Sprühpanzer für Pflanzen bieten ein neues Werkzeug für die globale Ernährungssicherheit. Untersuchungen haben ergeben, dass ein Polymer als aufgesprühter Schutzpanzer fungiert und Pflanzen dabei hilft, zerstörerische Bakterien zu bekämpfen und gleichzeitig Dürreperioden zu überstehen.

>Because of industrial climate chaos, catastrophic economic inequality, war and displacement, there is, as the United Nations puts it succinctly, a global food crisis in 68 countries, with 318 million people facing acute hunger. Simultaneous famines in two countries (Palestine and Sudan) – which the UN calls “a devastating first this century” – threaten millions of lives.

>While it’s clear that crises caused by economic and political decision makers are most easily solved by “un-deciding” them, until those decision-makers develop empathy, the rest of humanity will need to create and implement other solutions to starvation. And fortunately, researchers in the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego are doing just that.

>In their ACS Materials Letters [paper](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsmaterialslett.5c00798) “Polynorbornene Spray Coating to Enhance Plant Health,” lead author Patrick Opdensteinen and colleagues reveal that their new tool for global food security is a polymer functioning as a spray-on armor that helps plants fight destructive bacteria while surviving drought.