MECCANO & “Professor Martin Kater and the Green Scientists” join to promote plant research 

A group of musicians and researchers from the Department of Biosciences (Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy) launch the new initiative “Music for Plant Research” to get attention for the fundamental roles that plants play in our daily life. Plants are essential for feeding the world population but are also important for most industrial applications. Furthermore, they color our cities, landscapes, houses and produce our oxygen.

For thousands of years humans have explored the natural environment in search of food for their families and co-inhabitants. This has led to the domestication of animals and plants. The crops that were created by humans and which we cultivate in the fields today are dependent on us humans for their growth but, on the other hand, we are all dependent on these plants for our food supply. In the last century humans initiated the green revolution that resulted in an enormous enhancement in agricultural production and ended hunger in many parts of the world - but unfortunately not for all human beings.

For instance in Europe we produce more than we can consume but at the same time almost one billion people on earth do not have enough to eat. Even worse, in the next 30-40 years the world population is expected to increase from 7 to 9 billion. 

It is clear that we have to create a second green revolution, but this time the revolution has to be greener! Agriculture as we practice it today consumes a lot of land, water, fertilizers and pesticides. This is not sustainable for the environment and it is too expensive for poor farmers. In principle we have to produce more with less resources. Solutions have to come, and they will have to come soon. 

Technological development is important for finding solutions. Investments in plant research are therefore urgently needed to face these problems and to find solutions. Fundamental and applied plant research will deliver original ideas to improve our plants and agriculture - as human kind has already done for thousands of years. However, it seems that our voices are not heard and investment in plant research is far too low. 

Accordingly, we have started an initiative called “Music for Plant Research”. The main purpose is to get attention for the importance of plant research. However, by downloading the song/album “Plants Connect People” from MECCANO people will also contribute to promote this research. The song is available from the major online music stores. The funding coming from this initiative will be used to promote plant research, to stimulate debate, to create political awareness and to find solutions to sustainably feed our world. 

The whole project is visible on the website http://music4plantresearch.wordpress.comwith a link to the video clip of the beautiful song from MECCANO “Plants Connect People”, which features Prof. Martin Kater and The Green Scientists.