3-D Printed Food Vs World Hunger - Business Insider
Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.
IBM Research: Using data to power and feed an island nation
Using data to power and feed an island nation. Analysis of weather and climate data will help Brunei to: 1) diversify from oil and gas to renewable energy; and 2)improve food security by increasing rice production from 3% to 60% by 2015.
(via ibmsocialbiz)
Pacific Island Trials Aquaponics for Food Supply. Will Cities be Next? | This Big City
Aquaponics could hold the answer to food supply for islands in the Pacific. Many lack suitable soil for growing crops, have limited freshwater, and struggle to import fresh produce because of rising fuel costs. Moreover, a recent study by the marine conservation and advocacy group Oceana named the Cook Islands the country most at risk of food insecurity through ocean acidification, which threatens its fish stocks.
Now, Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, is trialling a new aquaponic farm which combines aquaculture (raising fish in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants without soil) in symbiosis. In this carbon-neutral ‘closed-loop’ system, nitrate-rich water from the fish tanks irrigate vegetables in nearby beds. The fish waste nourishes the plants; they in turn filter and oxygenate the water before it returns to the tanks. No herbicides, pesticides or hormones are used, and the system uses just 10% of the water required by traditional agriculture.
The rise of drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) has been at the forefront of the news over the last months, with issues emerging that range from the remote use of military force to domestic privacy.
However there are many very positive applications of drones. Matternet, spawned from a Singularity University program, envisages creating a network of drones to address developing world problems. Over a billion people are geographically isolated and are often not able to access regular transport and the goods that can travel to them. Rather than building physical infrastructure, drones can cheaply and easily allow drugs, food, and other essentials to get to where they are needed. The video below shows the Matternet Vision.
These “Farmscrapers” Are Entire Cities In Crazy, Wobbly Looking Towers | Co.Exist
Architect Vincent Callebaut’s “Asian Cairn” project imagines a future where we house residences, offices, and even entire food systems in gorgeous, stacked skyscrapers.
IBM uses ‘big data’ tech to keep horse out of your meatballs | VentureBeat
Imagine this scenario: A dinner guest to The Cheesecake Factory in Louisville, Ky. informs his waiter about some funky tasting ketchup. Simultaneously, across the country in Palo Alto, Calif., a customer complains about the color and consistency of the ketchup on his burger.
Are these two scenarios related and potentially linked back to a bad batch from a supplier? And if so, will The Cheesecake Factory be able to prevent such incidences from occurring?
“You need to take structured data like a restaurant’s location and combine it with unstructured data like the color of the mustard or taste of the ketchup,” said Paul Chang, a program director for the consumer products team at IBM.
This guide, a master’s paper from the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University, addresses the changing face of the agricultural industry, and supports farmers producing food in urban centers and on the urban fringe. It is a collection of topical factsheets including resources and…
Mini-Aquaponics Setup Made from Ikea Parts
If you’ve ever wanted to try Aquaponics, growing fish, plants, and bacteria in a nearly-closed loop ecological system, you can get your feet wet by building a basic system using Ikea Antonius frame and wire baskets, two plastic bins, PVC pipe, and a submersible water pump.
DaderotClose the damn door!
You know how when you were a teenager (or a 20-something living on your parents’ couch) and you stood around with the refrigerator door hanging open, and your mom would be all “hey, I’m not paying to cool the whole neighborhood”? Well, when supermarkets leave the produce and meat and dairy sitting out in the open, they are paying to cool the whole store, because those veggies are essentially sitting in an open refrigerator. That costs a lot, first of all, and second of all it wastes a lot of energy and precious resources. U.K. supermarket chain the Co-operative has decided to put an end to this rather silly practice, and has equipped 100 of its stores with produce refrigerators that have doors. The Co-operative estimates it will save about $80 million a year with this practice.
Online farmer’s market enables local, subscription-based food communities
It may be feasible for a large hospital to build and operate its own organic greenhouse, but that’s simply not an option for countless other organizations and communities, however much they might want similar produce. Enter Farmigo, a site that connects local farms with groups such as workplaces, schools and community centers for custom delivery subscriptions direct to a convenient community location. READ MORE…
Farmigo Brings Community-Based Farmers’ Markets Online | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
Farmigo wants to bring locally grown produce to the places you already go — work, schools and community centers — and provide something approaching the convenience of home delivery without the cost.
The company launched its local food communities on Tuesday, an effort to deliver a personalized, online farmers’ market experience to entire communities. The idea is to make it super simple to order vegetables online and pick them up at a convenient location, like your office. Farmigo isn’t catering to individuals, and in fact won’t deliver veggies to anyone’s home. It’s all about going where the people are, whether it’s at work, school, church, whatever. And you’ll need to sign up as a community in order to access the service.
“Home delivery is very expensive,” founder and CEO Benzi Ronen told Wired. “The idea is that you come to work every day. You pick up your kids at their school everyday. You go to a community center if you’re working out there every day. We turn those into food communities, so it’s not an extra place you need to go to. The nice thing about it is that we are automatically going into an existing community of people.”
Although there are 700 urban farms and gardens spread throughout New York City’s five boroughs, urban farming there still feels ad-hoc, somewhat tacked-on in many places. The gains have been slow and future progress isn’t guaranteed.
To boost the long-term prospects of urban farming in the U.S.’s biggest city, theDesign Trust for Public Space and its partner, the Red Hook-based nonprofit Added Value, just launched a new report some three years in the making called “Five Borough Farm: Seeding the Future of Urban Agriculture,” along with a companion website. The project seeks to create a comprehensive “road map” with the goal of helping stakeholders — policymakers, community groups, farmers, and designers — “understand and weigh the benefits” of urban agriculture, while making a compelling case for significantly ramping up local government support for this growing field. Basically, if you’ve been looking for a thorough examination of all the policy aspects of urban farming, this is it.
Can Urban Farming Go Corporate? | Reuters
Farms have sprouted in cities across the country over the past several years as activists and idealists pour their sweat into gritty soil. Now Paul Lightfoot wants to take urban agriculture beyond the dirt-under-your-nails labor of love. He wants to take it corporate.
In June, Lightfoot’s company,BrightFarms, announced a deal with The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., or A&P, to provide New York City-grown vegetables to the local chain’s supermarkets year-round. The goods will grow in what the company says will be the country’s largest rooftop greenhouse farm, a high-tech hydroponic operation that will boost yields, allowing the company to face-off with organic vegetables trucked from California, cutting thousands of miles from the supply chain while aiming to provide a fresher product at a competitive price.
Some adaptation is going to freak people out. Actually, stupid, link-baiting reporting is going to freak people out…
Cattle are being bred with genes from their African cousins who are accustomed to hot weather. New corn varieties are emerging with larger roots for gathering water in a drought. Someday, the plants may even be able to “resurrect” themselves after a long dry spell, recovering quickly when rain returns.
Across American agriculture, farmers and crop scientists have concluded that it’s too late to fight climate change. They need to adapt to it with a new generation of hardier animals and plants specially engineered to survive, and even thrive, in intense heat, with little rain.
Adapt yo food: via WaPo
