Leading plant biologist lectures on solving world hunger

TORONTO - Feeding the world has become a pressing concern for a leading plant biologist who is breeding super grains in search of a solution to the growing global food crisis.

All media are welcomed to join Herbert Kronzucker, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough and Canada Research Chair in Metabolic Bioengineering of Crop Plants, for an intimate discussion titled World Hunger on Thursday, November 26, 2009 at the Markham Civic Centre.

Kronzucker, recently featured in the December issue of Toronto Life and a front-page news story of the Globe and Mail, will lecture on the alarming gap between our growing human population and growth in agricultural production, and the role of science research in stemming mass starvations of the future. This presentation is part of the University Lecture Series offered through the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto.

Kronzucker studies the salinity stress in cultivated rice paddies by following the flow of sodium ions through the plant. With three billion people depending on rice around the world, 80 per cent of the world's rice is grown in irrigated fields that have been infiltrated with salts, mostly from sea water and fertilizers. At U of T Scarborough, Kronzucker works in a lab that stimulates various tropical environments where rice is cultivated.

Join professor Kronzucker to learn about his quest to find a new breed of rice strain, which, "...could provide billions of people with the golden ticket to surviving a global
food crisis that is well under way." (The Globe and Mail, November 23, 2009)

This is a private lecture and report on this new research.

WHAT: World Hunger presented by Professor Herbert Kronzucker
University Lecture Series, School of Continuing Studies
University of Toronto

WHEN: Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: Markham Civic Centre in the Council Chambers
101 Town Centre Blvd, (intersection Hwy 7 and Town Centre Blvd.)