What Are the Sustainable Development Goals?

Goal 14: Life Below Water

What is this goal?

To ensure the ocean’s health. This means making sure that our interactions with the ocean are sustainable and that we are dealing with the consequences of past actions that have and continue to harm the ocean. Our planet is reliant on the ocean and its ecosystems, so we have a duty to keep it safe.

Long-term impacts of our solution

• Positive: Removing phosphate pollution will decrease dangerous algal blooms that cause eutrophication and will thus contribute to the protection of our waterways.
• Positive: Using a bioengineered solution to remediate an area supports a general trend in addressing environmental concerns with environmentally friendly solutions.
• Positive: If farmers use our rhizobium construct to increase phosphate uptake of their crops, there will be less of a need to use phosphate-filled fertilizer, and this will decrease future phosphate contamination in our waterways.
• Negative: We have to consider the ethics of testing this solution, since it is unknown what impacts a modified rhizobia will have on the environment.

Relevant stakeholders

We had the opportunity to discuss our work with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the Bay and educating our community about sustainable practices. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation affirmed our work and confirmed that we were going in the right direction, targeting solubility of phosphate pollution as the main problem

Our talk with the CBF also informed us about what our possible implementation plans should look like, especially in regards to ethics and safety. They told us that major concerns with implementation would be containment and directly targeting phosphate runoff. In light of our talk, we think it would be best to test our construct in a contained environment and use a bioreactor to place medium inoculated with rhizobium into ditches located near the Bay where phosphate runoff typically is so that rhizobia can directly capture phosphate runoff in a relatively contained environment.

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

What is this goal?

According to the United Nations 2023 Report for the Sustainable Development Goals, “responsible consumption and production must be integral to recovery from the pandemic…It is crucial to implement policies that support a shift towards sustainable practices and decouple economic growth from resource use” as food waste increases and regional inequalities in material footprints remain evident. We are a ways away from the United Nation’s statement about the goal of responsible consumption and production, that “governments and all citizens should work together to improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and pollution, and shape a new circular economy”.

Long-term impacts of our solution

• Positive: By using our project, we can reinvent the way we use fertilizer - not as a necessity, but as a safety net. We will be part of a new age for the prevention of disaster for farms as a result of geopolitical distresses. We are part of a movement towards more sustainable, and even regenerative agriculture, which is a novel field in need of innovative technology. That is what we can provide.
• Positive: This use of fertilizer contributes to a circular economy. If farmer’s were to use our engineered rhizobia, this newly uptaken phosphate from fertilizer run-off could be used to create available phosphate for agricultural plants. There are vast amounts of excess phosphate in our waterways; instead of adding more to it by misusing a limited resource, we can make this pollution usable with rhizobia.
• Positive: If our rhizobium construct is economically accessible to all farmers, the priortization of regenerative agriculture will be encouraged.
• Negative: Our rhizobium construct may not be economically accessible to all farmers, and this may create a disparity in who is able to farm sustainably.

Relevant stakeholders

To discuss how our project could contribute to sustainable resource use and consumption, we contacted Clagett Farm, a farm local to Baltimore that is dedicated to “farming practices that are truly sustainable both economically and environmentally.” They are practitioners of regenerative agriculture, agricultural practices that prioritize harmony with nature and take inspiration of restoritive agricultural practices indigenous peoples of the Americas have practiced for centuries. This is done through nurturing and protecting soil health, biodiversity, and natural resources while also prioritizing economic sustainability and profitability. We also discussed sustainable development with small local farm, Hog Run Acres, that supports the area around it.

Clagett Farm affirmed our project's contribution to the movement of regenerative agriculture. Our meeting with Clagett Farm demonstrated to us the importance of profit. The representatives at Clagett Farm told us that for farmers to use our project, the science and the economics need to be behind our project. Restoring the environment isn’t enough incentive; our project also needs to be a good investment for farms if they will be able to use it. It has to be an economically attractive option. This meeting showed us the importance of considering economic implications in the implementation of our project.

Hog Run Acres reuses plant materials to feed her animals, thereby reducing the farm’s waste. When the plant waste material isn’t being used to feed animals, she also uses it for compost. This compost has to be tested, so the farmer knows what has been put into the soil, which will allow them to know what is being reused, and what is being lost. Testing beforehand allows farmers to know what nutrients need to be added to the soil for maximized crop output. The result of this is twofold - saving money for the farms and reducing wastage. Additionally, farms in the state of Maryland producing a certain crop yield or a certain amount of weight in animals have to have a nutrient management plan, which could be for example a buffer of grass around the edge of a field. The aim of this requirement was to reduce the amount of nutrient runoff from farms. Ms. Kasulke believes that this new take on plants, with projects similar to ours, could allow for many improvements and innovations on farms. She believes it could be put to good use in many ways, and perhaps even modified further to allow for additional benefits such as the modification of a plant to utilize the additional phosphate that is absorbed by our genetically modified bacteria. Such an improvement could then be utilized to allow crops to grow faster, causing more crop yields per season.

We also discussed our project with Pivot Bio, a company that has developed an alternative to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer that simultaneously prioritizes agricultural production and environmental sustainabliity. PivotBio introduced us to the concept of “MOA” or “Mode Of Action”, claims, and our marketing language. We were also told to identify our product classification- I believe it would be considered an inoculant. Furthermore, they devised 3 potential agencies which we could reach out to, (and I believe we already have) and to decide which agency is best suited for our needs. Once we have identified the correct agency (either EPA, USDA, or Local State Agencies) we can begin the process of registration and validation.

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

What is this goal?

To ensure that the way we live in and build our cities is sustainable. Cities aren’t known for their sustainability, but as areas of high heat, pollution, and sprawl. We need to change our practices if we’re going to continue living in urban areas safely.

Long-term impacts of our solution

• Positive: Since our project contributes to a circular economy, the agricultural economy in our community will become more sustainable due to the ability to reuse a finite resource, phosphate.
• Positive: Our local ecosystems will be protected in a sustainable way, since our solution of remediating pollution is a biologically based one and will be less likely to cause harm to the environment.
• Positive: Furthermore, this solution is known not to cause any harm or health risks to humans.

Relevant stakeholders

In our commitment to sustainable development, we had the honor of meeting with Representative Robbyn Lewis from Baltimore. Representative Lewis shares our passion for environmental conservation and sustainable urban development. She affirmed our project and its focus on sustainable remediation and community-building. Our discussion revolved around the environmental challenges faced by Baltimore, including those related to SDG 14, and potential policy measures to address them. This meeting provided valuable insights and strengthened our resolve to make a lasting impact on our local environment.