A few years ago, I started worrying about the environmental predicament,
and the current chaos in the world economy.
So, I started to analyze some specific figures.
In 1950, the population of the world was 2.5 billion.
Today, in 2013, we are 7 billion.
We increased by 4.5 billion in only 63 years.
This means that people need space, more food,
more energy and they contaminate.
And of those 7 billion people in the world,
there's 1 billion that has nothing to eat unless someone gives them something,
and 24,000 children starve to death every day.
Also, there are 1 billion vehicles in the world
that consume 93 million barrels of oil per day.
Let's see if we understand this,
we're transforming something that's buried and doesn't cause any problems
into carbon dioxide, at a speed of 93 million barrels of oil per day.
And when I continued looking at these arguments,
I noticed many environmental contracts are signed, which is how it should be.
But in reality they are not obeyed.
I noticed too that a lot of economists see how their suggested solutions fail daily.
It doesn't work.
The world is adrift.
Economy and the world's environment are adrift.
That's why I've come to tell you that for a world
that doesn't have a Plan A, I've brought you a Plan B.
(Applause)
We still don't know if plan B works!
(Laughter)
I've brought you a plan B.
'B' for bioeconomy, 'B' for biotechnology, and 'B' for transgenic biofactory.
Allow me to talk a little about bioeconomy people don't always know what it is.
Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, a Romanian who worked at the University of Chicago,
defined bioeconomy.
He sent two terrible warnings to the classic economy in 1966 and in 1973
saying the world was heading for disaster.
We could all create an economic theory but how do we know it's a good one?
Because if we apply it and it's not true, the world will break down.
And what Roegen asks is why wouldn't the economy
follow the laws of nature?
Because if the economy did follow the laws of nature, it wouldn't ever fail.
He says that for the economists,
everything is a circular process of production and consumption.
He says, "It's a lie".
This isn't a cycle of production and consumption for Nature.
It is a one-way expenditure of energy and natural resources
that's not going to renew itself at the same speed it's consumed.
So, what happened to poor Roegen?
They kicked him out of every academic economic circle.
He became an outcast in his profession and was considered an eccentric ecologist.
He said in 1995 when he was dying,
"Life won't be viable on Earth if some sort of science or technology
will come along and be able to lower health costs, produce more food,
more energy and protect the environment".
And he added, "This technology has to be a Promethean technology."
Why did he call it a "Promethean technology"?
Because Prometheus was a Greek titan who stole the fire from the gods
so that the people would have energy.
Thank God we have our Promethean technology today, which is biotechnology.
Modern biotechnology started in 1973 with genetic engineering.
It deals with the four specific areas where Roegen detected the problem.
Biotechnology does a great deal for health.
I could tell you that today there are 39 cancer vaccines being tested on humans,
that we have cellular therapies, genetic therapies
that we have RNA interference,
a way of blocking the messenger so that the gene isn't expressed.
Lot's of things.
But I want to tell you that the costs of all devices
that sequence genomes have decreased considerably.
And the era of mass sequencing has begun today, in 2013.
All of us will have our genomes sequenced in 5 to 10 years from now
and we'll be looking for solutions using a molecular genetic medicine.
That's really important because molecular genetic medicine
is going to save us a lot of money on the terminally ill
that weren't diagnosed in time.
It will save a lot of money, a lot of intensive care expenses,
chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies.
And we can use all the money that we save with this molecular genetic medicine,
in a the second area, that of improving the quality of food.
We all know that biotechnology creates genetically-modified food,
but it can do a lot more.
Biotechnology can make meat in bioreactors.
I grab a loin cell, free from any diseases and I put it in the reactor.
I start growing a cell culture, loin after loin after loin,
I press them together and I have a loin hamburger.
I'm talking about ARS 30 per kilo, field-free, cattle-free meat,
for all those people in the world who can't have access to meat.
We also can do biotechnology with micro-algae.
What is micro-algae biotechnology?
There is a micro-algae called Spirulina
that contains more than 70% of proteins, calcium, phosphorus and vitamin B12.
Its proteins are of a higher quality than soy's.
Feed a child with 3 grams per day, and he won't suffer malnutrition.
You'll see organizations in Africa that have made 4x4 tanks with it
so that the children can grow 24 grams of Spirulina a day.
It can be done! It can be done.
About energy, you heard about biodiesel, bioethanol, butanol fuel, biogas.
But I don't want to talk about this.
The main issue is to stop taking out what is buried
and transforming it into carbon dioxide.
We need to include in the fuel production chain
in the photosynthesis cycle those one billion vehicles.
That's the big challenge!
I'll tell you how it's done in a minute.
If we move on to the environment, there are two fundamental things.
The first one is to produce with zero waste.
Today everything has a value, paper, cardboard, wood is valuable.
Fermentable carbohydrates; if I have a modified bacteria,
I can make a lactic and polylactic acid, a degradable and recyclable polymer.
I can turn nitrogenous material into fertilizer and I can recycle water.
I don't throw things away, we need zero waste production
and ecological manufacturing.
We need to produce ecologically.
I want you to see what I call an ecological enterprise.
You see here a chimney and a cellular biofactory.
This is what we have to internalize:
going from that chemical factory
that consumes fossil fuel and pollutes through its chimney
to a photosynthetic cellular factory
that eats out the carbon dioxide catalyzed by enzymes, and produces just the same.
And how will it produce the same?
Because biotechnology has 65 million known genes in genetic engineering.
That is the challenge.
This may surprise you. This is biopetroleum.
How is biopetroleum made?
I take micro-algae, put them in the tanks or in the tubes that you see there,
grow them, take them out, filter them,
pass them through a pyrolysis furnace, and out comes petroleum.
A fuel that allows us to get naphtha jet fuel and biodiesel.
But there are more advanced biofactories too, for example by modifying micro-algae
like Cyanobacteria, where I add two genes in such a way the cellulose turns
into glucose and the glucose turns into ethanol.
This way, I have micro-algae that will continuously grow
and will constantly produce fuel.
It can be done. It can be done, but go back to our dear circle.
Look, the world goes over to a bioeconomy.
Why does it go over to a bioeconomy? Because economists want it to?
No, it's not that.
It goes because natural resources say so, because this won't be fixed
by a burst of confidence.
We need biotechnology to produce the resources that the bioeconomy demands.
And we have the productive engine, that's nothing less than a transgenic biofactory.
It uses solar energy, carbon dioxide and is catalyzed by enzymes.
This is the outlook for Plan B.
Now, when I talk about this Plan B to my students
and I've been a university professor for 30 years,
when I talk about Plan B to my students I feel that nobody understands me at all.
And then I started to realize
it's not that they don't understand me, they do at a cognitive level.
But, for them to fully accept it, it requires an emotional response,
it has to reach the heart.
And with that pinch of youthful audacity that I still have,
I wrote you a poem to touch your hearts, and I'm going to share it with you all.
Prepare your hearts, please.
It's called "Don't study biotechnology."
(Laughter)
"If you're not passionate about nature, about living things,
don't study biotechnology.
If you're not worried about improving people's health
don't study biotechnology.
If you're not interested in reducing world hunger,
don't study biotechnology.
If you don't like to generate renewable natural resources,
don't study biotechnology.
If you're not attracted to sustainable production,
don't study biotechnology.
If you aren't eager to be ahead of your generation,
don't study biotechnology.
If you're not committed to life, don't study biotechnology".
(Applause)
Save your applause for the ending, please.
I want to tell you that I'm counting on all of you,
now you all know Plan B, and even "The Simpsons,"
so you can help me to convince decision-makers and economists
that a new balance is possible to improve life on Earth, now more than ever.
Thank you.
(Applause)