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A few years ago, I started worrying
about the environmental predicament,


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and the current chaos
in the world economy.

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So, I started to analyze
some specific figures.

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In 1950, the population
of the world was 2.5 billion.

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Today, in 2013, we are 7 billion.

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We increased by 4.5 billion
in only 63 years.

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This means that people
need space, more food,

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more energy and they contaminate.

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And of those 7 billion people
in the world,

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there's 1 billion that has nothing to eat
unless someone gives them something,

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and 24,000 children
starve to death every day.

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Also, there are 1 billion vehicles
in the world

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that consume 93 million barrels
of oil per day.

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Let's see if we understand this,

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we're transforming something that's buried
and doesn't cause any problems

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into carbon dioxide, at a speed 
of 93 million barrels of oil per day.

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And when I continued looking
at these arguments,

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I noticed many environmental contracts
are signed, which is how it should be.

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But in reality they are not obeyed.

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I noticed too that a lot of economists see
how their suggested solutions fail daily.

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It doesn't work.

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The world is adrift.

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Economy and the world's environment 
are adrift.

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That's why I've come to tell you 
that for a world

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that doesn't have a Plan A,
I've brought you a Plan B.

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(Applause)

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We still don't know if plan B works!

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(Laughter)

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I've brought you a plan B.

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'B' for bioeconomy, 'B' for biotechnology,
and 'B' for transgenic biofactory.

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Allow me to talk a little about bioeconomy
people don't always know what it is.

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Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, a Romanian
who worked at the University of Chicago,

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defined bioeconomy.

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He sent two terrible warnings
to the classic economy in 1966 and in 1973

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saying the world was heading for disaster.

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We could all create an economic theory
but how do we know it's a good one?

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Because if we apply it and it's not true,
the world will break down.

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And what Roegen asks 
is why wouldn't the economy

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follow the laws of nature?

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Because if the economy did follow
the laws of nature, it wouldn't ever fail.

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He says that for the economists,

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everything is a circular process
of production and consumption.

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He says, "It's a lie".

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This isn't a cycle of production 
and consumption for Nature.

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It is a one-way expenditure 
of energy and natural resources

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that's not going to renew itself
at the same speed it's consumed.

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So, what happened to poor Roegen?

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They kicked him out 
of every academic economic circle.

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He became an outcast in his profession
and was considered an eccentric ecologist.

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He said in 1995 when he was dying,

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"Life won't be viable on Earth
if some sort of science or technology

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will come along and be able 
to lower health costs, produce more food,

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more energy and protect the environment".

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And he added, "This technology has to be 
a Promethean technology."

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Why did he call it 
a "Promethean technology"?

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Because Prometheus was a Greek titan
who stole the fire from the gods

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so that the people would have energy.

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Thank God we have our Promethean 
technology today, which is biotechnology.

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Modern biotechnology started 
in 1973 with genetic engineering.

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It deals with the four specific areas
where Roegen detected the problem.

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Biotechnology does 
a great deal for health.

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I could tell you that today there are
39 cancer vaccines being tested on humans,

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that we have cellular therapies,
genetic therapies

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that we have RNA interference,

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a way of blocking the messenger
so that the gene isn't expressed.

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Lot's of things.

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But I want to tell you that the costs
of all devices

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that sequence genomes 
have decreased considerably.

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And the era of mass sequencing has begun
today, in 2013.

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All of us will have our genomes sequenced 
in 5 to 10 years from now

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and we'll be looking for solutions
using a molecular genetic medicine.

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That's really important 
because molecular genetic medicine

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is going to save us a lot of money
on the terminally ill

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that weren't diagnosed in time.

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It will save a lot of money, 
a lot of intensive care expenses,

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chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies.

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And we can use all the money that we save
with this molecular genetic medicine,

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in a the second area, 
that of improving the quality of food.

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We all know that biotechnology
creates genetically-modified food,

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but it can do a lot more.

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Biotechnology can make
meat in bioreactors.

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I grab a loin cell, free from any diseases
and I put it in the reactor.

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I start growing a cell culture, 
loin after loin after loin,

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I press them together
and I have a loin hamburger.

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I'm talking about ARS 30 per kilo,
field-free, cattle-free meat,

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for all those people in the world
who can't have access to meat.

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We also can do biotechnology
with micro-algae.

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What is micro-algae biotechnology?

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There is a micro-algae called Spirulina

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that contains more than 70% of proteins,
calcium, phosphorus and vitamin B12.

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Its proteins are of a higher quality 
than soy's.

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Feed a child with 3 grams per day,
and he won't suffer malnutrition.

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You'll see organizations in Africa
that have made 4x4 tanks with it

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so that the children can grow
24 grams of Spirulina a day.

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It can be done!
It can be done.

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About energy, you heard about biodiesel, 
bioethanol, butanol fuel, biogas.

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But I don't want to talk about this.

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The main issue is to stop taking out
what is buried

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and transforming it into carbon dioxide.

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We need to include
in the fuel production chain

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in the photosynthesis cycle 
those one billion vehicles.

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That's the big challenge!

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I'll tell you how it's done in a minute.

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If we move on to the environment,
there are two fundamental things.

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The first one is to produce 
with zero waste.

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Today everything has a value, paper, 
cardboard, wood is valuable.

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Fermentable carbohydrates;
if I have a modified bacteria,

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I can make a lactic and polylactic acid,
a degradable and recyclable polymer.

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I can turn nitrogenous material 
into fertilizer and I can recycle water.

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I don't throw things away, 
we need zero waste production

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and ecological manufacturing.

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We need to produce ecologically.

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I want you to see what I call 
an ecological enterprise.

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You see here a chimney
and a cellular biofactory.

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This is what we have to internalize:


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going from that chemical factory


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that consumes fossil fuel
and pollutes through its chimney

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to a photosynthetic cellular factory

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that eats out the carbon dioxide catalyzed
by enzymes, and produces just the same.

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And how will it produce the same?

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Because biotechnology has 65 million 
known genes in genetic engineering.

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That is the challenge.

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This may surprise you.
This is biopetroleum.

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How is biopetroleum made?

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I take micro-algae, put them in the tanks
or in the tubes that you see there,

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grow them, take them out, filter them,

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pass them through a pyrolysis furnace,
and out comes petroleum.

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A fuel that allows us to get
naphtha jet fuel and biodiesel.

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But there are more advanced biofactories
too, for example by modifying micro-algae

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like Cyanobacteria, where I add two genes
in such a way the cellulose turns

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into glucose and the glucose 
turns into ethanol.

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This way, I have micro-algae 
that will continuously grow

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and will constantly produce fuel.

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It can be done. It can be done,
but go back to our dear circle.

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Look, the world goes over to a bioeconomy.

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Why does it go over to a bioeconomy?
Because economists want it to?

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No, it's not that.

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It goes because natural resources 
say so, because this won't be fixed

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by a burst of confidence.

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We need biotechnology to produce 
the resources that the bioeconomy demands.

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And we have the productive engine, that's
nothing less than a transgenic biofactory.

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It uses solar energy, carbon dioxide
and is catalyzed by enzymes.

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This is the outlook for Plan B.

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Now, when I talk about this Plan B 
to my students

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and I've been a university professor 
for 30 years,

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when I talk about Plan B to my students
I feel that nobody understands me at all.

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And then I started to realize

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it's not that they don't understand me,
they do at a cognitive level.

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But, for them to fully accept it,
it requires an emotional response,

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it has to reach the heart.

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And with that pinch of youthful audacity 
that I still have,

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I wrote you a poem to touch your hearts,
and I'm going to share it with you all.

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Prepare your hearts, please.

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It's called "Don't study biotechnology."

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(Laughter)

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"If you're not passionate 
about nature, about living things,

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don't study biotechnology.

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If you're not worried about
improving people's health

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don't study biotechnology.

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If you're not interested 
in reducing world hunger,

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don't study biotechnology.

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If you don't like to generate
renewable natural resources,

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don't study biotechnology.

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If you're not attracted 
to sustainable production,

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don't study biotechnology.

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If you aren't eager to be 
ahead of your generation,

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don't study biotechnology.

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If you're not committed to life,
don't study biotechnology".

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(Applause)

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Save your applause
for the ending, please.

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I want to tell you 
that I'm counting on all of you,

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now you all know Plan B,
and even "The Simpsons,"

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so you can help me to convince
decision-makers and economists

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that a new balance is possible to improve
life on Earth, now more than ever.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)