In the lead-up to the International Day of Light celebration this Saturday 16th May, Dodd-Walls Centre Principal Investigator Cather Simpson has written this article on the incredible potential of light-based technologies to address the global food-crisis in the wake of the pandemic. She describes how light can be harnessed as an energy source, a sensor, and a tool to increase food production and the sustainability of farming. As the world faces the devastating consequences of the COVID pandemic, the science of light offers hope and potential solutions. This year the celebration falls on the sixty year anniversary of the invention of the laser, which Cather describes as an event “as important as the invention of the wheel.