditions. practical internship in a commercial winery in Israel or abroad. The internship grants a specialization diploma in enology. Water scarcity is another aspect and one of the main problems in Israel. Israel leads the biggest most famous irrigation MSc in Viticulture and Enology companies in the world. And together with the Israeli innovation, the program focus not only in a theoretical side, also focus on the practical side, allowing the students to develop a better understanding of the intersection of agricultural knowledge and innovation.

The program advances leading research in the grape growing and winemaking field, with the cooperation with leading researchers around the world.

The program’s curriculum focuses on thorough training in the fundamental sciences and comprehension of all the different processes related to grape production and winemaking, with such topics in grapevines, vineyards, wine productions and wine analysis, and additionally, specially designed collection of topics in economics, management and marketing, in the environmental influences of viticulture and a professional workshop in France. Current students at Clos de Gat winery

Current students harvesting grapes near Tel Gezer

11 environment leads to symptoms of fatigue, disorientation and insomnia. Night-shift workers have disrupted circadian rhythms Circadian and they exhibit metabolic disorders, hormone imbalance (2), psychological and sleep disorders (3), and increased incidence of cancer and malignant growth (2). Others and we have shown that circadian rhythms change with normal ageing, including Rhythms a shift in the phase and decrease in amplitude (4, 5). The circadian clock regulates metabolism and energy homeostasis in peripheral tissues (6). This is achieved by mediating the expression and/or activity of certain metabolic enzymes and and Food transport systems (7, 8) involved in cholesterol metabolism, amino acid regulation, drug and toxin metabolism, the citric acid cycle, and glycogen and glucose metabolism (6, 9) (Fig.1).

The Robert H Smith Effect of restricted feeding (RF) on circadian Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen rhythms Limiting the time and duration of food availability with no calorie reduction is termed restricted feeding (RF) (1). Restricting food Prof. Oren Froy to a particular time of day has profound effects on the behaviour [email protected] and physiology. 2-4 h before the meal, the animals display food anticipatory behaviour, which is demonstrated by an increase in locomotor activity, body temperature, corticosterone secretion, The Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition gastrointestinal motility and activity of digestive enzymes (10), The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and all are known output systems of the circadian clock. We have Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem shown that long-term day-time RF can increase the amplitude of clock gene expression, increase expression of catabolic factors, and reduce the levels of disease markers leading to better health Abstract (11). RF regimen resembles the month of Ramadan, as Muslims Currently, about 12% of the population is 65 years or older and by the year 2030 that figure is expected to reach 21%. In order to promote the well-being of the elderly and to reduce the costs associated with health care demands, increased longevity should be accompanied by ageing attenuation. Caloric restriction (CR), which limits the amount of calories consumed to 60-70% of the daily intake, and intermittent fasting (IF), which allows the food to be available ad libitum every other day, extend the life span of mammals and prevent or delay the onset of major age- related diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and cataracts. We have shown that well-being can be achieved by resetting of the circadian clock and induction of robust catabolic circadian rhythms via timed feeding. As food components and feeding time have the ability to reset bodily rhythms, we may benefit from understanding what food components our body needs and at which time.

The circadian clock Mammals have developed an endogenous circadian clock located in the brain suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the anterior hypothalamus that responds to the environmental light-dark cycle. Light is absorbed through the retina and this information is transmitted to the SCN, which in turn relays the information via neuronal connections or circulating humoral factors to peripheral clocks, such as the liver, heart and lungs, regulating cellular and physiological functions (1). Disruption Figure 1: The relationship between the circadian clock, feeding and of the coordination between the endogenous clock and the metabolism

12 World Food Day - October 2019 abstain from eating and drinking during the activity period. The high snacking frequency, or social jet lag known to disrupt the average low levels of cholesterol and triglycerides found during circadian clock (33). Several studies have shown that a high-fat RF are in agreement with those found during Ramadan (12, 13). diet leads to disruptions in locomotor activity in total darkness Aksungar and colleagues (14) demonstrated that Ramadan and to elevated food intake during the rest phase under light- fasting has some positive effects on the inflammatory state and dark conditions (34). These changes were also manifested by on risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. disrupted clock gene expression in the hypothalamus, liver and adipose tissue as well as altered cycling of hormones in mice, Effect of calorie restriction (CR) on circadian rats, and humans (35, 36). In addition, a high-fat diet induced a phase delay in clock and clock-controlled genes (35, 36). rhythms Combining high-fat diet with restricted feeding led to a leaner CR refers to a dietary regimen low in calories without phenotype although the caloric intake was the same as mice fed malnutrition. CR restricts the amount of calories to 60-75% (15). a low-fat diet (37). Altogether, these studies demonstrate the It has been documented that calorie restriction significantly importance of timing of feeding over its content. extends the life span of rodents by up to 50% (16, 17). In addition to the increase in life span, CR also delays the occurrence of age- related diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and cataracts (17-20). Effect of breakfast on circadian metabolism Theories on how CR modulates aging and longevity abound, Breakfast has previously been demonstrated to be of major but the exact mechanism is still unknown (17). The reduction of importance for the 24-h regulation of glucose (38). Indeed, energy intake, and, as a result, in oxidative stress, is considered skipping breakfast has been shown to be associated with weight the critical beneficial factor in the CR regimen (17). CR during gain and other adverse health outcomes, including insulin the daytime affects the temporal organization of the clockwork resistance and increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes. and circadian outputs in mice under light/dark cycle. In addition, In contrast, consumption of a high-energy breakfast and a CR affects photic responses of the circadian system, indicating low-energy dinner resulted in a significant reduction of all-day that energy metabolism modulates gating of photic inputs in postprandial glycaemia and body weight (39-41). The importance mammals (21). These findings suggest that synchronization of of breakfast has recently been demonstrated in type 2 diabetic peripheral oscillators during CR could be achieved directly due patient who skipped breakfast and had increased postprandial to the temporal eating, as has been reported for RF (22-24), or by hyperglycemia after both lunch and dinner in association with synchronizing the central clock (25), which entrains the peripheral impaired insulin response (42). tissues (26, 27). Conclusions Effect of intermittent fasting (IF) on circadian Disruptions in clock genes and/or circadian rhythms promote ageing and shorten life span, whereas appropriate resetting of rhythms circadian rhythms leads to well-being and increased longevity. IF allows food to be available ad libitum every other day. Similarly Life span extension has been a goal of research for several to calorically restricted animals, IF-fed animals exhibit increased decades. CR, IF and RF reset circadian rhythms and promote life span as well as improved cardio- and neuro-protection and better health (Fig. 2). In addition, breakfast consumption has increased resistance to cancer (28). One suggested mechanism been shown to affect all-day metabolism. Therefore, it is for its beneficial effects is the stimulation of cellular stress necessary to increase our understanding of circadian regulation pathways induced by the IF regimen (28, 29). IF alters circadian over metabolism and longevity and to design new therapies rhythms depending on the time of food introduction. When based on this regulation. food was introduced during the light period, mice exhibited almost arrhythmicity in clock gene expression in the liver. Unlike daytime feeding, night-time feeding yielded rhythms similar to those generated during ad libitum feeding (30).

Effect of high-fat diet on circadian rhythms Obesity has become a serious and growing public health problem (31). Attempts to understand the causes of obesity and develop new therapeutic strategies have mostly focused on the imbalance between energy expenditure and caloric intake. However, studies in the last decade link energy regulation to the circadian clock at the behavioural, physiological, and molecular levels (6), emphasizing that the timing of food intake itself may play a significant role in weight gain (32). Obesity, which is characterized by the excess of fat accumulation in white adipose Figure 2: Effect of feeding regimens on circadian rhythms and health. tissue, has been related to irregular sleep/wake schedules, SCN, suprachiasmatic nuclei

13 contamination. Remarkably, frequent sprays with relatively high concentrations of copper might cause phytotoxicity and often Novel lead to emergence of copper resistant strains of pathogens. Importantly, copper-based products are also widely used to control plant diseases caused by fungi and oomycetes. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has stressed that the Peptide- use of copper is of concern to public health and the environment, and copper compounds are due to be gradually phased out. Considering the lack of alternatives, there is an urgent need to develop novel technologies to manage plant diseases and Based reduce food loss. One potential alternative to the use of copper bactericides are antimicrobial peptides. Antimicrobial peptides are naturally Agents for produced by eukaryotic organisms to cope with potential pathogens, being commonly named host defence peptides (HDPs). While HDPs display several antimicrobial mechanisms, many of them have been shown to disrupt bacterial membranes. Management Natural HDPs as well as synthetic HDP derivatives have been considered as potential agents to control pathogenic bacteria, including in agriculture. However, they might have undesired characteristics including low stability, non-specific toxicity and of Bacterial development of resistance by target bacteria. Importantly, the costs of production and purification of synthetic antimicrobial peptides is relatively high, thus limiting their application, Plant particularly in agriculture. HDPs substantially differ in their amino-acid sequence and conformation. However, most of them share a common characteristic: they are rich in both cationic and hydrophobic Diseases amino acids. Based on this knowledge, the random peptide mixture (RPM) concept was developed. This approach is based on a modification of the conventional Fmoc-based solid-phase synthesis method, in which instead of using one pure amino acid at each coupling step, a mixture of two amino acids, in a defined The Robert H Smith proportion, is used thorough the whole synthesis process. The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen result is a mixture of 2n (where n is the peptide chain length) sequences of random peptides with a defined composition and Prof. Saul Burdman controlled chain length (Figure 1). This modification significantly Dr. Zvi Hayouka reduces the production cost since no purification is needed after the synthesis, as required in the conventional method. [email protected] [email protected] Using the aforementioned technology, we have generated a variety of RPMs comprised of hydrophobic and cationic amino The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and acids, with some of them having strong antimicrobial activity towards both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Recently we showed that RPMs consisting of random 20-mer combinations of L-phenylalanine and L- or D-lysine (FK-20 Agricultural yields are highly damaged by plant diseases. Plant- and FdK-20, respectively) display powerful growth inhibition pathogenic bacteria are among the most important causal and bactericidal activities towards several phytopathogenic agents of plant diseases with almost all crops being severely bacteria, including members of the Xanthomonas, Clavibacter affected by one or more serious bacterial diseases. Chemical and Pseudomonas genera (Figure 2). control of bacterial plant diseases in agriculture is highly limited. In fact, management of most bacterial plant diseases Moreover, in planta studies in the greenhouse revealed that vastly relies on copper-based bactericides, which possess these RPMs significantly reduce disease severity of two limited efficiency. Copper bactericides are easily washed from important bacterial plant diseases: bacterial spot of tomato the plant surface by rain or overhead irrigation, conditions that, and black rot disease of brassicas, caused by Xanthomonas on the other hand, are highly conducive to many bacterial plant perforans and Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, diseases. Therefore, under these conditions, frequent sprays are respectively. Importantly, in both cases, reduction of disease needed, increasing production costs as well as environmental severity achieved by the RPMs were similar to that exerted by

14 World Food Day - October 2019 the commercial, copper bactericide Kocide, which was applied reduction of production costs, thus increasing the feasibility of at 12-fold concentration of the active compound relative to the the technology and making it more attractive for application in RPM. The tested RPMs had no toxic effect on survival of honey agriculture and in other fields. Importantly, we are considering bees and Caco-2 mammalian cells. This study, demonstrating several chemical modificiations that will improve the adhesive the potential of RPMs as novel crop protection agents, was properties of RPMs and their interaction with the plant surfaces. summarized in a peer-reviewed manuscript that was published Potentially, this could reduce washing of the compounds from last year (Shiri Topman and colleagues, Microbial Biotechnology, the plant surface by rain or irrigation, thus providing a more 2018, 11:1027-1036). efficient protection and allowing a reduction of application frequencies. In this regard, we already have some interesting It is important to mention that overall, 20-mer RPMs possess chemically modified RPM candidates, which at the moment are stronger antimicrobial activity than shorter RPMs. For example, being patented. 5-mer or 10-mer combinations of L-phenylalanine and L-/D- lysine are significantly less potent than the aforementioned Overall, our findings highlight the great potential of RPMs as FK-20 and FdK-20. Recently, we started to explore the effect a crop protection agents. This research is being supported of several chemical modifications in order to shorten the chain by a grant from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and Rural lenght of the active RPMs. This approach could lead to further Development.

Figure 1. Synthesis of random peptide mixtures (RPMs) using a modification of the Fmoc-based solid-phase synthesis method. In each coupling step a mixture of two amino acids at equal concentrations is added. In the example, the amino acids are L-phenylalanine (LF) and D-lysine (DK). After 20 coupling steps, the FdK-20 RPM is generated that contains more than one million different peptides.

A B

Figure 2. Effects of RPMs on plant-pathogenic bacteria. (A) Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 20-mer RPMs composed by L-phenylalanine and L- or D-lysine (FK-20 and FdK-20, respectively) on representative strains of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc), Xanthomonas perforans (Xpe), Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (Cmm) and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst). All strains were highly susceptible to the RPMs except Pst that was not affected by FdK-20. The black line above the Pst/FdK bar means that no inhibition was detected at the maximal tested concentration of 200 μg/ml (modified from Topman et al., Microbial Biotechnology, 2018, 11:1027-1036). (B) Inhibition of disease symptom development in kohlrabi leaves inoculated with Xcc by protective pretreament with FdK-20 at 200 μg/ml. Left leaf, pretreated with FdK-20; right leaf, non-pretreated. Arrows indicate the sites of Xcc inoculation.

15 (such as mold, clover, soybeans), and man-made chemicals that are manufactured for use as pesticides, drugs, and plasticizers, A Warning among others. Many more EDCs are manufacturing byproducts. EDCs can leach into the environment and contaminate food and water sources. Humans and animals are exposed to EDCs Sign: The through consumption of food and water, direct skin contact, inhalation, and transfer across the placenta to the fetus or through lactation to infants. Impact of A few representative EDCs have been studied in our laboratory: the plasticizer di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and its metabolite mono (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP), and the herbicide atrazine (ATZ) and its metabolite diaminochlorotriazine Environmental (DACT). DEHP is added to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics to confer softness and flexibility. DEHP does not covalently bind to the PVC polymer, and thus leaches into the environment and and Food can be frequently found in the atmosphere, soil, sediments, and water sources. DEHP contamination of food is also possible due to its bioaccumulation in fatty foods during handling, packing and storage. Following consumption, DEHP is metabolized in the Contaminants body to MEHP, which is considered to have a more toxic effect. ATZ is a herbicide that is most extensively used to control the growth of broadleaf and grassy weeds in agricultural crops. ATZ on Cow is considered a ubiquitous environmental contaminant that is frequently detected in ground and surface water because of its mobility in soil. The main concern with ATZ is exposure via consumption of contaminated drinking water. Once ATZ enters Reproduction the body, it metabolizes into a number of metabolites, the most frequently detected being DACT.

Health and fertility concerns. EDCs are suspected of having a major impact on human health, as environmental factors are The Robert H Smith responsible for about 80% of the deadliest diseases involving Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen the endocrine system (cancer, cardiac diseases and others). Consequently, EDC contamination of food and water poses a Dr. Dorit Kalo, Alisa Komsky-Elbaz, serious health risk. For instance, infertility is a global public Prof. Zvi Roth health problem, defined as a "disease of the reproductive system." One of the main causes of infertility is consumption [email protected] of EDC-contaminated food and water. This risk is not limited to humans; wild and domesticated animals are also exposed The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and to environmental and food contamination. Research in our Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem laboratory focuses on the physiological, cellular and molecular impacts of contaminants on the female (oocyte) and male (sperm) gametes and preimplantation embryos Environmental and food contaminant concerns. In the last (i.e., blastocysts), using state-of-the-art reproductive decade, major attention has been given to environmental and technologies (Fig. 1). food contaminants, mainly the group of endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs). The name refers to these compounds’ Effect of phthalates on the oocyte. Using our in-vitro embryo- endocrine activity, which might have an adverse impact on production system, we documented the oocyte’s high sensitivity health by interfering with synthesis, secretion, transport, to DEHP and its metabolite MEHP. This was reflected by altered metabolism, binding activity, or elimination of natural nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation of the oocyte, both required blood-borne hormones that are present in the body and are for the oocyte to be fertilizable. Disruptions included alterations responsible for homeostasis, reproduction, and developmental in meiosis resumption and reorganization of cytoplasmic processes in both females and males. Common sources of organelles (mitochondria, cortical granules and endoplasmic EDCs are natural compounds originating from plants or fungi reticulum), impaired expression of genes associated with early

16 World Food Day - October 2019 Figure 1. In-vitro embryo production. Oocyte handling, including oocyte aspiration, collection and maturation. Sperm handling, including semen collection, swim-up and sperm capacitation. Matured oocytes were in-vitro fertilized with capacitated sperm and cultured for 8 days to allow embryonic development to the blastocyst stage

embryonic development and pluripotency, and increased production of reactive oxygen species. Moreover, MEHP interfered with the oocyte’s ability to be fertilized and develop into an embryo, reflected by a lower proportion of developing blastocysts.

Effects of ATZ and DACT on sperm. Recent findings from our laboratory provide evidence of adverse effects of both ATZ and DACT on sperm, expressed by a damaged sperm membrane. Staining the sperm with specific fluorescent dyes (Fig. 2) revealed that exposure to ATZ or DACT disrupts its viability, induces spontaneous acrosome reaction and impairs mitochondrial membrane potential. Moreover, both ATZ and DACT increased the proportion of sperm with fragmented DNA, reduced the proportion of embryos that cleaved to the 2- to 4-cell stage, and reduced blastocyst-formation rate.

The harmful effect of EDCs on the developing embryo. Figure 2. Simultaneous fluorimetric assessment of plasma and acrosome Interestingly, although it was the oocytes/sperm that were membrane integrity and mitochondrial membrane potential. Purple- stained sperm are dead sperm, stained both red (propidium iodide) exposed to EDCs, alterations were further expressed at and blue (DAPI). Blue-stained sperm indicate viable sperm. A green cap advanced embryonic developmental stages, suggesting a long- at the top of the sperm indicates acrosome-reacted sperm (FITC-PSA). lasting effect. Blastocysts developing from either MEHP-treated Red or green sperm tail indicates high or low mitochondrial membrane oocytes or ATZ/DACT-treated sperm expressed impaired potential, respectively (JC-1) patterns of transcript abundance, indicating that these embryos are of low quality. Accordingly, microarray analysis to compare gene-expression profiles of blastocysts developed from non-

17 treated vs. EDC-treated oocytes/sperm revealed differential Synopsis. The potential risk of exposure to other EDCs must be expression of genes involved in a variety of biological processes, taken into consideration, at least when evaluating their effect on as well as intracellular pathways for transcription, metabolism, the reproductive system. While the presented data are directly methylation, apoptosis, and others (Fig. 3). related to cows and limited to a few EDCs, they might serve as a toxicology model for other mammalian species and a variety of environmental and food contaminators.

Figure 3. Transcriptomic alterations in blastocysts developed from MEHP-treated oocytes (top) and ATZ-treated sperm (bottom). Presented are the alterations in biological processes in the blastocysts

18 World Food Day - October 2019 Reducing Food Waste to Prevent Hunger and Improve Diets: Does Donated Agricultural Surplus Improve the Diet of Food-Bank Users?

The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen

Prof. Aron M. Troen Production and Consumption Patterns". The proposed solution involves reducing food losses along production and supply chain [email protected] as illustrated by the "Food Recovery Heirarchy" (figure 1). This conceptual framework for reducing food waste promotes the Nutrition and brain Health Laboratory intuitive idea that substantial waste-reduction can be achieved The Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition by donating surplus food to food banks for redistribution to The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and those in need. Indeed, charitable food banks have become an important source of aid and nourishment for the increasing Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem chronically food insecure populations of affluent countries, including Israel. The global food and agriculture system must change profoundly if we are to nourish the 815 million people who are hungry While reducing waste and mitigating poverty and hunger may today and the additional 2 billion people expected to be seem at first glance like a win-win proposition, the growing undernourished by 2050. However, ensuring an adequate, role of food banks in the social safety net is controversial for affordable, healthful, and environmentally sustainable food practical, ideological and ethical reasons. For example, food supply for the world’s growing population requires more than banks are generally intended to provide short-term emergency technological advances to boost agricultural production. We relief for people falling on hard times and they cannot sustain must dramatically reduce loss and inefficient use of the food a healthy diet in the long-term for large segments of the that we presently grow. Today, more than a third of the food population. Because they rely on donated food, they often fail produced globally goes to waste, exacting a tremendous to provide sufficient dietary diversity, quantity and quality to environmental, economic and social cost. This does not only meet their users' health and nutritional needs. Even if they could concern the developing world, but is in fact a crucial issue for meet those needs, they consume substantial public and private high-income countries where abundant food is consumed in philanthropic resource, while alleviating moral and political excess and wasted in vast amounts alongside widespread food pressure on governments to deal with the root causes of insecurity, and large persistent gaps between society’s wealthy hunger. Furthermore, even if food banks collect and redistribute and poor in income, access to food and health. large amounts of salvaged food, they arguably constrain the autonomy and dignity of their recipients, restricting them to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization set an rely on second-rate salvaged food and produce that better-off ambitious goal of cutting per capita global food waste by half members of society would not choose to buy or eat. If the food by 2030 as an integral part of the Sustainable Development is unappealing to poor aid-recipients, then passing on salvaged Goals of achieving "Zero Hunger" and "Ensuring Sustainable produce may simply push the point of food waste down the

19 Figure 1 supply chain from the producers to the consumers. There is also The authors suggested that the distribution of more perishable debate over the relative harms and benefits of distributing aid foods might improve the quality of pantry users’ diets and have in the form of cash or commodities: On one hand, one can argue the potential to influence dietary quality in vulnerable groups. that for every dollar of donated rescued fruits and vegetables, No study to date has directly examined the connection between 3-5 times more food can be provided than could be purchased the quality of the food-aid provided by food banks/pantries by recipients than if they were given cash equivalents, and that in affluent countries and the quality of aid-recipients’ diet and their health and interests are served by providing them with fruit health. Israel provides an interesting case in which to study and vegetables. The counter argument says that the benefits this problem because of the high prevalence of persistent food are smaller if the sunk costs to the farmers and the costs of insecurity, affecting approximately one fifth of the population the logistics and cold-chain are considered, and it is more and one quarter of its children, and because the government dignified to provide people with cash and freedom to choose policy explicity relies on philanthropic food banks and pantries their own food. This raises the question as to what extent to distribute rescued food and agricultural produce to those in should limited public and philanthropic resources be directed need. towards improving the quality of the diet of those in need. What is the appropriate balance between improving food quality To address these issues, Dana Efrati Philip and Ghada Baransi, and the imperative to extend the reach of the food safety-net two outstanding graduate students in our lab (figure 2), and to alleviate hunger per se What are the relevant metrics for examined the quality of food aid baskets and the quality determining this balance? of individual aid-recipients' diets among the clients of food pantries that receive donated fruit and vegetables from We need better measures and data to inform decision and "Leket Israel", Israel’s largest national food bank. Leket Israel policy making with regard to both the moral justification for specializes in the rescue and redistribution of agricultural promoting food banking and its effectiveness. However, it is produce to over 200 local food pantries serving over 200,000 difficult to study the vulnerable populations that they serve, people throughout the country. Working with Leket Israel which may help to explain why research into these matters has provided access to 16 representative local food pantries been sparse. Two extensive reviews of the scientific literature throughout the county and enabled us to recruit a sample of published in 2017, found only 9 studies of pantry food quality, 100 individuals who agreed to participate in our survey. and 16 studies of user diet quality. The review of these studies (which were conducted in the USA, Canada, Australia and Together with Prof. Danit Shahar at Ben Gurion University, France), concluded that the dietary intake of pantry users we developed innovative and feasible methods to collect the failed to achieve dietary recommendations and that the food necessary information, including a new healthy food basket pantries studied were largely unable to support healthy diets. index for Israel and telephone survey consisting of demographic,

20 World Food Day - October 2019 food frequency and food security questionnaires in both What was most interesting was that the basket Healthy Portion Hebrew and Arabic. From the nutritional data that we obtained Score was positively and highly significantly correlated with we derived a "healthy portions score" to capture the energy, the individual dietary nutrient density, despite providing only a protein and nutrient content of the food-aid baskets, allowing fraction of the household’s food. us to compare their contents with the dietary requirements of the households that received them, as a function of the Israel The study demonstrated the proof-of-concept and feasibility Ministry of Health nutrition guidelines. We also calculated of using an innovative structured telephone survey to study an individual Nutrition Density Score to capture the quality the impact of food-aid quality on the nutrition and health of of each survey respondent’s nutrient intake as compared to food pantry users in Israel, in the context of the challenges their individual nutrition and health requirements according faced by food banks and pantries in affluent countries. This to international dietary guidelines. We then characterized the approach can be emulated elsewhere to advance research quality of the food-aid recipients’ habitual diets, and asked to on these vulnerable populations. As we predicted, our study what extent the food baskets met the food-aid recipient’s needs, population had a high burden of chronic nutrition-related non- and whether quality of the food-aid influenced or predicted the communicable diseases and a high level of food insecurity. quality of the recipients’ dietary habits. Whereas part of the population consumes excess calories and others fail to meet their energy needs, the majority of diets were Our findings, which were published in the peer-reviewed deficient in essential micronutrients. Although the quantity and journal Frontiers in Nutrition1, were striking: 45.7% of the study quality of food provided in the aid-baskets leaves much to be participants reported living in a food insecure household with desired, the fruit and vegetable portions significantly improve moderate or severe hunger. Less than two thirds of those quality of the food-aid by contributing less than 15% of the surveyed met their estimated energy requirements, and the basket calories while adding a significant amount of dietary population’s intake of many essential micronutrients was fiber, vitamins and minerals. This is potentially impactful, well below the recommended daily allowance (RDA). Over a since despite their relatively small contribution to recipients’ third of the population reported having metabolic syndrome caloric and nutritional needs, food baskets with a higher quality or cardiovascular disease and more than a third of the study of nutrition were correlated with healthier diets among the population were obese. A little more than one third had recipients and with better health. It is possible that simply experienced iron-deficiency anemia. As for the food aid, the providing fruits and vegetables creates a behavioral “nudge” average basket provided less than a third of a household’s that helps people make healthier choices in the rest of the food required energy, 55% of their protein, and varied with respect to that they purchase. In other words, providing food pantry users important macro and micronutrients. Importantly, the rescued with fruits and vegetables may have a larger impact on health vegetables and fruit made up two thirds of the total number of and diet that goes beyond the absolute cash and nutritional healthy portions and ~90% of the fruit and vegetable portions value of the food. in an average basket, nearly half of the fiber, 66% of the vitamin C, 55% of the calcium, 44% of the vitamin A, and between 26- These important findings suggest that the behavioral impact 36% of the content of vitamin B1, B5, vitamin E, Folate and of providing fruit and vegetables to those in need should be Magnesium. considered when weighing whether to invest in maximizing the number of people served by food banks and alleviating hunger per se, or whether to optimize the effect on their well being by investing the necessary effort to rescue and distribute vitamin- and mineral-rich food (i.e. fresh fruits and vegetables) in addition to less expensive macronutrients (i.e. staples). Notwithstanding the merits of arguments to limit paternalism and enhance individual autonomy in food-banking or calls to provide the needy with cash rather than commodities, our findings demonstrate that rescued agricultural food-waste and surplus can be used effectively to alleviate not only the hunger of food insecurity, but also the malnourishment that accompanies it, when resources are specifically ear-marked for this end. Ultimately, this research advances our understanding of the complex relationships linking food-waste reduction to food security, and will help in efforts to achieve more equitable, Figure 2: From left to right: Ghada Baransi, Aron Troen, Dana Efrati Philip sustainable and healthful food systems.

1 Efrati Philip Dana et al., Food Aid Quality Correlates Positively with Diet Quality of Food Pantry Users in the Leket Israel Food Bank Collaborative, Frontiers in Nutrition, Volume 5, 2018. URL: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2018.00123

21 factors in bone development has yet to be elucidated. The broad aim of my research is to fill this gap and to understand The Study the role of nutritional factors during development. Several studies have been conducted in our lab in order to shed light upon the influence of specific components on bone development. For instance, we have shown that W-3 Of Food PUFA improve bone growth and bone quality already from embryonic stages, and directly modulates the activity of chondrocytes (3). In addition, we demonstrated the induction of glucose metabolism and subsequent osteo-chondrogenic Impact On differentiation and calcification by osteocalcin in a Vitamin D-dependent manner, in-vivo and in-vitro (4, 5). We studied the effect of various metabolic hormones on the development of Physiology the young skeleton, and have shown the effects of cytokines secreted from the adipose tissue on bone development and properties (6-9).

However, nutrition is different; no one eats diet rich only in W-3 and Health PUFA. People are eating many types of foods and various diet patterns. A paper published recently in Nature (10) made the observation that "people do not choose nutrients, they select combinations of foods…researchers should be more creative and research funders bolder in assessing the health implications The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, of common combinations of foods". That is precisely what we Food and Environmen do, one of the novel aspects of our research is giving rats a "whole diet" as consume by humans. This is an unusual scientific approach, the common nutritional methodology is to add or Prof. Efrat Monsonego-Ornan, remove one component at a time from the diet and study its Janna Zaretsky, Shelley Griess effect separately, as in pharmaceutical or genetic studies. Our Fishenheimer, Tamara Shmul, study offers a new type of nutritional research methodology, by studying the effects of general dietary patterns rather than the Reut Rozner, Roni Sides, Svetta Pen effect of single individual nutrients. [email protected] Over the past 30 years, there has been a radical change in eating habits toward processed food (11, 12). This trend leads The lab for skeletal development, children to excessive consumption of food and drinks that are The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and high in fat and refined sugars but do not provide the appropriate Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem levels of vitamins and minerals required for growth (13). The acknowledged health outcomes of frequent consumption of processed-food (the modern mal-nutrition) include obesity and numerous metabolic disorders (14). In our recent study, we fed The link between under-nutrition and growth retardation is young growing rats with ultra-processed-food and studied its well documented. A trend of greater height is recognized in effect on bone development and quality. Rats fed with this diet countries where proper nutrition, exercise and healthy life- demonstrated severe bone phenotypes, including cartilaginous style are more available. Children from developing countries lesions in their growth-plates and a sieve-like appearance of the with Protein-energy malnutrition had significantly lower cortical bone. This was accompanied by significant reduction body weight and height than healthy subjects. Furthermore, in bone mineral density and reduced mechanical strength to animal studies clearly demonstrate the deleterious effects of less than half compared to healthy bones (Figure 1). The data nutritional deficiencies on linear growth (1). But what is the highlights a serious implication of ultra-processed-diets during reciprocal? What if you eat too much? Are you going to over childhood, novel phenotypes which are way beyond the known grow? Yes, it is recognized that overweight children are taller metabolic effects of such diet. than age-matched, normal-weight children. This tall stature is often associated with an accelerated skeletal maturation and Based on our expertise in diet planning and bone analyses, we an earlier timing of puberty, but not with the final adult height developed a sensitive physiological preclinical model that can (2). Nowadays, it is clear that factors such as vitamin D and rapidly and confidently address the health issue of different calcium are just the tip of the iceberg, and the role of nutritional nutrients and diet patterns. Our model is based on the postnatal

22 World Food Day - October 2019 Figure 1. Calcium supplementation of fast-food diet rescues tibial GP structure but results in kidney mineralization. 24 rats were divided randomly into 3 groups. The 1st group (n=8) got a standard diet (Control). The 2nd group (n=8) was given a diet based fast-food including soft drink (FF+CSD). The 3rd group (n=8) received the fast-food diet supplemented with calcium phosphate (FF+CSD+Ca). At the end of the experiment, rats were anesthetized with isofluran, blood samples were collected, and the animals were sacrificed. Their internal organs (kidney) and bones (femur, tibia) were harvested. a, Total of 12 tibiae were dissected, processed and stained with safranin-O. b, Representative 3-D reconstructions of whole femur scaled for mineral density. d, Staining of tibial GP for ALP and TRAP activity. e, Total of 16 kidneys were dissected, processed and stained with Alcian von Kossa staining, detecting mineral deposits.

reliable preclinical model to study minute variation in the diet and observe the quality of the diet.

For instance, in one of our projects we assess the health implication of alternative proteins in the diet. A growing global population place increased pressure on the world’s resources to provide sustainable and healthy food. Particularly, animal-based protein has a negative environmental impact on gas emissions water and land resources. Thus, conjoining alternative protein sources in the human diet, such as algae, bugs or "artificial meat", is a major challenge, that requires comparisons between novel and existing proteins, in terms of health impacts. We are using this preclinical model to address the effect of different protein sources in the diet on growth, physiology and quality parameters of the skeleton. The alternative protein sources that tested in equivalent diets are: animal, plant, insects, algae and in-vitro meat. The combined deep understanding and expertise of our lab in diet planning and bone biology, together with the use of gene Figure 2 expression studies (transcriptome), microbiome analyses and computational data mining approach, enable the optimization growth, defined as the gain in body size during the juvenile of future protein alternatives in the diet (Figure 2). period. Postnatal skeleton growth is the major parameter for development and health in children, and heavily influenced References: by consumption of various compounds during the period of http://www.israelagri.com/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/ rapid growth. Thus, the young rat provides a most sensitive and References.pdf

23 The Wild Side of Climate- Resilience Wheat

The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen Prof. Zvi Peleg, Dr. Nimrod Schwartz, Dr. Guy Golan, Harel Bacher, Elisha Hendel, Yoav Sharaby [email protected]

The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Differences in seminal root number between wild (left) and domesticated (right) wheat Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In the next half-century, a significant increase in wheat Crescent', across a variety of ecological conditions, from hot and production will be needed in order to meet food demands of the dry (with as little as 230 mm annual rainfall) to cool and humid growing human population. This challenge is further exacerbated (with over 1500 mm) habitats. The discovery of wild emmer by under the projected climate change scenarios, which predict an Aaron Aaronsohn in 1906, opened the possibility to utilize its rich aggravation in the intensity and frequency of extreme climatic allelic repertoire for improvement of numerous economically events. Inadequate water availability, often combined with high important traits, including climate-change resilience. Our temperature stress, is the main environmental factor limiting research aims to identify, in the wild ancestors of crop plants, wheat production worldwide. The development of novel cultivars valuable "left behind" alleles and introduce them into modern with more efficient water-use and greater drought resistance wheat cultivars. capacity is considered a sustainable and economically viable solution to this problem. The implementation of this solution Optimizing the wheat root system architecture play crucial requires wide explorations of potential genetic resources and to achieve future food and nutrition security. The wheat root elucidating the mechanisms underlying plant-resilience to system is composed of two root types, the seminal roots suboptimal field conditions. system which develops upon germination and includes the primary root and two pairs of lateral seminal roots, and Wild progenitors of crop plants harbor a rich allelic repertoire adventitious roots which develops later on basal nodes of the as compared with their descendant crop-plants as consequence shoot. Seminal roots constitute the main route for water and of the genetic bottlenecks associated with plant domestication nutrients uptake during the early stages of wheat development. and subsequent selection in man-made agro-ecosystems. Wild The seminal roots penetrate the soil earlier and deeper than emmer wheat is the direct progenitor of durum wheat and bread adventitious roots and maintains growth throughout the plant wheat. It is distributed throughout the Near Eastern 'Fertile life cycle.

24 World Food Day - October 2019 Under east Mediterranean climatic conditions, prolonged An important strategy of plants adaptation to water stress is its absence of rain after seed germination results in seedling ability for genetic plasticity. We developed introgression line dehydration. Wild emmer populations are generally more with wild emmer wheat chromosome segments on background susceptible to desiccation of the seminal root system than of elite wheat cultivar. Analysis of dynamic growth showed that field sown modern wheat seedlings because a certain fraction under water stress the line exhibited significant shift in root-shoot of the seeds germinate on (or very close to) the soil surface. ratio, while shoot biomass showed reduction the root biomass Therefore, wheat evolution over thousands of years resulted in increased. This shift in resources allocation between root and selection of drought-adaptive mechanisms ensuring survival in shoot biomass, contribute to enhance photosynthesis capacity case of seedling dehydration. Recent study in our lab showed under stress and reshaping the whole plant architecture. This that modern wheat cultivars develops five seminal roots during drought adaptive mechanism derived from "left behind" genes, seedling development, while wild emmer seedlings develop may serve as basis for future wheat breeding programs. only three roots, preserving the second pair of seminal roots at its primordial state. Various experiments in the laboratory and in During a long evolutionary history across a range of the field showed that under water stress conditions, the seminal environmental conditions in the Near Eastern Fertile roots of modern wheat varieties are dehydrated and the ability Crescent wild emmer wheat has of seedlings to recover upon rehydration extremely decreases. accumulated a wealth of genetic However, following rehydration, wild emmer seedlings are diversity and adaptations to capable of activating the second pair of root primordia, by that environmental stress conditions. recovering growth of the root system and the shoot. These Shortly after discovering the results suggest that the maintenance of roots at their primordial wild emmer wheat, A. Aaronsohn state may serve as a seedling protective mechanism against envisioned that: "…the cultivation water stress. Genetic dissection of seminal root number showed of wheat may be revolutionized that it is controlled by few major loci that may be introduced by the utilization of these wild to elite cultivars for breeding resistant cultivars in semi-arid forms ..... to produce races better environments. adapted to semiarid regions...". The materialization of this vision, Root architecture influences the ability of plants to extract is becoming more feasible with water from the soil, and it reflects plants strategies to survive the recently encoding wild under limited resources. The increase in the number of seminal emmer genome and new genetic roots was found to be associated with a decrease in water tools being developed. This will movement. Using anatomical, physiological and computational promote the identification of novel modeling, we examine the changes in root hydraulic properties alleles and/or genes associated and revealed that wild wheat has significantly larger metaxylem drought tolerance of wheat and elements. Accordingly calculated axial conductance of the improve the knowledgebase wild plants was significantly higher as compared with the needed to develop climate- Recovery of two roots after domesticated seedlings. resilient wheat cultivars. water stress in wild emmer

Collecting wild emmer in the field Analyzing photosynthesis of wild wheat in the field (Dr. Guy Golan) (students Harel Bacher and Yoav Sharaby)

25 Honey Bees A B Balance Their Figure 1. A: The mean (SE) percentage of honey bee (HB) foragers visiting dishes with sucrose solution (nectar, N) or with pollen (P) when pollen stores are augmented (P+) or depleted (P-). Different letters in bars Nutrition indicate statistically significant differences between groups (P<0.05). B: The mean (SE) amounts of protein and carbohydrate and the P:C ratio collected by colonies in the different treatments. * = statistically significant difference (P<0.05)

A B The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen

Prof. Sharoni Shafir [email protected]

B. Triwaks Bee Research Center, Department of Entomology, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Figure 2. A: Top view photo of honey bees from one colony foraging from dishes with three types of flours, in a block design of eight replicates of Jerusalem the three dishes. B: Mean (SE) mg of collected diet per dish of flours that were the same, similar or complementary to the diet the colony had Honey bees visit flowers to collect nectar, mostly as a source been fed previously. Different letters above bars indicate statistically significant differences between groups (P<0.05). Photo: H. Hendriksma of carbohydrates, and pollen, which contains carbohydrates but in addition is rich in proteins, fats and minerals. As bees forage for food, they provide pollination services that are essential for maintaining our food security. Research in our lab has 79% when not manipulated (Figure 1A). Based on the nutritional unravelled some of the intricacies of how the thousands (up to composition of the collected food, we could employ techniques tens of thousands) of workers in a honey bee colony maintain of the geometric approach to nutrition to calculate the P:C target nutritional homeostasis. ratio of colonies in the different conditions. Colonies always bias their intake towards carbohydrates, but the bias is less (P:C Balancing protein to carbohydrate ratio = 1:14) when protein is lacking, P-, and very strong (P:C = 1:2,080) Honey bees evaporate the water from nectar, concentrating it when protein is not lacking, P+ (Figure 1B). into honey that is stored in the hive. A colony may store up to tens of kg of honey, which provides it energy for many weeks or Balancing essential amino acids months. Pollen, on the other hand, is stored in small quantities, Pollens of different plants differ in their amino acid and fatty which last a short time. Consequently, we found that the relative acid composition. Honey bee colonies may approach a balanced allocation of foraging effort for protein (P) or carbohydrate (C) diet by collecting pollen from 5-8 different plant species by the colony is highly sensitive to its pollen stores1. In control concurrently2. We tested whether a colony can actively bias its colonies we did not manipulate P and C stores, whereas in foraging towards sources that complement its specific amino experimental colonies we removed honey stores (C-) and either acid deficiencies3. Colonies were deprived of their pollen stores, removed (P-) or added (P+) pollen stores. The colony allocated then fed flours that were either poor or rich in specific essential 97% of foragers to collecting nectar in the P+ manipulation, amino acids (eAA). After a week of feeding, we provided foragers relative to 54% in the P- manipulation and an intermediate choice between dishes containing the same flour on which

26 World Food Day - October 2019 A B C

Figure 3. A,B: Marked foragers collecting pollen from dish, and on the dance floor. C: Mean (SE) dance rate to pollen that is the same, similar or complementary to the pollen the colony had been fed previously. Numbers at bottom of bars are dance sample sizes. Different letters above bars indicate statistically significant differences between groups (P<0.05). LSMeans are those predicted by the full statistical model. Photos: S. Zarchin, K. Oxman they had fed all week, another flour that was similar in eAA balanced omega-6:3 ratio (oil mixture that included sage and flax composition, or a complementary diet that would complement oils). Another balanced diet consisted of a mixture of pollens. the eAA deficiencies of the flour they had been fed (Figure 2A). We then tested the associative learning performance of bees The experiment was balanced across colonies for which flours that developed on these diets using the proboscis extension were used in the three nutritional roles. Colonies biased their response (PER) conditioning assay (Figure 4A). Each bee foraging to the flour that complemented their colony’s eAA experienced six trials in which an odor (conditioned stimulus, deficiencies (Figure 2B). CS+) was associated with feeding a drop of sucrose solution, and six trials in which a different odor (CS-) was associated Balancing essential fatty acids with exposure to salt solution, which is aversive to bees. The In a conceptually similar experiment as above, we fed a colony order of CS+ and CS- trials was according to a pseudorandom for several days only one type of pollen, that was biased sequence. The percentage of bees that responded to the CS+ towards high ratio of either one of the two essential fatty acids, odor, and prior to receiving the sucrose reward, over subsequent omega-3 or omega-6, relative to the other one. But here we trials represented a learning curve. Bees fed a balanced used observation hives, which have a glass panel through which omega-6:3 diet achieved about 95% learning, whereas learning we could record the recruitment dances of returning foragers. performance of those fed an omega-6 biased diet was greatly 5,6 These dances consist of a bee running inside the hive on the impaired, reaching only about 40% (Figure 4B). comb in circles, reversing direction after each round. The rate I greatly acknowledge the dedicated and hard work of my at which the dancer performs these reversals is an indication postdoc, Harmen Hendriksma, students, Shlomi Zarchin and of her subjective evaluation of the value of the food that she is Yael Arien, technician, Haim Kalev, collaborator, Arnon Dag, and advertising. After several days with one pollen, we presented various additional assistants. for multiple 5-min periods a petri dish containing one of three pollens: the same pollen that the colony had been feeding A B on, another pollen that was similarly biased in omega-6:3 composition, or a pollen that was complementary in omega-6:3 composition. Dancers were individually marked, and we recorded their dance rate to the three pollens. The “same” pollen elicited the least excited dances, whereas the “complementary” pollen elicited the fastest dances4. Thus, foragers can assess the colony’s specific needs and bias their recruitment towards resources that best fulfil these needs.

Cognitive impairment of unbalanced omega-6:3 ratio Figure 4. A: A honey bee worker in conditioning of the proboscis extension A high omega-6:3 ratio in the diet of mammals (including response (PER), is fed a drop of sucrose solution after exposure to the humans) is associated with cognitive decline. We tested conditioned odor. B: Learning curves of bees that developed on a high (corn and sesame) or low (oil mixture and pollen) omega-6:3 ratio diet, whether honey bees would be similarly affected. Colonies were showing about 95% PER to the rewarded odor (CS+) in the latter group fed either artificial diets skewed towards high omega-6:3 ratio vs only about 40% in the former (P<0.0001); response to the punished (by enriching the diets with corn or sesame oil) or with a more odor (CS-) was very low in all groups. Photo: Y. Arien

27 Pollination Services by Wild

Pollinators Figure 1 (a) Gideon Pisanty, a former PhD student in the lab, conducting field experiments of single visit pollination efficiency in a watermelon field in the Judean Foothills. Gideon is patiently waiting for a wild bee to visit a marked flower he observes. After the bee leaves the flower will be bagged and monitored for fruit and seed set

The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmen Dr. Yael Mandelik [email protected]

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Lab, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Pollination by animals is crucial for the sustainability of both natural and agricultural ecosystems. An estimated 88% of all angiosperm plant species are animal-pollinated, and 77% of Figure 1 (b) A common crop pollinator wild bee, Lasioglossum malachurum, the leading global food crops, including the majority of edible pollinating a watermelon flower. The body of the bee comes in contact fruits, nuts and seeds, depend on animal pollinators for yield with the yellow pollen and transfers it to the flower female organs (stigma) quantity and quality. Crop pollination relies mainly on managed hives of the domesticated honey bee (Apis mellifera). However, bee species, until a reliable estimation of single bee visit this species is increasingly difficult to manage due to combined pollination efficiency is achieved. This measure is then multiplied effects of parasites, diseases and pesticide exposure. In by the visitation rate (number of bee visits/flower/time) of each addition, honey bees do not pollinate all crops efficiently, and species to arrive to species-specific estimation of contribution supplementary pollination may be needed. Wild bees, naturally to crop pollination. Using this methodology, we found that occurring populations of globally over 20,000 species, may contribute substantially to pollination of a variety of crops, and commercial honey bees and wild bees complement each other provide a safety net in the event of honey bee collapses. in their pollination activity; wild bees are most efficient in pollinating small flowers, while honey bees show the opposite Israel, with over 1100 recorded bee species, is a hot spot of pattern (Fig 2a). Similarly, wild bees are more abundant in fields bee diversity. Studies in different parts of country revealed rich surrounded by increased amount of semi-natural habitats, and abundant bee communities inhabiting various agricultural while honey bees don’t show this pattern (Fig 2b, c). As a result, landscapes. In order to assess the contribution of these fields in which both honey bees and wild bees are active and wild bees to crop pollination, pollination experiments were pollinating flowers, receive overall higher pollination services conducted in different crops, including watermelon, sunflower, and produce higher yields compared to fields where only honey strawberry, almond, and apple. Experiments include measuring bees are present. the pollination efficiency of single bee visits, conducted for each of the dominant bee species found in the fields. This After revealing the significant contribution that wild bees can is done by exposing a fresh virgin flower to a single bee visit provide to crop pollination in Israel, we aimed to create an and consequently monitoring fruit and seed set (Fig 1). This ecological profile for main wild crop pollinators to improve our measurement is repeated several times for each of the dominant ability to manage and conserve them. We studied their life-

28 World Food Day - October 2019 Figure 2 (a) The effect of flower size (measured as ovary width) on single Figure 2 (b) The effect of surrounding land use (presented as % of semi- visit pollination efficiency (measured by % of fruit set) of honey bees natural habitats in 50 m radii buffers around study fields) on honey bees (HB) and wild bees (WB). Numbers represent the number of replicates. (HB) and wild bees (WB) abundance within fields (presented as # of bee After: Pisanty G, Afik O, Wajnberg E, Mandelik Y (2016). Journal of visits per 20 min of observations). Applied Ecology 53: 360-370 After: Pisanty G, Afik O, Wajnberg E, Mandelik Y (2016). Journal of Applied Ecology 53: 360-370 history traits and habitat requirements and found that main crop pollinators were generalist foragers, ground nesters, of small and medium body size (compared to honey bees). In a national scale study, we aimed to evaluate the contribution of different land-use types to the richness and abundance of wild bee communities, and to the delivery of pollination services to agriculture. We focused on the seasonal availability of two resources known to shape pollinator communities, foraging and nesting resources. For each main land-use type we estimated the relative amount of foraging (flowers) and nesting resources (different substrates above and below ground) it potentially provide along bee activity season (February till October). Finally, for each land-use category, we averaged its foraging and its nesting scores to obtain a final score for land-use suitability for wild bees. In the Agricultural land-uses we deducted a relative “pesticide penalty” from the scoring obtained; the penalty ranged from 0-1, and was determined based on expert opinion. We found that different land-use categories may vary considerably in their expected contribution to the richness and abundance of wild bee communities (Fig 3). Two main patterns immerged from our scoring process. First, agricultural land- uses are ranked lower compared to natural and semi-natural land-use types. This is due to the “pesticide penalty” applied to the agricultural land-uses and their relative short bloom period compared to natural/semi-natural land-uses. Second, regenerating semi-natural habitats, may have higher value for wild bees compared to natural perennial-dominated land- uses. Accordingly, mapping the contribution of different land- uses to wild bee richness and abundance, and to the expected delivery of pollination services, shows highest values in regions characterized by dwarf shrubland dominated by annuals, as in the Golan Heights (Fig 3). Areas with high amount of natural/ semi-natural habitats, such as the Judean foothills and upper Figure 3 Relative contribution of Israel’s open landscapes to wild bee Galilee, have also high values, while areas that are developed communities as a proxy for the delivery of wild bee pollination services. and/or used for agriculture, such as most of the coastal plains After: Lotan A, Kost R, Mandelik Y, Peled Y, Chakuki D, Zemah Shamir S, and the northern valleys, have lowest contribution to wild bee Ram Y (2018). One Ecosystem 3: e25494 communities and pollination services. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.3.e25494

29 "Precision Agriculture Is The Only Way to Sustainable Farming"

An interview with Naty Barak Chief Sustainability officer at Netafim

What an honor to talk to Naty Barak! Great insights about the challenges facing our food and agriculture systems and how the future of food security depends on precision agriculture. As interviewed by Gail Glick, Content Marketing Manager at Netafim

Q: As the Chief Sustainability Officer of Netafim, what do you think are the current challenges facing agriculture and the global food system? How can we deal with those challenges? Naty Barak: Precision agriculture is important, in fact, I see it Applying precise and correct amount of inputs like water, as the only sustainable way forward in agriculture due to the nutrients, crop protection etc. directly to the roots for increasing many challenges we face today. According to the latest United its productivity and maximizing its yields. Precision agriculture Nations report, the world's population is expected to increase to treats the plant, not the soil. Water smart agriculture saves 9.7 billion in 2050. And to add to this, the urban population will water and eliminates contamination of soils, rivers and aquifers. grow tremendously. Probably half of this will be in emerging countries like China, India, and the African subcontinent. Our Q: How does precision agriculture relate to # Zero hunger resources are limited: water is a critical and limited resource, by 2030? arable land is a finite resource and energy prices are rising. To Naty Barak: When we started Netafim in 1965, we spoke about this we should add social, political and environmental concerns the challenges which were facing the world - like growing like poverty and gender equality. Precision agriculture, and population, water scarcity, drought and famine. We strongly specifically drip irrigation, holistically addresses the point believed that the innovative technology of drip irrigation where all these challenges intersect and are essential to meet could be the answer to these challenges. Drip irrigation was the needs of this growing population. It is quite clear that the a young and innovative technology, there was no awareness only way to grow more food is to increase the yield while saving to those challenges, and we had to educate the market to the the environment from further degradation. It is not just food, it advantages of our technology. Things have changed since then. is the four F's - Food, Feed, Fiber and Fuel. I remember with pride when I participated in the UN General The only way to get higher yield from limited resources is by Assembly in 2015 when all the Member Nations adopted the changing agriculture into what we call Precision Agriculture, SDGs - Sustainable Development Goals. Many of these goals Climate Smart Agriculture, or as I prefer to call it Water-Smart are related to agriculture and Netafim's solutions help to Agriculture". achieve many of the SDGs. We are helping to make smallholder Q: What do you mean by "Precision" or "water-smart" agriculture and food systems more sustainable in collaboration agriculture? And why is it so important? with governments, NGOs, financial institutions - all these are Naty Barak: Precision agriculture means giving to the plant geared to achieve not only #ZeroHuger but also end poverty in exactly what it needs, when it needs it and where it needs it. all its forms everywhere in the world.

30 World Food Day - October 2019 Q: What does precision agriculture encompass? Does it only mean precision irrigation, or does it involve other things as well? Naty Barak: It involves everything to do with agriculture. It refers to everything from irrigation , crop protection models, precise fertigation or nutrition by applying the right mix of nutrients and water, to IoT enabled smart irrigation devices like soil sensors or cloud-based data analytics or satellites that help farmers to know how and when to apply inputs for optimal yields. amount of greenhouse gases. Just imagine all those huge rice Watch how Drip Irrigation is changing the lives of smallholder paddies, wherever it is in the world, or any other flooded fields. farmers in India. They are the major contributors of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We are working hard to change this. In Israel, 75% of irrigation is drip irrigation. More than 40% of irrigation in California is drip. Drip irrigation is adopted more and more in Australia, India, Brazil and Mexico but still globally 70% of the irrigation is flood irrigation. And this is something that we have to change. We need to realize that flood irrigation can never go hand-in-hand with sustainable agriculture.

Q: So, how do you think that we can overcome this challenge? How can we, make the adoption of drip irrigation faster and on a larger scale? Naty Barak: I would say that, number one, we need partners. We cannot do it on our own. We need partners in governments, Q: If the benefits of precision agriculture are so evident, why federal or local governments, we need partners in global and has the adoption been so slow? local financial institutions, we need to collaborate with civil Naty Barak: Unfortunately, this is a never-ending battle. I think society. We need collaboration and partnerships with the private our number one challenge is lack of awareness among the sector: users of agriculture products such as food & beverage policymakers or decision makers about the immense potential companies, agricultural input companies and all those people of precision agriculture. But as the pioneers in drip irrigation, who care. I think the partnerships are essential. Of course, we Netafim is engaging with stakeholders around the world by must do our work. Being pioneers and leaders in precision and sharing its experience and knowledge and we have been smart agriculture, we have the responsibility to lead the shift to successful in this endeavor. precision agriculture.

One of our challenges is Flood Irrigation. I often refer to it as Q: As pioneers in drip irrigation, how can Netafim help to "our competitor". Flood irrigation is one of the oldest and most- achieve #Zerohunger? used methods to irrigate crops. Sadly, this is a battle which we Naty Barak: As leaders and pioneers in precision agriculture, haven't won yet. Flood irrigation causes water source depletion we are committed to sustainability, in fact - sustainability is our and contamination; it uses an excessive amount of chemicals business. We are driven by the SDGs to help create a sustainable and has a very negative effect on the planet by releasing large world. We're farmers first and innovators second. We have a mission to help eliminate poverty, end hunger, fight climate change and achieve gender equality by empowering women farmers in the emerging world. This will help bring economic growth in economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, India and Latin America. Our foremost and number one partners are the growers or farmers.

Q: What do you think the future of precision agriculture looks like ? Naty Barak: I think that data will be the future of precision agriculture. The farms of the future will combine data, cloud- based analytics, IoT enabled smart devices, drones and satellites, and digital farming technologies with farmers controlling everything from their mobile devices. Business as usual is not an option!

31 Irrigation Decision Support From Outer Space

An interview with Hovav Lapidot Director, Marketing & Sales, Manna Irrigation Intelligence [email protected]

World Food Day is an opportunity to raise consciousness about Manna's system includes software only, without sensors or the challenge facing all humanity: maximizing food production hardware in the field, and therefore is easily adopted by users. while reducing the resources invested. Manna seeks to meet Its goal is to support the farmer's decisions: when and how much this challenge, by striving to develop a solution that contributes to irrigate, without the need for physical contact with the soil or to efficient water usage in irrigation. the plant. According to Hovav, "The idea is to avoid the hassle of installation and maintenance of delicate devices in the field, Hovav Lapidot, Manna's marketing director, relates: "We see the and at the same time get a reading of the entire field rather increased demand for efficient water usage solutions generally, than from only one or two points. and our system in particular is recognized where irrigation is critical to crop development, and water availability is declining The system relies on satellite imagery analysis combined with due to climate changes." precise meteorological data and agronomy models: Satellite images are received from three different satellite systems, once Manna Irrigation was established by Rivulis Irrigation every 3-5 days. The Manna system analyzes the satellite data to three and a half years ago, and offers irrigation intelligence determine the exact and current crop conditions - vegetation solutions to help growers decide when and how much to vigor, water potential and more. Weather data is based on a irrigate. The benefit is improved water use efficiency (WUE). virtual-station, hyper-local weather service that provides historic, The company is located at Kibbutz Gvat in the Jezreel Valley, current and forecast conditions at the farm level. The agronomy and it was based on an acquisition of Israel's leading precision models are adapted to each crop (currently supporting about ag company Agam Advanced Agronomy. Manna used the body 50 crops) and geographic location. The system combines all of of research and knowledge gathered by Agam in its 10 years these, and in addition it factors in parameters of the soil and of operation to build a system that provides an irrigation- irrigation system, to provide precise and dynamic irrigation centered solution. recommendations.

32 World Food Day - October 2019 In addition to recommending how much and when to irrigate, the farmer also receives the satellite images presented as colored maps, indicating vegetation density, plant wetness levels and even areas that the system suspects might suffer from various problems and mishaps, such as irrigation system malfunctions or even crop protection and nutrition problems.

The value to the grower is measured by water use efficiency: crop yield per required water quantity. Hovav notes: "You can call it Return on Water. Based on all the observations we made in various locations worldwide on various crops, we have seen at least a 10% improvement in water use efficiency - increase in crop yield received from the same amount of water, or the yield remained stable even though the amount of irrigation was reduced. Customers note that the system is their trusted irrigation counselor, helping them to make decisions and warning them of malfunctions.

Manna's vision is to make irrigation intelligence accessible to farmers worldwide - from the rural farmer in India to giant firms in California - and therefore the system they offer must be user friendly and require minimal data inputs from the user. Hovav added "You don't have to be an agronomist to operate it or a techie to understand the data it presents".

Another factor for a solution to become globally adopted is provides growers with critical information for their daily crop obviously price and simplicity of the business model. Manna management decisions. This acquisition has elevated Manna found that the best way is via on-line software service: to become the largest satellite imagery provider in Israel's ag growers just purchase an annual software subscription, easily market. Hovav: "We believe that having the best experts in enter their crop data and within minutes receive images and remote sensing work together will enable us to provide better recommendations. In recent months the system has been service to farmers, and to enhance our capabilities such as available for self-registration on-line, including a free trial automatic identification of issues using artificial intelligence." period. The added value Manna hopes to get from this acquisition is both the expansion of client base as well as additional In an effort to expand the company's service and market reach, agricultural information to help build its models and improve Manna has acquired the activity of "Agricam" this past summer. analysis of field anomalies. Agricam is a software and remote sensing startup company that To summarize, Hovav states: "with every season completed, the data collected and the feedback gathered from users - our confidence in the irrigation intelligence approach grows. It may sound like science fiction to some, but I can easily see how the old questions of how much and when to irrigate crops, to achieve optimal yield, water use efficiency and sustainability are problems of the past. Every grower in the world has direct access to personalized and affordable irrigation intelligence in the palm of their hand, which they use daily for optimized and confident irrigation decisions. Written protocols will be gone like the phone books and in-field sensing hardware will be obsolete the same way we gave up on phone booths in the street…"

Read more about manna at www.manna-irrigation.com

33 Biohumigat for Greenhouse Table Grapes - To Be One Step Ahead of Everyone Yakov Henig M.Sc Agronomist, Gat Fertilizers [email protected]

Grapevines (Vitis vinifera) are a major important agricultural crop worldwide, and particularly in Israel. Their cultivation requires a cold season including leaf fall when differentiation of dormant buds occurs. It also requires a warmer season in which the vine awakens and bears fruit.

The grapevine has relatively low chilling requirements, so it can be cultivated in a variety of zones, with ripening dates spread over a long period during the season. In addition, over the past decades early table varieties have been bred that complete the seasonal growing cycle to ripening within just a four-month period and can be marketed very early.

Furthermore, growing table grapes in greenhouses is a common practice in relatively warm areas (mainly in the Jordan Rift),

34 World Food Day - October 2019 enabling an earlier grape cultivation period. The vines are awakened through early pruning and chemical stimulant spray, Graph no. 1- so that the winter serves as a growth period. In this way the Averege bunch weight (Kg) vine grows in non-optimal conditions of cold and even frost at night, and on the other hand is sometimes overheated in the greenhouse.

While testing supplementary products for standard fertilization, Deshen Gat markets a variety of bio-stimulants for plant enrichment. One of them is Biohumigat, a product characterized by quality humic acids content. These materials are known to improve soil structure and to help the plant absorb nutrients, and to induce defense mechanisms against stress. For this reason we decided to test the effect of Biohumigat on table grapes in the greenhouse.

The experiment took place during the 2017-2018 winter at Moshav Graph no. 2- Bekaot, located in the higher Jordan Rift. It was conducted in a Harvest dates distribution (% of total amount) greenhouse vineyard, using a random block design- 4 trials and 4 control rows. The treatment was continuous fertilization with Biohumigat by a dosimeter. The measures studied constituted Leaf Area Index (LAI), number of clusters, yield weight, average cluster weight, grape weight and sugar level (Brix0). All treatments in the vineyard were carried out standardly by the farmer without our interference, including the harvest. Grapes were harvested selectively at three different dates, in order to ensure marketable quality fruit in terms of grape size and appropriate sugar level (Brix0>14.5). % of total harvest amount

Results Additionally, the distribution between harvest dates differed Biohumigat treatment consistently showed denser foliage (Graph 2). At the first and earliest of the 3 harvests, the yield over 5 LAI measurements throughout the season i.e., the plants from the Biohumigat treated grapes was three fold greater. were more vigorous with this treatment. In terms of harvest Such an early harvest is generally characterized by a higher parameters, number of clusters, overall weight, and sugar level, price, and sometimes significantly more than the later harvest. there was no significant difference between treatment and control. By contrast, the grape weight was consistently greater To summarize - in this season we already witnessed impressive, with Biohumigat for all 3 harvests, and the cluster weight interesting results for Biohumigat treatment of greenhouse (Graph 1) was significantly greater (p<0.1), so that each cluster table grapes, in terms of fruit size and the early harvest. As a was larger and better suited for marketing as premium fruit. result, the experiment is planned to continue next year as well.

35 Grasshoppers: Sustainable, Healthy Protein To Feed a Hungry World

Dror Tamir Co-founder & CEO Hargol FoodTech [email protected]

Global population is expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, or 30% higher than it is today. This growth tendency, in addition to socio-economic changes such as rising incomes, increased urbanization and aging population are driving up the global demand for protein. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimates that the world needs to increase its food production by 70% by 2050, to feed a global population of over 9 billion, while existing protein sources - cereals, meat, dairy, fish - are reaching their limits, putting pressure on natural resources and damaging the environment. In order to address are considered a national delicacy, enjoy high demand and this problem, there is high demand for alternative proteins that bring very high prices: from double the price of beef in Africa up are healthier, more sustainable, and affordable for populations to $300 per 1kg in Saudi Arabia. around the globe. Scientists have conducted numerous studies But there is just one problem - today the only source of proving the importance of protein ingredients in maintaining a grasshoppers is gathering them in the wild, which means a very healthy body. short, limited season of 4-6 weeks per year. For many years it has been known that insects provide a very Hargol FoodTech is the first in the world to grow grasshoppers efficient protein source. Among them grasshoppers take it to on a commercial scale, year-round with high and constant the extreme limit, with over 70% protein content. Offering an quality. And for the first time, large populations around the almost neutral taste and flavor has made grasshoppers the globe have the option to enjoy their beloved delicacy year- world’s most widely eaten insect. Consumed by over 1 billion round at reasonable prices from a safe source. people across Asia, Africa and Central America, grasshoppers Research done in leading universities has already demonstrated the health benefits related to grasshopper consumption, and given their minimal foot print - reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 98.8%, reducing water consumption by X 1,000, reducing arable land usage by X 1,500 times to produce 1kg of protein compared to beef - grasshoppers have started to attract consumer interest in developed countries. For example: for the last 3 seasons visitors to the Mariners ball park in Seattle can enjoy a snack of whole roasted grasshoppers, and a growing number of restaurants in North America and Europe have added grasshopper dishes to their menus. Hargol FoodTech doesn’t stop there. The company constantly develops new innovative products based on its unique ingredient. The first product is expected to hit the market in Q4 2019. So, if you want to sample a bite from the future - Look for Hargol’s grasshoppers on the shelves of your local supermarket.

36 World Food Day - October 2019 Innovative Technology To Reduce Damage Of Plant Fungus and Leaf Disease Yaniv Kitron CEO at BotanoHealth [email protected]

Studies show that about one-third of the food produced in the world is lost due to insect and fungus damage. Two periods in the production cycle are especially problematic: a few weeks before harvest, and after harvest during storage and shipping - as toxic pesticides cannot be used to avoid toxic residues in produce reaching the market.

Third world farmers like native american farmers from small farms in Guatemala lose 40 percent of French pea crop to botrytis, Israeli farmers lose entire containers of red pepper that are infected with botrytis during deliveries to the European markets, the shelf life of sweet potato is reduced due to fungi and more...

Farmers face a serious dilemma: chemical pesticides lose efficacy against fungi and are dangerous to farmers and the environment. Regulation does not allow spraying or handling of toxic substances near and after the harvest due to toxic residues. The use of the product is relevant in the two critical stages of loss of produce: in the weeks prior to harvesting and postharvest These trends are leading to a transition to organic, efficient, and during storage and shipping. affordable agricultural solutions. The product has been shown to be effective in laboratory The research and literature indicate a number of essential oils experiments at the Volcani Institute in Israel, as well as in that can help cope with leaf diseases, but these oils also damage field experiments and demonstrations in Europe and the USA. and cause phytotoxicity the plants and fruit. In addition, these BotanoHealth plans to use the innovative formulation technology oils are expensive to use in the field in commercial quantities, to develop additional products for the crop protection market. and are therefore not relevant as a solution to the farmer. BotanoHealth technology will allow to increase the amount BotanoHealth has developed a technology that overcomes of produce that results at the end of the production chain, and both challenges, with an innovative formulation technology organic protection will allow the farmer to handle produce near that increases by 2000% the power and efficiency of the active the harvest without fear of harm to his health or the environment. essential oils. As global population and demand for food increases, The innovative product is organic, non-toxic, affordable, and BotanoHealth technology allows reducing the staggering 30% very effective against leaf diseases and fungus. food loss due to plant disease and fungus.

37 The Crucial Role of The Secondary Nutrients in Sustainable Agriculture Dr. Patricia Imas Chief Agronomist, ICL Fertilizers [email protected]

Global food security is especially of concern looking forward as world population is expected to increase by about 35% over the next 40 years. Agricultural output will need to significantly increase to feed the growing population. Most of the increase is expected to come from producing more on existing farmland. Boosting crop yields can be achieved by the implementation of balanced fertilization practices, which will also insure the preservation of the soil fertility.

Sulphur (S), magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca) are essential plant nutrients. They are called "secondary" nutrients because plants require them in smaller quantities than nitrogen (N), phosphorus Photo 1: Paddy rice trial in Karawang, Jawa Barat, Indonesia investigating (P), and potassium (K). On the other hand, plants require these the effect of Polysulphate on the yield and quality parameters of rice. nutrients in larger quantities than the "micronutrients" such as iron, zinc and boron. broccoli, cauliflower) and many other vegetables require large amounts of S. Secondary nutrients deficiencies are increasingly becoming an important limiting factor in intensive crop production systems, In the past, the deposition of sulphur to agricultural land was especially in soils fertilized only with N, P and K. Many soils well in excess of crop and animal requirements and sulphur worldwide are poor in fertility - specifically in secondary was not discussed as a crop nutrient. However, over the last nutrients - as they have consistently been depleted of their 20 years, the anthropogenic emissions of sulphur - usually

native nutrients due to continuous cultivation. This has as sulphur dioxide (SO2) from the burning of fossil fuels - resulted in the soil becoming a poor food crop producer. had reduced to such an extent, that sulphur became of great potential significance as a nutrient to counter S deficiency in Plants get their secondary nutrients from the soil, but natural crops and grassland. processes don’t supply enough to sustain crop production. Mineral fertilizers containing S, Mg and Ca replenish nutrients in Many coarse-textured, sandy soils and low-organic matter the soil to ensure plants grow to their full potential. This results are found to be sulphur deficient for crop production. Farmers in crops that contribute enough mineral elements for adequate usually apply S fertilizers before planting, so it is prone to losses animal and human nutrition and improve global food security. by rains or irrigation that will leach out the S from the soil profile and will not be taken up by the crop. -2 Sulphur (S) is absorbed primarily in the sulphate form (SO4 ) by plants. It is part of every living cell and required for synthesis Magnesium (Mg) is an essential component of the chlorophyll of amino acids and proteins. Sulphur is also important in molecule, with each molecule containing 6.7% Mg. It is essential photosynthesis and crop winter hardiness. Leguminous plants for photosynthesis, cell division, protein formation phosphate need S for efficient nitrogen fixation. metabolism, plant respiration and the activation of several enzyme systems. Crops such as corn that have a high dry matter production generally require the greatest amount of sulphur. Also potatoes, Due to its potential for leaching in highly weathered soils, Mg cotton, sunflower, canola (rape seed), Brassicas (cabbage, deficiency is a critical concern in acid and tropical soils.

38 World Food Day - October 2019 Calcium (Ca) is responsible for proper plant cell division and for strengthening cell walls. Calcium improves the absorption of other nutrients by roots and their translocation within the plant. It activates enzyme systems, helps convert nitrate- nitrogen into proteins and contributes to improved disease resistance. Without enough Ca, roots become stunted with impaired activity.

Calcium deficiency can be found in tropical and in acidic soils. Calcium supply can alleviate aluminum toxicity symptoms which are common in those regions.

Polysulphate®, a new fertilizer with secondary Photo 2: Trial in Popowo, Poland investigating the effect of Polysulphate nutrients on the yield and quality parameters of Brook variety of potato. Polysulphate is a new multi-nutrient fertilizer, mined in the UK, and available in its natural state. Uniquely, it has four nutrients: sulphur, magnesium, potassium and calcium. All its nutrients are The steady, prolonged release of S over a longer period than in sulphate form and are readily available for plant uptake. other fertilizers is a key advantage of Polysulphate. Along with S, Polysulphate provides three other nutrients (K, Mg and Ca) in Polysulphate is mined in the UK by ICL Boulby, from the one single application and has a positive effect on crop growth, polyhalite layer of rock deposited 260 million years ago over yield and quality - many experiments worldwide show this 3,300 feet below the North Sea off the North Yorkshire coast. steady yield response to Polysulphate application. Polysulphate contains 48% SO (19.2% S) as sulphate, 14% 3 For example, in a trial in Indonesia. rice paddy plants fertilized K O (11.6% K) as sulphate of potassium, 6% MgO (3.6% Mg) 2 with Polysulphate fertilizer are 8-10 cm taller than those grown as magnesium sulphate and 17% CaO (12.2% Ca) as calcium according to farmer’s practice. Importantly, the Polysulphate sulphate. Its chloride content is very low which means it can be grown plants are also more tolerant to lodging treatment (see applied to sensitive crops. It does not affect soil pH and does photo 1). not acidify the soil. In another trial with potato in Poland, the application of Being a natural crystal, it has a very unique dissolution pattern, Polysulphate produced plants with significantly more tubers which releases its nutrients gradually after being applied to the and of bigger size than the plants given the farmer’s usual crop soil. While most sources of S have high rates of dissolution, nutrition treatment (see photo 2). releasing S immediately with the risk of losing S as leached sulphate - Polysulphate provides a prolonged availability of S. Polysulphate also improves the quality of produce. There is a This prolonged release pattern of S from Polysulphate matches growing body of evidence for this in crops in many parts of the uptake timing of S by crops and minimizes the risk of loss of the world. For example, in an experiment with wheat carried sulphate by leaching. out by Southeast Missouri State University, USA, Polysulphate improved N:S ratio in grains and thus enhanced baking quality Additional benefits include that Polysulphate is a natural of the flour. product and has a low carbon footprint. It delivers dependable high value with low negative environmental impact and is Another key environmental advantage of Polysulphate is the certified for organic use. improvement of the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). By using Polysulphate, N can be applied independently, separating S Agronomic and environmental benefits of from N application. Nitrogen can be applied after germination at the right time for the crop, in the right form, and in right Polysulphate for farmers weather conditions avoiding N overdosing or leaching. With The prolonged release of S from Polysulphate helps growers to Polysulphate, higher N use efficiency can be achieved without save money on fertilizer costs, by cutting back on the number waste and unnecessary cost to the farmer or the environment. of fertilizer applications necessary. In addition, there is an environmental benefit of reducing the risk of S leaching. Concluding remarks Polysulphate is suitable as a source of sulphate for inclusion Fertilizers play a critical role in the world’s food security. with multiple dressings of fertilizers over the season, but its Targeted, balanced and precise crop nutrition, with secondary strength is that it can be recommended as a single early dressing nutrient and gradual and prolonged release of adequate S, is without causing a sudden high concentration of sulphate in the one of the keys to unlocking crop performance and achieving soil and with minimum risk of loss through leaching. both crop productivity and profitability.

39 Israel Agricultural Technology Hub October 2019 Israel Agricultural Technology Hub October 2019October 2018 World Food Day 2019 World Food Day 2019

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