On Apr. 18, Brazil inaugurated the country's first laboratory for applying nanotechnology — the science of manipulating particles measuring one-millionth of a millimeter — to agricultural development. The National Laboratory of Nanotechnology for Agribusiness, located in Sao Carlos, 250 km from Sao Paulo, enables innovations such as miniscule mechanisms for controlling animal temperatures and “intelligent containers” impermeable to oxygen, that would slow the decomposition of foods.

Ladislau Martin Neto, of the Brazilian national farm research agency, Embrapa, which runs the lab, told Tierramérica that 20 experts are being hired and the agency is putting together a nanotechnology research network of its own institutions, universities and private entities to boost the country's agricultural competitiveness.

Sensors and new materials of interest to the farming sector, fibers for industrial use and nanoparticles for protecting or feeding soils, plants and livestock will be researched at the laboratory.