Zachary Brown

Genetically modified crops incorporating Bt traits targeting insect pests are widely adopted in the US, but they are now threatened by the evolution of resistance. The only method growers can use to delay resistance is to plant non-Bt refuges. However, even though this is legally required in the southern US, grower compliance is very low since it is a common pool resource. Past efforts to boost refuge compliance have failed, with a few limitations, including appeals to emotion and a moral suasion campaign. Based on past experimental evidence, we hypothesize that refuge compliance is higher among growers with a higher proportion of conditional cooperators and that conditional cooperation is a potential solution to delay the evolution of resistance to Bt for US growers. Our objectives are to: 1) measure conditional cooperation to identify groups with high and low conditional cooperation with North Carolina corn growers; 2) target extension efforts on refuge and resistance management at areas with high conditional cooperation in another domain; and 3) measure the outcome of refuge planting in the treatment areas. We will combine elements of moral suasion and appeals to emotion to facilitate cooperation and increase refuge compliance across the southern US.

The objectives of this project are to 1. train county agents on corn agronomy and corn pests 2. quantify the cost difference in growing non-Bt and Bt corn and 3. increase plantings of refuge (non-Bt) corn.

Challenges at the FEW nexus are not simply technological, but convergent in the sense of spanning technical, ecological, social, political, and ethical issues. The field of biotechnology is evolving rapidly - and with it, the potential for creating a diverse array of powerful future products that could intentionally and unintentionally impact FEW systems. Depending on what products are developed and how those products are deployed, biotechnology could have a positive or negative impact on all 3 of these systems. Wise decisions will require leaders who can integrate knowledge from engineering, design, natural sciences, and social sciences. We will train STEM graduate students to respond to these challenges by conducting convergent research aimed at development, and assessment of biotechnologies to improve services provided by FEW systems. We will train our students to engage with non-scientists to elevate societal discourse about biotechnology. We will recruit 3 cohorts with emphasis on students who have shown a passion for crossing between natural and social sciences. We will work with the NCSU Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity in recruiting students from underrepresented minority groups. Cohorts will have 6 students who will take a minor in Genetic Engineering and Society (GES). They will receive PhDs in established graduate programs such as Plant Biol, Chem & Biomol Engr, Econ, Public Adm, Entomol, Plant Path, Communication, Rhetoric & Digital Media, Forestry & Environ Res, Crop & Soil Sci, and Genetics. For students in natural science PhD programs, at least 1 thesis committee member will be from a social sciences program and vice versa for students in social sciences. For all students, at least 1 thesis chapter will demonstrate scholarship across natural and social sciences. The disciplinary breadth of our proposed NRT is very broad, so we will focus student projects narrowly on a specific biotechnology product that impact FEW systems. When they first arrive at NCSU, cohorts will participate in a training program off campus where they will be exposed to the issues they will address. Students will carry out a group project in the focus area of the cohort to continue team development. To fulfill the GES minor, students will take 3 specially designed courses: Plant Genetics & Physiology, Science Communication & Engagement, Policy & Systems Modeling. There are no NRT-eligible institutions partnering on this project outside of an evaluation role.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has (not yet publically) called for bids on a two-year consultancy to assess and advise regulatory reform pathways for emerging agricultural biotechnologies in Latin America and the Caribbean. The main issues to be studied under the consultancy are: ��������������� Current Policy Evaluation: including existing agricultural biotechnology policies and cost/time necessary to bring a product to market in identified regional states, policy trends and tendencies of select major trading partners (USA, EU, China, Japan) and international bodies (e.g. United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity), gaps in identified regional state policies to address process and end-product distinctions with next-generation gene editing methods, and the current CRISPR licensing structures for private firms and non-profit/governmental bodies seeking to eventually translate R&D output for commercialization; ��������������� Forecasting and Future Policy Scenario Analysis: including targeted crop-country case study examples with emerging next-generation biotechnology products to illustrate economic, trade, and social consequences of potential policy directions; ��������������� Identifying Bank investment priorities: including documentation of regional gene editing product developments, key capacity deficits, and future opportunities for IDB investment in human and physical capital. Focus countries for the regional analysis will include: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Honduras. Data collection will include extensive literature survey and policy review, key informant interviews (by phone and in-person), and additional travel as necessary to collect required primary and secondary data. The consultancy team will include experts from agricultural economics, public policy, international law, communications, and biotechnology. The required deliverables of the project include preliminary, interim, and final reports, an academic journal submission, country-specific policy briefs for key stakeholder agencies, content to populate an IDB website portal for project dissemination, and a dedicated report on Recommended Strategic Bank Investments in Agricultural Biotechnology. Three workshops will be held with stakeholders from IDB and focus countries, including a kick-off meeting, first findings presentation, and a final findings presentation.

Technological advancements involving gene drive applications in agriculture are proceeding rapidly (e.g., use of Drosophila suzukii or Diaphorina citri that feed on soft-skinned and citrus fruits). At the same time, there are gaps in governance systems and challenges to acquiring underlying data for risk assessments. It is also important to couple risk assessments with studies on public perceptions and acceptance, heeding past lessons learned from ag-biotechnology (1), and enhance risk assessments through informed interdisciplinary engagement (2)(3)(4)(5). Interdisciplinary exchanges may also help ensure that responsible research and innovation is realized in the case of gene drive applications in agriculture. In essence, diverse and multi-stakeholder conversations should be conducted alongside research endeavors aimed to conduct risk assessments for gene drives. This conference proposal aims to inform risk assessment research strategies for gene drive agricultural applications through interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange with diverse experts.

The objectives are 1. to train county agents on corn agronomy and corn pests; 2. to quantify the cost difference in growing non-Bt and Bt corn (including risk of yield loss and ����������������hassle���������������); 3. to increase plantings of refuge (non-Bt) corn.

Low adoption rates of seemingly efficient and utility-enhancing technologies have been observed across a wide variety of specific cases; examples include bed nets for malaria prevention, latrines for improved sanitation, deworming drugs, and condoms, among many others. Many explanations for this phenemonon focus on three key factors: the prices of these technologies and the role of subsidies, the effect of peers and social learning, and the ways in which users������������������ perceptions of technologies are influenced by different factors and affect subsequent adoption decisions. The aim of this proposal is to investigate the interactions among these three factors and the ways in which these interactions influence demand for improved cookstoves, a technology with potential health, social, and environmental benefits. We will implement price experiments and leverage an ongoing NSF-funded study that randomly introduced improved cookstoves to 200 households in the Kassena-Nankana (K-N) District in Northern Ghana in order to investigate how households formulate perceptions about the benefits of a new technology, and what role prices and peers������������������ experiences play in this process.

The recent global range expansion Drosophila suzukii, referred to as the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), has placed crushing pressure on growers of berries and cherries to meet zero tolerance standards for fresh marketed fruit. National crop loss from SWD in the United States could reach more than $800 million annually, and current insecticide-based SWD management programs are both economically and environmentally unsustainable. SWD is a top research priority for national, regional, and state grower organizations. This is a stakeholder-driven, bottom up approach to developing economically and environmentally sustainable SWD management solutions that will reduce reliance on pesticides. Our project also includes innovative, forward-looking research activities that will enable future advances in SWD management. The goals of our project are to develop integrated economically and environmentally sustainable SWD management programs, to implement these programs, evaluate their effects, and to identify promising innovations that will enable future enhancements of SWD management. These efforts will build on recent progress towards SWD management led by our project participants. Our national, interdisciplinary collaboration takes advantage of recent advances in biological techniques, integrated economic and social assessments, and technology-based delivery tools to achieve these goals.

Rationale: Gene drive research has advanced at a startling rate within only the past five years, most recently with the advent of ����������������clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats��������������� (CRISPR) system for gene-editing. Important agricultural pests and disease vectors for which gene drive systems are currently being considered include spotted winged drosophila, diamondback moth, the Asian citrus psyllid, and Anopheles and Aedes mosquito vectors of dengue, Zika and malaria. However, both the effectiveness and the potential for unintended consequences of these technologies remain uncertain. Because existing biotechnology regulation may not apply to these technologies and in light of intransigencies that have developed in public debates about first-generation genetically modified (GM) crops, researchers, policy makers and regulators have turned more attention to gene drives, with a number of recent papers and conferences discussing regulatory approaches and potential applications. We have essentially no information on how the general public understands gene drives and how favorably they will view resulting products. Given the incipience of these technologies, public perceptions may play a role at all levels, including the allocation of public funds to different R&D domains, as well as consumer concerns about potential human health and environmental consequences. Because of their imminent deployment in U.S. agriculture, obtaining data on public perceptions is imperative, especially for agricultural producers who will soon need to make decisions about whether to deploy these technologies. Overall Goal: The project goal is to characterize current public perceptions of gene drive R&D and deployment in agriculture and other domains, and how these perceptions vary with different regulatory models. Specific Objectives: 1. Conduct qualitative in-depth focus group discussions with consumers and agricultural producers about their understanding and views on using gene drives in agricultural settings. 2. Design and administer a web-based survey using a high-quality probability sample of the U.S. general public about their understanding and perceptions of gene drive technologies and their potential deployment in agriculture. 3. In the survey, conduct stated preference economic valuation experiments to quantify subjective values of gene drive applications in different domains in U.S. agriculture. Approach: Objective 1 will be accomplished by organizing meetings with consumers and agricultural producers at NCSU and UW-Madison. Objective 2 will use standard survey design methods and subcontracting with a survey-research firm that has high-quality web-based probability samples. Objective 3 will utilize discrete choice econometric methods, and will be conducted as part of our standard academic activities, likely starting as a chapter in a PhD student dissertation, then becoming conference papers and eventually journal submissions. Potential Impact & Expected Outcomes: This project will produce new knowledge regarding public perceptions of gene drives at a crucial time in the deployment of this new technology. This knowledge will contribute to developing public policy and regulation of gene drives consistent with public support and thus help realize their benefits for US agriculture.

Coastal ecosystems in the eastern U.S. have been severely altered by processes associated with human development, sea-level rise and the increased frequency of extreme events related to climate change. These influences are degrading the capacity of both ecological and human social systems to remain resilient in the face of global change. National Wildlife Refuges along the east coast protect critical habitat and ecosystems for a host of wildlife species, but also contribute to essential goods and services that benefit coastal communities, businesses and individuals. Storm-surge protection, increased water quality, nurseries for commercially important fin and shellfish, and recreational opportunities are only some of the benefits to society contributed by coastal wildlife refuges. Faced with sea-level rise and climate change, the role of coastal refuges to protect our nation������������������s natural resources and provide ecosystem services is in jeopardy. We will work with coastal refuges to assist in planning for and adapting to sea-level rise and other global change processes. This collaboration will integrate the expertise of specialists in global-change science, coastal dynamics, resource economics and decision science to address management policies that will benefit both human and wildlife interests into the future.