French designer and researcher Carole Collet has envisioned plants that can be reprogrammed and engineered to become multitasking biofactories that can produce fabric and food at the same time. In essence, she has created a solution for sustainable living in the future where food sources and materials will be increasingly more scarce. She believes that in making hyper-specific plant species, she's making sustainable manufacturing a much more near possibility.
The concept is called Biolace, where she explores the need to produce more food and enough textile material for the world's increasingly rapid consumption. She proposes that by DNA manipulation, the genetic material of plants can be used so they produce "synthetically-enhanced foods and lace-like fabrics" that are able to grow from their roots.
controlling dna and manipulation
Fabric-Producing Plants
These Crops Grow Food for You to Eat and Fabric for You to Wear
Trend Themes
1. Controlling DNA and Manipulation - Opportunity for developing innovative techniques to manipulate plant DNA for the purpose of producing food and fabric simultaneously.
Industry Implications
1. Sustainable Agriculture - Disruptive innovation potential in the agriculture industry by creating genetically modified plants that serve as biofactories for food and fabric production.
2. Textile Manufacturing - Potential for disruptive innovation in textile manufacturing by leveraging genetically modified plants to produce lace-like fabrics.