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Food Security On Rise In Gulf
BY RICHIE SANTOSDIAZ
19th March 2019, London
The Agra Middle East exhibition in Dubai demonstrated the growth of vertical farming in the region, as well as other environmentally smart production methods
According to the organisers of the Agra Middle East exhibition in Dubai, which took place at the start of March, vertical farming is gaining in importance across the Gulf region, along with other Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) methods, and is generating interest and a rise in investment from across the globe.
The vertical farming market in the Middle East and Africa is expected to reach US$1.21bn by 2021 at a combined annual growth rate of 26.4 percent from only US$0.38bn in 2016, according to Orbis Research.
One of the GCC countries leading this is the UAE, having upcoming projects facilitated by the government, in addition to private players, helping increase food security.
The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, for instance, has allocated space for 12 vertical farms to be built by Shalimar Biotech Industries. There is also the world’s largest vertical farm for Emirates Airlines by Crop One Holdings.
As 90 per cent of food in the UAE is imported, and given territorial problems over water scarcity and available arable land, vertical farming is pivotal to ensuring food security within the region.
Food security equally forms part of the national strategy of Saudi Arabia, as well as wider economic development and diversification, as witnessed by its Saudi Vision 2030.
At a recent preparatory workshop for next year’s G20 meeting, which Saudi Arabia will be hosting, Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadhli, Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, said that digital technologies and artificial intelligence would have a growing role in the Kingdom’s efforts to maintain food security. Arab and foreign institutions were looking for modern and innovative technologies and solutions, he said, with the aim of discovering alternative food resources.
The agriculture sector faces major challenges, from price increases of agricultural products to climate change. A big part of the G20 discussions under the Kingdom’s presidency in 2020 includes topics such as the development of natural resources to reduce degradation, sustainable food security and water scarcity, to name a few.
Agra Middle East, which took place at Dubai’s World Trade Centre, brought some of the leading innovators and urban farming experts to the UAE to provide the industry with valuable information and knowledge.
Exhibition director Samantha Bleasby commented: “With the aim of increasing food security in the Middle East and attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger, we are excited to present the industry with new technologies from around the globe and free-to-attend learning and networking opportunities that will increase productivity in the region with sustainable use of water and land resources.”
BREAKING: Court Finds That Monsanto’s Roundup Caused California Man’s Cancer
In the second of many cases involving Roundup and cancer, a court ruled on Tuesday that the herbicide did indeed cause one man’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Mar 20, 2019
By Dan Nosowitz
In the second of many cases involving Roundup and cancer, a court ruled on Tuesday that the herbicide did indeed cause one man’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Over 11,000 cases have been filed against Monsanto—and now its parent company, Bayer AG—alleging that Roundup, Monsanto’s glyphosate weed-killer, causes cancer. This case, with Edwin Hardeman as plaintiff, is only the second to go to trial. But as in the first case, the court sided with the plaintiff.
Monsanto developed glyphosate, which it sells under the brand name Roundup, in the 1970s, and since then it has become the world’s most popular herbicide. (The company doesn’t release specific sales numbers, but this much is known.) The most important development in its connection to cancer happened in 2015, when the World Health Organization labeled it a “probable” carcinogen. Studies have variously indicated that it does and does not cause cancer; the science is muddled as much of the research is industry-funded (or comes directly from Monsanto itself), and the industry obviously has a vested interest in findings that mark glyphosate as clean.
Last summer, the first case on whether glyphosate causes cancer went to court; initially, a jury awarded the plaintiff, a school groundskeeper, $289 million, though that was later reduced to $78 million, and Monsanto/Bayer is still appealing that verdict.
In this case, Hardeman, who used Roundup consistently on his property for decades, finds himself in a two-part trial. The first part, which just concluded, aimed to decide whether glyphosate caused Hardeman’s cancer, and whether Monsanto misled him, and the public, about the safety risks of the product. In a unanimous verdict, a six-person jury decided that glyphosate was a “substantial factor” in Hardeman’s cancer, according to the New York Times.
The second part of the trial, beginning Wednesday, will decide the possible liability of Monsanto, whether the company knowingly downplayed the connection between glyphosate and cancer in order to sell more product.
In response to the verdict, reports Reuters, Bayer’s shares took their biggest drop in 16 years, reducing the company’s valuation by a whopping $9.1 billion.
We’ve reached out to Monsanto for a statement and will update if they respond.
Photography Sheila Fitzgerald / Shutterstock
Avocados Recalled In Six States Over Listeria Concerns
March 24, 2019
Henry Avocado Corporation is voluntarily recalling California-grown whole avocados sold in bulk at retail stores in 6 states over concerns they may be contaminated with listeria. (Business Wire via AP)
A California-based company announced Saturday it is voluntarily recalling California-grown whole avocados over fears of possible listeria contamination.
Henry Avocado Corporation said in news release it announced the recall as part of a precaution after positive test results for Listeria monocytogenes were discovered on environmental samples taken during a routine government inspection at its California packing facility.
“We are voluntarily recalling our products and taking every action possible to ensure the safety of consumers who eat our avocados,” said Phil Henry, president of Henry Avocado.
As of now, there are no reported illnesses associated with this recall.
TYSON RECALLS 69,000 POUNDS OF FROZEN CHICKEN STRIPS OVER POSSIBLE 'METAL' CONTAMINATION
The recalled products were packed at Henry Avocado’s packing facility in California and distributed in Arizona, California, Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Wisconsin. All shipments from the facility are subject to recall, as the company did not begin packing there until late January 2019.
Avocados imported from Mexico and distributed by Henry Avocado are not subject to the recall and may continue to be sold and consumed, according to the company.
Consumers can identify the recalled products by the “Bravocado” stickers. The organic avocados are labeled "organic” and include “California” on the sticker, according to the company.
SOME BABY COUGH SYRUPS RECALLED OVER RISKS OF BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION
Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections on children, elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Henry Avocado issued the voluntary recall out of an abundance of caution due to positive test results on environmental samples taken during a routine inspection at its California packing facility. (Business Wire via AP)
"You should seek medical care and tell the doctor about eating possibly contaminated food if you have a fever and other symptoms of possible listeriosis, such as fatigue and muscle aches, within two months after eating possibly contaminated food," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is especially important if you are pregnant, age 65 or older, or have a weakened immune system."
Henry Avocado said it is contacting all affected customers to confirm that the recalled products are immediately removed from store shelves. Retailers can identify Henry Avocado organic products by the barcode on the stickers.
Consumers who have purchased any recalled avocados are urged not to consume them, but to discard them or return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Those with additional questions may contact Henry Avocado at (760) 745-6632, Ext 132 or visit the company's website.
Travis Fedschun is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @travfed
Singapore’s Getting a New Govt Body – And Its Priority Is To Make Sure The Country Has Enough Food
The Singapore Food Agency will be responsible for developing Singapore’s food supply, improving food safety regulations, and handling food-borne disease outbreaks.
February 13, 2019
Come April 1, Singapore’s new food-related statutory board, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), will come into existence – and its most important job is to ensure the country has enough food supplies.
The new stat board was created to consolidate and handle food-related matters currently scattered under divisions in the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA), Health Sciences Authority and National Environment Agency.
SFA’s priority is to develop national strategies to obtain food, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 12).
According to Masagos, imports account for most of Singapore’s food supply, and the republic currently imports items from 180 countries – up from 140 countries in 2004.
The minister said the SFA would continue to look for more import sources to ensure Singapore is not overreliant on any country for food items. This would also reduce the republic’s “vulnerability to external volatility and price hikes,” he added.
In addition, it will also help local food companies based overseas to expand, thus reducing the price of imports.
Another way the stat board plans to develop food security is by increasing the supply from local farms. It is looking at educating farmers at institutes of higher learning (such as universities and polytechnics), so as to incorporate more technology and R&D in the farming sector, Masagos said.
Examples of these technologies include indoor vertical farms and deep sea fish farming.
On top of food security, the SFA will also be responsible for improving food safety regulations and handling food-borne disease outbreaks, such as tracing and recalling food products, and testing food samples.
Its “regulatory oversight over all food-related matters from farm to fork” would allow the government to “address lapses (in food safety) more quickly and more holistically,” the AVA said in a statement.
In addition, a food laboratory, the National Centre for Food Science, will be set up under the SFA to research food safety.
How Urban Agriculture Can Improve Food Security in US Cities
…researchers have calculated that Cleveland, with a population of 400,000, has the potential to meet 100 percent of its urban dwellers’ fresh vegetable needs, 50 percent of their poultry and egg requirements and 100 percent of their demand for honey.
February 13, 2019 10.49pm AEDT
City Farm is a working sustainable farm that has operated in Chicago for over 30 years. Linda from Chicago/Wikimedia, CC BY
Author Miguel Altieri
Professor of Agroecology, University of California, Berkeley
Disclosure statement
Miguel Altieri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partners University of California provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.
During the partial federal shutdown in December 2018 and January 2019, news reports showed furloughed government workers standing in line for donated meals. These images were reminders that for an estimated one out of eight Americans, food insecurity is a near-term risk.
In California, where I teach, 80 percent of the population lives in cities. Feeding the cities of the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, with a total population of some 7 million involves importing 2.5 to 3 million tons of food per day over an average distance of 500 to 1,000 miles.
This system requires enormous amounts of energy and generates significant greenhouse gas emissions. It also is extremely vulnerable to large-scale disruptions, such as major earthquakes.
And the food it delivers fails to reach 1 of every 8 people in the region who live under the poverty line – mostly senior citizens, children and minorities. Access to quality food is limited both by poverty and the fact that on average, California’s low-income communities have 32.7 percent fewer supermarkets than high-income areas within the same cities.
Many organizations see urban agriculture as a way to enhance food security. It also offers environmental, health and social benefits. Although the full potential of urban agriculture is still to be determined, based on my own research I believe that raising fresh fruits, vegetables and some animal products near consumers in urban areas can improve local food security and nutrition, especially for underserved communities.
The growth of urban agriculture
Urban farming has grown by more than 30 percent in the United States in the past 30 years. Although it has been estimated that urban agriculture can meet 15 to 20 percent of global food demand, it remains to be seen what level of food self-sufficiency it can realistically ensure for cities.
One recent survey found that 51 countries do not have enough urban area to meet a recommended nutritional target of 300 grams per person per day of fresh vegetables. Moreover, it estimated, urban agriculture would require 30 percent of the total urban area of those countries to meet global demand for vegetables. Land tenure issues and urban sprawl could make it hard to free up this much land for food production.
Other studies suggest that urban agriculture could help cities achieve self-sufficiency. For example, researchers have calculated that Cleveland, with a population of 400,000, has the potential to meet 100 percent of its urban dwellers’ fresh vegetable needs, 50 percent of their poultry and egg requirements and 100 percent of their demand for honey.
Can Oakland’s urban farmers learn from Cuba?
Although urban agriculture has promise, a small proportion of the food produced in cities is consumed by food-insecure, low-income communities. Many of the most vulnerable people have little access to land and lack the skills needed to design and tend productive gardens.
Cities such as Oakland, with neighborhoods that have been identified as “food deserts,” can lie within a half-hour drive of vast stretches of productive agricultural land. But very little of the twenty million tons of food produced annually within 100 miles of Oakland reaches poor people.
Paradoxically, Oakland has 1,200 acres of undeveloped open space – mostly public parcels of arable land – which, if used for urban agriculture, could produce 5 to 10 percent of the city’s vegetable needs. This potential yield could be dramatically enhanced if, for example, local urban farmers were trained to use well-tested agroecological methods that are widely applied in Cuba to cultivate diverse vegetables, roots, tubers and herbs in relatively small spaces.
In Cuba, over 300,000 urban farms and gardens produce about 50 percent of the island’s fresh produce supply, along with 39,000 tons of meat and 216 million eggs. Most Cuban urban farmers reach yields of 44 pounds (20 kilograms) per square meter per year.
An organic farm in Havana, Cuba, that produces outputs averaging 20 kilograms (44 pounds) per square meter per year without agrochemical inputs.Miguel Altieri, CC BY-ND
If trained Oakland farmers could achieve just half of Cuban yields, 1,200 acres of land would produce 40 million kilograms of vegetables – enough to provide 100 kilograms per year per person to more than 90 percent of Oakland residents.
To see whether this was possible, my research team at the University of California at Berkeley established a diversified garden slightly larger than 1,000 square feet. It contained a total of 492 plants belonging to 10 crop species, grown in a mixed polycultural design.
In a three-month period, we were able to produce yields that were close to our desired annual level by using practices that improved soil health and biological pest control. They included rotations with green manures that are plowed under to benefit the soil; heavy applications of compost; and synergistic combinations of crop plants in various intercropping arrangements known to reduce insect pests.
Research plots in Berkeley, Calif., testing agroecological management practices such as intercropping, mulching and green composting. Miguel Altieri, CC BY-ND
Overcoming barriers to urban agriculture
Achieving such yields in a test garden does not mean they are feasible for urban farmers in the Bay Area. Most urban farmers in California lack ecological horticultural skills. They do not always optimize crop density or diversity, and the University of California’s extension program lacks the capacity to provide agroecological training.
The biggest challenge is access to land. University of California researchers estimate that over 79 percent of the state’s urban farmers do not own the property that they farm. Another issue is that water is frequently unaffordable. Cities could address this by providing water at discount rates for urban farmers, with a requirement that they use efficient irrigation practices.
In the Bay Area and elsewhere, most obstacles to scaling up urban agriculture are political, not technical. In 2014 California enacted AB511, which set out mechanisms for cities to establish urban agriculture incentive zones, but did not address land access.
One solution would be for cities to make vacant and unused public land available for urban farming under low-fee multiyear leases. Or they could follow the example of Rosario, Argentina, where 1,800 residents practice horticulture on about 175 acres of land. Some of this land is private, but property owners receive tax breaks for making it available for agriculture.
In my view, the ideal strategy would be to pursue land reform similar to that practiced in Cuba, where the government provides 32 acres to each farmer, within a few miles around major cities to anyone interested in producing food. Between 10 and 20 percent of their harvest is donated to social service organizations such as schools, hospitals and senior centers.
Similarly, Bay Area urban farmers might be required to provide donate a share of their output to the region’s growing homeless population, and allowed to sell the rest. The government could help to establish a system that would enable gardeners to directly market their produce to the public.
Cities have limited ability to deal with food issues within their boundaries, and many problems associated with food systems require action at the national and international level. However, city governments, local universities and nongovernment organizations can do a lot to strengthen food systems, including creating agroecological training programs and policies for land and water access. The first step is increasing public awareness of how urban farming can benefit modern cities.
Arsenic In Your Fruit Juice? Tests Say Yes
Arsenic In Your Fruit Juice? Tests Say Yes
February 13, 2019
Organic Consumers Association
by Julie Wilson
Are there heavy metals lurking in your fruit juice?
Yes, according to a recent analysis by Consumer Reports (CR). CR tested 45 fruit juices in four popular flavors—apple, grape, pear and fruit blends—sold in the U.S. and found “elevated levels” of arsenic, cadmium and lead.
The levels were “concerning,” according to CR. Even more worrisome? Toxic heavy metals were found in nearly half of the juices tested.
The testing analyzed 24 national, store and private-label brands. Results included potentially harmful levels of cadmium, inorganic arsenic (the type most harmful to health) and/or lead in 47 percent of juices tested.
Out of all the flavors, grape juice and juice blends had the highest average of heavy metal levels.
Toxic heavy metals are known for their silent but deadly effects. Humans are exposed to heavy metals in a variety of ways including pesticides in food, contaminated drinking water, personal care products and amalgam dental fillings.
The toxins are the most dangerous when the effects are cumulative. In other words, the more you are exposed to heavy metals, the greater the risk. According to chemist, Tunde Akinleye, who led the testing:
“In the course of a lifetime, the average person will come into contact with these metals [cadmium, inorganic arsenic, lead and mercury] many times, from many sources. We’re exposed to these metals so frequently during our lives that it’s vital to limit exposures early on.”
CR’s test results are particularly alarming for a couple of reasons. For one, fruit juices are often marketed to children, who may be seriously harmed by heavy metal exposure even at low levels. Children who suffer chronic heavy metal exposure may experience lowered IQ, cancer, type 2 diabetes and behavioral problems, among other health issues.
Secondly, these heavy metals wouldn’t be showing up in our food and drink had our regulators at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) taken the issue more seriously.
In 2013, the FDA proposed setting a threshold of 10 parts per billion (ppb) of inorganic arsenic in apple juice, the federal standard for arsenic in drinking water. The move followed earlier testing by Dr. Oz and CR in 2011, which found arsenic in apple juice. About 10 percent of the samples exceeded the U.S Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for arsenic in drinking water.
Regulators promised to lower the allowable limit by the end of 2018. But the FDA failed to act and the limit currently remains the same. Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at CR, told CR magazine:
“We encourage the FDA to finalize the limit as soon as possible. And we have pushed the agency to establish an even lower threshold for inorganic arsenic in apple juice at 3 ppb. We also believe more juices should be covered, not just apple.”
The FDA does have a set limit for lead in juice. But it’s 50 ppb, a limit CR warns is far too high. The standard for lead in bottled water is 10 times lower, at 5 ppb.
As for cadmium, the FDA has no set limit for the heavy metal in juice. That oversight is disturbing considering exposure to cadmium is linked to kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis.
Unfortunately, heavy metals are not the only threat lurking in fruit juice.
Recent testing by Moms Across America found glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, in six top-selling orange juice brands: Florida’s Natural, Tropicana, Minute Maid, Starter Bros, Signature Farms and Kirkland.
Most noteworthy about this testing is that glyphosate—an herbicide linked to cancer by the World Health Organization—is turning up in products labeled “natural.”
Consumers seek out products that are labeled “natural,” because they believe those products are pesticide-free. And companies like Florida’s Natural use the word “natural” because they know consumers look for it—and will pay a premium for it.
If you expect products labeled “natural” to be free from unnatural ingredients—including agrochemicals linked to cancer—let Florida’s Natural know.
Click here to tell Florida’s Natural: Orange juice with Roundup weedkiller isn’t “natural!”
Julie Wilson is communications associate for the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). To keep up with OCA news and alerts, sign up for our newsletter.
With Farms Atop Malls, Singapore Gets Serious About Food Security
The farm's small size belies its big ambition: to help improve the city's food security.
January 09, 2019 5:11 PM
SINGAPORE —
Visitors to Singapore's Orchard Road, the city's main shopping belt, will find fancy malls, trendy department stores, abundant food courts — and a small farm.
Comcrop's 600-square-meter (6,450-square-foot) farm on the roof of one of the malls uses vertical racks and hydroponics to grow leafy greens and herbs such as basil and peppermint that it sells to nearby bars, restaurants and stores.
The farm's small size belies its big ambition: to help improve the city's food security.
Comcrop's Allan Lim, who set up the rooftop farm five years ago, recently opened a 4,000-square-meter farm with a greenhouse on the edge of the city.
He believes high-tech urban farms are the way ahead for the city, where more land cannot be cultivated.
"Agriculture is not seen as a key sector in Singapore. But we import most of our food, so we are very vulnerable to sudden disruptions in supply," Lim said.
"Land, natural resources and low-cost labor used to be the predominant way that countries achieved food security. But we can use technology to solve any deficiencies," he said.
Singapore last year topped the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Global Food Security Index of 113 countries for the first time, scoring high on measures such as affordability, availability and safety.
Yet, as the country imports more than 90 percent of its food, its food security is susceptible to climate change and natural resource risks, the EIU noted.
With 5.6 million people in an area three-fifths the size of New York City — and with the population estimated to grow to 6.9 million by 2030 — land is at a premium in Singapore.
The country has long reclaimed land from the sea, and plans to move more of its transport, utilities and storage underground to free up space for housing, offices and greenery.
It has also cleared dozens of cemeteries for homes and highways.
An aerial view shows Citiponics' urban farm located on the rooftop of a multi-story garage in a public housing estate in western Singapore, April 17, 2018.
Agriculture makes up only about 1 percent of its land area, so better use of space is key, said Samina Raja, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo in New York.
"Urban agriculture is increasingly being recognized as a legitimate land use in cities," she said. "It offers a multitude of benefits, from increased food security and improved nutrition to greening of spaces. But food is seldom a part of urban planning."
Supply shocks
Countries across the world are battling the worsening impacts of climate change, water scarcity and population growth to find better ways to feed their people.
Scientists are working on innovations — from gene editing of crops and lab-grown meat to robots and drones — to fundamentally change how food is grown, distributed and eaten.
With more than two-thirds of the world's population forecast to live in cities by 2050, urban agriculture is critical, a study published last year stated.
Urban agriculture currently produces as much as 180 million metric tons of food a year — up to 10 percent of the global output of pulses and vegetables, the study noted.
Additional benefits, such as reduction of the urban heat-island effect, avoided stormwater runoff, nitrogen fixation and energy savings could be worth $160 billion annually, it said.
Countries including China, India, Brazil and Indonesia could benefit significantly from urban agriculture, it said.
"Urban agriculture should not be expected to eliminate food insecurity, but that should not be the only metric," said study co-author Matei Georgescu, a professor of urban planning at Arizona State University.
"It can build social cohesion among residents, improve economic prospects for growers, and have nutritional benefits. In addition, greening cities can help to transition away from traditional concrete jungles," he said.
Singapore was once an agrarian economy that produced nearly all its own food. There were pig farms and durian orchards, and vegetable gardens and chickens in the kampongs, or villages.
But in its push for rapid economic growth after independence in 1965, industrialization took precedence, and most farms were phased out, said Kenny Eng, president of the Kranji Countryside Association, which represents local farmers.
Organic cilantro seedlings sprout from growing towers that are primarily made out of polyvinyl chloride pipes at Citiponics' urban farm on the rooftop of a multi-story garage in a public housing estate in western Singapore, April 17, 2018.
The global food crisis of 2007-08, when prices spiked, causing widespread economic instability and social unrest, may have led the government to rethink its food security strategy to guard against such shocks, Eng said.
"In an age of climate uncertainty and rapid urbanization, there are merits to protecting indigenous agriculture and farmers' livelihoods," he said.
Local production is a core component of the food security road map, according to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore, a state agency that helps farmers upgrade with technical know-how, research and overseas study tours.
Given its land constraints, AVA has also been looking to unlock more spaces, including underutilized or alternative spaces, and harness technological innovations to "grow more with less," a spokeswoman said by email.
Intrinsic value
A visit to the Kranji countryside, just a 45-minute drive from the city's bustling downtown, and where dozens of farms are located, offers a view of the old and the new.
Livestock farms and organic vegetable plots sit alongside vertical farms and climate-controlled greenhouses.
Yet many longtime farmers are fearful of the future, as the government pushes for upgrades and plans to relocate more than 60 farms by 2021 to return land to the military.
Many farms might be forced to shut down, said Chelsea Wan, a second-generation farmer who runs Jurong Frog Farm.
"It's getting tougher because leases are shorter, it's harder to hire workers, and it's expensive to invest in new technologies," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"We support the government's effort to increase productivity through technology, but we feel sidelined," she said.
Wan is a member of the Kranji Countryside Association, which has tried to spur local interest in farming by welcoming farmers' markets, study tours, homestays and weddings.
Small peri-urban farms at the edge of the city, like those in Kranji, are not just necessary for food security, Eng said.
"The countryside is an inalienable part of our heritage and nation-building, and the farms have an intrinsic value for education, conservation, the community and tourism," he said.
At the rooftop farm on Orchard Road, Lim looks on as brisk, elderly Singaporeans, whom he has hired to get around the worker shortage, harvest, sort and pack the day's output.
"It's not a competition between urban farms and landed farms; it's a question of relevance," he said. "You have to ask: What works best in a city like Singapore?"
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Glyphosate Found in 19 of 20 Beers and Wines Tested
March 2, 2019
Glyphosate—the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller that some studies have linked to cancer—is also a secret ingredient in nearly 20 popular beers and wines.
That's the finding of a new study from the education group U.S. PIRG, which found glyphosate in 19 of 20 wine and beer brands tested, including organic labels and brews.
The release of the study coincides with the beginning of the first federal trial against Monsanto and its new parent company Bayer over whether Roundup use caused a plaintiff's cancer, USA Today reported Monday.
"With a federal court looking at the connection between Roundup and cancer today, we believe this is the perfect time to shine a spotlight on glyphosate," study author and U.S. PIRG Toxic's Director Kara Cook-Schultz told USA Today. "This chemical could prove a true risk to so many Americans' health, and they should know that it is everywhere – including in many of their favorite drinks."
The drink with the highest glyphosate concentration was Sutter Home Merlot, at 51.4 parts per billion (ppb). Popular beer brands like Coors Light, Miller Lite and Budweiser all had concentrations above 25 ppb. The full results of the study, from highest to lowest glyphosate concentration in ppb, are listed below.
Wines
Sutter Home Merlot: 51.4 ppb
Beringer Founders Estates Moscato: 42.6 ppb
Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon: 36.3 ppb
Inkarri Malbec, Certified Organic: 5.3 ppb
Frey Organic Natural White: 4.8 ppb
Beers
Tsingtao Beer: 49.7 ppb
Coors Light: 31.1 ppb
Miller Lite: 29.8 ppb
Budweiser: 27.0 ppb
Corona Extra: 25.1 ppb
Heineken: 20.9 ppb
Guinness Draught: 20.3 ppb
Stella Artois: 18.7 ppb
Ace Perry Hard Cider: 14.5 ppb
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale: 11.8 ppb
New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale: 11.2 ppb
Sam Adams New England IPA: 11.0 ppb
Stella Artois Cidre: 9.1 ppb
Samuel Smith's Organic Lager: 5.7 ppb.
The only beverage tested that contained no glyphosate was Peak Beer Organic IPA
The amounts found were far below the safety limits for glyphosate set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as Bayer toxicologist William Reeves told CBS News via a spokesperson.
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets daily exposure limits at least 100 times below levels shown to have no negative effect in safety studies," Reeves said. "Assuming the greatest value reported, 51.4 ppb, is correct, a 125-pound adult would have to consume 308 gallons of wine per day, every day for life to reach the US Environmental Protection Agency's glyphosate exposure limit for humans. To put 308 gallons into context, that would be more than a bottle of wine every minute, for life, without sleeping."
However, the study noted that chemicals aren't necessarily safe just because regulatory bodies say they are.
"While these levels of glyphosate are below EPA risk tolerances for beverages, it is possible that even low levels of glyphosate can be problematic. For example, in one study, scientists found that 1 part per trillion of glyphosate has the potential to stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells and disrupt the endocrine system," the study said.
The EPA has found that glyphosate is not carcinogenic to humans, but the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer ruled it was a probable human carcinogen in 2015. More recently, a study released February found that those exposed to glyphosate were 41 percent more likely to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
In the first case to go to trial against Monsanto over Roundup last year, a jury ruled that exposure to glyphosate had caused the non-Hodgkin lymphoma of California groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson. Plaintiff Edwin Hardeman is making a similar claim in the first federal glyphosate trial that started Monday.
"Due to glyphosate's many health risks and its ubiquitous nature in our food, water and alcohol, the use of glyphosate in the U.S. should be banned unless and until it can be proven safe," the U.S. PIRG study advised.
Source: ecowatch.com beer wine Glyphosate monsanto roundup
Whole Foods Grants $500,000 To Provide 150 Salad Bars To Schools
FEBRUARY 21, 2019
Whole Kids Foundation, a nonprofit focused on children’s nutrition and wellness, announced that 150 new salad bars will be provided to schools in the U.S. this year. The $500,000 investment will ensure more than 75,000 students will have access to fresh healthy produce at school.
In partnership with Salad Bars to Schools, Whole Kids Foundation has provided nearly 5,500 school salad bars since 2011. Salad Bars to Schools is a public-private partnership founded by Whole Foods Market, Chef Ann Foundation, National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance and United Fresh Start Foundation. Collectively, more than $14.3 million has been invested across all 50 states providing over 2.7 million children with daily access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Salad bars at schools are a proven way to encourage kids to eat more fresh vegetables and are a successful strategy to promote healthy eating for students, according to research by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Eating nutritious food is linked to their academic success (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention); specifically, higher grades and standardized test scores, reduced absenteeism and improved cognitive performance. For these reasons, school salad bars are in high demand.
“Every salad bar gives kids access to fresh vegetables and fruit every day, which allows them to make healthy food choices,” said Nona Evans, executive director and president of Whole Kids Foundation. “We are so proud to be a part of the movement working to support a healthier generation of kids.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds the national school lunch program, more than 31 million kids eat school lunch every day and for many, what they eat at school is more than 80 percent of their daily calories. The Center for Disease Control & Prevention reports that kids with access to a salad bar consume three times more fruits and vegetables, indicating that when kids have healthy options, they make healthy choices.
Not only is having nutritious food accessible to students good for their health and education, it’s also financially smart. The cost for one freestanding, mobile salad bar grant is about $3,000. This includes everything a school needs to get started: the bar, chill pads, pans and tongs. Each salad bar can serve a school for 10 years, which makes it incredibly cost effective with the true cost being about $0.01 per child, per day.
In addition to the salad bar equipment, each school that is awarded a grant also receives training tools provided by thelunchbox.org, including food-safety training, knife skills training and fully tested, nutritionally analyzed and scalable recipes.
Whole Kids Foundation accepts salad bar grant applications year-round from school districts and are submitted by district food service staff. A parent advocate toolkit is available for parents interested in encouraging their school districts to apply for a salad bar grant.
Heritage Crops That Feed on Sea Water Could Feed the UAE's Growing Population
Scientists are looking to genetically modify crops that were grown here in ancient times to help solve the region's food security issues.
Scientists are hoping to tackle the region’s food insecurity by reintroducing heritage crops that have been genetically modified to grow using saltwater straight from the sea.
Poor soil coupled with a scarcity of fresh water has led the UAE, and much of the region, to rely on importing food to feed its populations.
Euro-centric methods of agriculture are ill-suited for the hot and dry land, and some vegetables require 30 or more times the water in the UAE than is needed to grow the same plant in cooler environments.
Importing sufficed for decades as little consideration was given to environmental impact. But today, with the threat of global warming and the food industry being one of the biggest culprits, the way we eat has become one the most important frontiers for sustainability.
Dr Ismahane Elouafi, director-general of the International Centre of Biosaline Agriculture, does not agree with the idea that deserts are barren environments. Instead, she believes that although regional appetites have veered away from what the land naturally provides, they must be brought back.
“Sixty per cent of our food comes from only four crops. There are only 150 crops available on the market out of the 7,000 our ancestors used to grow,” Dr Elouafi said.
Wheat, maize, rice and potatoes feed the majority of the world’s population. But all four of those crops, which were genetically engineered to sustain people during the European industrial revolution, are unsuitable for growth outside the Northern Hemisphere.
Instead, she says that crops such as millet, which some historians believe was among the first seeds grown in the Fertile Crescent – an area of the Middle East where agriculture and some of the earliestcivilisations began – can fulfil food demand.
Pearl millet is among the crops the ICBA are hoping to reintroduce to the UAE. Photo by Showkat Nabi
Dr Elouafi is now seeking other plants that can grow in the UAE, adding thousands of species of ancient crop seeds to ICBA’s gene bank. Her scientists are digging through time to find some of the 7,000 crops our ancestors used and, from those, identifying species that are saline-resistant, nutrient-rich and, of course, tasty.
“We’re only focusing on a few for now because breeding is extremely expensive. That’s why most of the countries to the south [of the Northern Hemisphere] still use crops from the north – they are put on the market by multinationals,” she said.
But now, breakthroughs in genetic coding technology can tremendously reduce the cost of breeding, meaning that it may be possible to engineer endemic crops to become easier to grow and better suited to mass cultivation in the region.
The shortage of water, she said, is one of the main constraints to UAE food production. Water scarcity has been offset in the country by some of the world’s most substantial desalination plants – an energy-intensive practice.
But instead of desalinating seawater for crops, Dr Elouafi wants to engineer crops so they can be irrigated with water straight from the sea.
“It is possible – there are crops that have salinity tolerance already. We’re looking at these crops and into using either gene editing or hybrids to get crops on to the market that take more saline water and are more nutritious,” she said.
Omar Al Jundi is the founder and chief executive of Badia Farms, the region’s first vertical farm, in Al Quoz, Dubai. Reem Mohammed/The National
These innovations could be used in conjunction with developments such as Omar Al Jundi’s vertical farm, the first commercial one to launch in Dubai. It could be used to grow ICBA’s regionally-suitable crops to disrupt current energy-intensive agriculture in the Arab world.
“Our water bill for August was Dh1,500. That is lower than my home water bill. We’re able to harvest the majority of the water we use, recycle it and use the humidity to nourish plants,” said Mr Al Jundi, the founder and chief executive of Badia vertical farm, which produces 1,000 heads of lettuce at a time.
Vertical farming uses hydroponic systems to yield crops. Being indoors, vertical farms seldom need pesticides and the technology is progressing at a rate that could allow it to grow anything, including ancient or heritage crops.
He said using his technology to grow sustainable plants, such as the ones ICBA is rediscovering, is completely achievable and part of his vision for the future of urban agriculture.
“You can grow as high as you want, but going up 10 to 20 storeys produces a lot – it could feed thousands, if not more. This is the future.”
Updated: January 16, 2019 08:35 AM
Heatwave Conditions Takes A Toll On Australian Fruit And Vegetable Growers
The hot weather has taken a toll on Australia's farmers, with many regions still in drought, and for Australia's fruit and vegetable growers, many are battling through these conditions still getting the fruit to market, although it is still having an effect.
Most parts of Australia have sweltered through a heatwave over the past fortnight, with daily temperatures regularly in the high-thirties to mid-forties.
On Thursday, South Australia's Port Augusta reached 49.5 degrees, just 10 days after it created international headlines for reaching around 49 degrees at the same time as temperatures were below minus 56 degrees in parts of Russia. It is a similar picture across all states, with conditions topping 45 degrees plus in nearly all areas.
The hot weather has taken a toll on Australia's farmers, with many regions still in drought, and for Australia's fruit and vegetable growers, many are battling through these conditions still getting the fruit to market, although it is still having an effect.
Picture: Temperatures taken on Jan 15 (source:Weather Obsessed/Jamie Lyons)
The Australian Mango Industry Association reported: "We have had the extreme heat in North Queensland and some rain that brought forward some of the harvesting in North Queensland and resulted in some fruit becoming ripe on the trees and unable to be marketed. But overall, growers have managed those ups and downs."
Further south, in Central Queensland's Rockhampton region, Lush Lychees were expecting production to be nearly double on last year, although there were some issues with the weather this summer.
"We had periods of drought, which made watering difficult with our river system, and we had high temperature days which lasted for a week," co-owner Krystal Caton said. "So that was a bit difficult on the fruit causing heat stress and fruit drop. But other than that, we got through and got them all picked this week. The high temperature and heat it caused a lot of fruit drop - so we lost a lot of fruit and it caused some heat stress on some of our varieties. But that's farming - working with the weather."
Brisbane Produce Market report also noted: "This week, the heatwave continues to impact supplies on vegetables. We’re seeing a limited supply of broccoli, cauliflower and celery but tomatoes are bouncing back, particularly the grape and cherry varieties."
Photo: Vegetable crops in East Gipplsand
While it is the same story for vegetables in Victoria. The East Gippsland Food Cluster says that this year production has been variable due to the weather conditions.
"It depends on the crop and we have had a few hot, above 40-degree days, and naturally that takes a toll," Industry Development Officer Shayne Hyman said. "With baby leaf (lettuce) there has been some tip-burn. There has been early beans and they are pretty good. But it is all weather dependent, meaning this week's crop is good, while next weeks could be tipped-in. People are wanting broccoli, and brassicas are a winter crop. But because people don't follow seasonality of vegetables, they want it now, so broccoli production has been down, and that has been because of the weather - not very much rain and long hot periods. I was talking to the biggest cauliflower producer, and they are going to turn it all in (for the season), because it was coming along beautifully, and on that particular crop the heads burst, which meant it was un-sellable."
Production wise, Budou Farms, in Merbein in the Victoria’s south, is behind harvest time slightly between a week to 10 days. But the table grape grower is looking at a slightly above average year in terms of volumes, despite some issues with the weather.
"With the weather we have had a few heatwaves and the next few days are meant to be very intense," co-owner Enrique Rossi said. "From tomorrow we have two days of 45 degrees, which is not good. We are a little down on rainfall throughout the year. In winter, during one month we only got 4 millimetres of rain, which is very worrying. But we have to take the good out of the heatwaves - and this extreme weather we have got in Australia, makes the fruit have exceptional flavour."
Publication date : 1/25/2019
Author: matthew@freshplaza.com
Tell Kellogg’s To Stop Hiding GMOs!
Big News:
The USDA responded to our lawsuit and has issued the final GMO labeling rules. Unfortunately, the final rules allow for companies like Kellogg’s to label GMOs using QR codes. These codes require consumers to use their smartphones on every coded product to try and find out if they contain GMOs. And even if the Wi-Fi is working in the store, they then often just get a website where they have to search further for this information. Labeling through QR codes adds countless hours to weekly shopping trips and the companies using GMOs are counting on customers not to be able to afford that time, and stay in the dark about their products.
Even worse 1/3rd of Americans do not have smart phones or access to reliable broadband connection. They cannot even use these QR codes to find out if a product is genetically engineered. The population that wouldn’t have access to this information would be disproportionately low-income, rural, minority, and elderly. That’s not transparency that’s discrimination against more than 100 million Americans. Everyone should have access to the truth about their food. Not just those of us who have smart phones. All GMO labeling should be on the package!
We’ll be taking USDA to court about these QR codes and other problems with the GMO labeling regulations that show these rules have been designed to hide and confuse rather than inform. Stay tuned for updates!
In the meantime, you can help recruit companies to stand up for transparency and commit to on package, text or symbol labeling of GMOs. We’ve already gotten commitments for this on package labeling from companies like Campbell’s and Mars. However, the Kellogg Company is still planning to use QR codes for its GMO labeling.
Let’s all take to Twitter to demand that Kellogg’s stop being anti-consumer and discriminatory and label GMOs on package with text or symbol!
EDEN ISS Antarctic Grower Paul Zabel Returns
365 days on the eternal ice flows.
365 days in the Antarctic, of which 257 days cut off from the outside world. Antarctic grower Paul Zabel from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has tested vegetable cultivation, suitable for Moon and Mars environments in the EDEN-ISS greenhouse. There, he harvested peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and various lettuces and herbs, grown with the use of artificial light.
Now Paul Zabel has returned to Germany and, at a press conference at the DLR Bremen site, he spoke for the first time since his arrival of his efforts and deprivations of recent months, as well as the joys of plant breeding in extreme situations and his life on the seventh continent.
"The Antarctic is a fascinating place and I am very happy that I could be one of the few people who had the opportunity to spend the winter there, having experienced many unique impressions and challenges over the past 12 months. Now it is great to be back home, seeing family, friends and colleagues again," said Zabel.
"Antarctic grower" Paul Zabel returned after a stopover at the Antarctic Novo Airbase and a short stay in Cape Town shortly before celebrating Christmas in his home in the Brandenburg Spreewald. "Having spent Christmas 2017 in the Antarctic, it was very special to spend Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve at home." Zabel left for the Antarctic on 16 December 2017, with three other members of the EDEN-ISS team. After a two-month build-up phase, he remained there from February 18, 2018 on German Antarctic station Neumayer III with nine other overwinterers of the AWI.
Working in the Antarctic cold
Day by day, Zabel set off on the commute to the EDEN-ISS greenhouse, about 400 meters from the station. Only during the strongest storms, of which Zabel experienced many during the Antarctic winter, the greenhouse was monitored and controlled automatically by people in the Bremen control center. "From Bremen, we were in daily contact with Paul," reports EDEN-ISS's Daniel Schubert from the DLR Space Systems Institute. "He has done a great job over the past months. Although it has taken up quite a lot of his time, the EDEN-ISS project and he himself will be thanked by future astronauts."
Other members of the AWI hibernation team also helped Paul Zabel with his work. They aided him with the sowing of the plants and supported him with the numerous experiments. "After more than a year in the Antarctic, we can look back on successful overwintering." The work in the greenhouse and the fresh vegetables have enriched our time at the Neumayer Station III," says station manager Bernhard Gropp.
Rich harvest
A detailed evaluation of the studies on plant breeding in Antarctica is currently in full swing. The extensive results, including technical, botanical, microbiological and psychological analysis, are expected in May 2019. It is already clear that Paul Zabel has repeatedly been able to harvest a rich harvest, again supported by the other AWI overwinterers. For example, on Neumayer III over the past year, the crew wwere able to eat 67 kilograms of cucumbers, 46 kilograms of tomatoes, 19 kilograms of kohlrabi, 8 kilograms of radishes, 15 kilograms of herbs and 117 kilograms of lettuce.
The station continues to be open to researchers from all over the world. In the next two years, DLR, AWI and other research partners will further develop the production processes in the EDEN-ISS greenhouse, with the goal to offer future stations on the Moon and Mars an optimized greenhouse concept. The continuation of the project is open to researchers from all over the world. "Soon we will hand over the greenhouse to the new overwinterers who will continue the EDEN-ISS project in the Antarctic and look after the crop," says dr. Daniel Schubert. "We will monitor and control the greenhouse from Bremen." Schubert and his team will again travel to the Antarctic in mid-January 2019 to maintain the EDEN-ISS greenhouse and update it technically for the continuation.
EDEN-ISS: Food supply of the future
World food production is one of the key societal challenges of the 21st century. An increasing world population and simultaneous upheavals caused by climate change call for new ways of cultivating crops, even in climatically unfavorable regions. For deserts and areas with low temperatures, as well as space missions to the Moon and Mars, a greenhouse, closed of from the weather, the sun and the seasons, will allow independent harvests, less water consumption and the abandonment of pesticides and insecticides. With the project EDEN-ISS, such a greenhouse of the future can be tested under Antarctic extreme conditions.
Source: www.gemuese-online.de
Publication date : 1/15/2019
Republic Polytechnic Invests in Urban Farming With New Diploma, Lab
Republic Polytechnic (RP) is paving the way for the future of Singapore's high-tech urban farming.
Jan 11, 2019
On Wednesday (Jan 9), the poly launched the specialised diploma in urban agricultural technology - the first full-qualification diploma in the field.
At the launch, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Dr Koh Poh Koon, emphasised the importance of increasing the margin of safety for Singapore's food supply through agricultural technology.
Dr. Koh explained that since Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of its food supply, it is crucial to leverage on technology to minimise challenges like disruptive weather conditions and optimise crops' growth cycles.
To overcome the challenges of unpredictable weather and land scarcity, the agricultural industry has turned to urban agriculture.
Commencing in June with an inaugural batch of 25 students, the part-time diploma in applied science gives students the option of signing up for the associated SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme
The 900-hour course is ideal for students interested in a career in the industry and adult learners looking to upgrade their skills.
OPENING
Dr. Koh also witnessed the opening of RP's Agriculture Technology Laboratory and memorandum of understanding signing with Singapore Agro-Food Enterprises Federation.
The Agriculture Technology Laboratory is a new facility to support students in deepening their skills through hands-on training.
The lab will be equipped with indoor farming systems like vertical plane cultivation,conduit-based horizontal hydroponic nutrient film technique, tray-based horizontal hydroponic growing and substrate growing systems.
According to Mr Yeo Li Pheow, the principal of RP, the motivation behind the new course and lab stemmed from the pressing issue of food security due to Singapore's limited land area.
"In order for Singapore to be more self-sufficient and resilient, we need to increase the amount of food we produce locally and reduce our dependence on food imports," said Mr. Yeo.
Technology Will Make The UAE One of The World's Most Food-Secure Countries By 2021
From vertical farms to artificial intelligence, the nation is embracing cutting-edge innovations to achieve this ambitious goal, says the UAE Minister of State for Food Security
Food security is without doubt one of humankind’s most pressing concerns and the issue is one that is felt particularly keenly in the UAE. Although considered food secure – primarily because it enjoys a high degree of economic and political stability – the UAE still faces significant challenges. These stem from its arid climate, its shrinking groundwater levels and the volatility of the wider region. Added to these geographic and geopolitical stressors is the country’s spectacular growth. As its population has expanded exponentially, increasing from about 300,000 in 1971 – the year the UAE was founded – to more than nine-and-a-half million today, the need to provide for its residents has increased correspondingly.
My responsibility as UAE Minister of State for Food Security is to ensure that the nation continues to enjoy an adequate food supply for its citizens as it develops and to elevate its current position of 31st on the global ranking for food security to the top 10 by 2021. In order to achieve this, we are championing trade facilitation and enabling technology-based production and supply of food. The initiatives to support strategic goals are anchored in diversification of supply, alternative supply sources, technology-enabled enhancement of local production and international trade links, among others. Thus, a major part of my mandate is involved in incorporating agricultural technology – also known as “AgTech” – into the country’s food security agenda. This agenda is enshrined in the UAE’s recent launch of its National Food Security Strategy.
Variously defined as “transforming the global food system through digital technology” and “smart farmers getting smarter using digital technology”, AgTech encompasses advanced agricultural methods that differ distinctly from the traditional ways of farming practised for millennia. Increasingly seen as a solution to the UAE’s food security issues, my office is now placing a strong focus on adopting AgTech in the country’s agricultural sector, as part of a concerted effort to considerably reduce the 90 per cent of food that the country currently imports.
The AgTech government accelerator project, with its two components, is one such initiative. The first component is the promotion of the use of “controlled-environment agriculture” (CEA), which is a technology-based approach toward food production that utilises highly efficient technologies to properly manage agriculture inputs and maximise output. It involves agricultural industry entrepreneurs working alongside government bodies to provide tangible solutions to promote CEA, primarily through implementing an enabling business environment that is conducive to innovation.
The second component of the project is aquaculture, which is farming in controlled conditions of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae and other organisms in freshwater and saltwater. With agriculture in general being the world’s thirstiest industry, accounting for approximately 72 per cent of total freshwater consumption, aquaculture represents one of the best uses of what is the region’s most precious resource. To this end, the UAE has established a vibrant aquaculture sector with an investment of more than Dh100 million to develop hatcheries and fish farms.
Vertical farming is another AgTech component that my department is promoting and one that has been identified as offering a solution to the UAE’s food security issues. The concept involves plants being grown in vertically stacked layers in an indoor environment where environmental factors can be controlled. Vertical farms typically use artificial light, humidity regulation, temperature control and minimum use of pesticides, enabling the production of vegetables in large quantities all year round without the need for soil, sunlight and chemicals. The commercial applications of vertical farming are already being realised in the UAE, with the opening of the Gulf region’s first-of-its-kind facility in December 2017. Located in the Al Quoz industrial area of Dubai, the 8,500sq ft farm produces 18 varieties of micro-greens, including rocket, kale, radishes, red cabbage, basil and mustard.
Remote-controlled drones have become an accepted presence in the skies above the UAE, with the ubiquitous flying machines used by the authorities to – among other things – monitor traffic and deliver post. Now they are providing benefits for the country’s agricultural sector, with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being used to map farming areas across the country. Announced in June 2017, the pilot project sees UAVs being used to create a highly accurate agricultural database that supports decision-making and forward planning by enabling the best use of resources and determining the optimum areas for crop growth.
Perhaps the most prevalent form of AgTech being incorporated in the UAE’s agricultural sector is the use of sensors, with their adoption resulting in increased yields in both large-scale agricultural projects and smaller organic farms. Sensor-equipped gyroscopes, accelerators and GPS monitors are being employed to enhance crop production by making the most of land and water use – precision irrigation that is highly effective in reducing water waste. A good example is an organic farm in Sharjah that relies heavily on sensors to determine the salinity and mineral content of the soil to ensure optimum crop growth with minimal use of water. Another prime example is a household name Japanese electronics manufacturer that is creating a farm in Dubai to grow strawberries, with the facility incorporating light-emitting diodes for controlled lighting, air distillation technology and other appliances to check room temperature and humidity.
Aquaculture, vertical farming, drone use and sensors are just four of the technologies that are being utilised in the UAE to maximise crop production while ensuring good husbandry of resources. This is only the start of what will be an expanding role for AgTech in the country’s agricultural sector. The office of food security is currently evaluating how emerging areas of technology, such as robotics, can play a part. Automation combined with artificial intelligence is an exciting field that we are currently assessing. One company in the US has produced a robot that mimics what a fruit picker in the field does. It uses AI to determine which fruit is ripe and ready to be picked, leaving unripe fruit in place on the vine. We are closely following such developments as part of the National Food Security Strategy and will be assessing how rapid technological changes that form part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be best incorporated to ensure food security for all.
Mariam Al Mheiri is the UAE's Minister of State for Food Security
Updated: January 16, 2019 04:25 PM
Can We Grow More Food on Less Land? We’ll Have To, A New Study Finds
If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become radically more efficient, too.
By Brad Plumer
Dec. 5, 2018
WASHINGTON — If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become radically more efficient, too.
That’s the basic conclusion of a sweeping new study issued Wednesday by the World Resources Institute, an environmental group. The report warns that the world’s agricultural system will need drastic changes in the next few decades in order to feed billions more people without triggering a climate catastrophe.
The challenge is daunting: Agriculture already occupies roughly 40 percent of the world’s land and is responsible for about a quarter of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. But with the global population expected to grow from 7.2 billion people today to nearly 10 billion by 2050, and with many millions of people eating more meat as incomes rise, that environmental impact is on pace to expand dramatically.
Based on current trends, the authors calculated, the world would need to produce 56 percent more calories in 2050 than it did in 2010. If farmers and ranchers met that demand by clearing away more forests and other ecosystems for cropland and pasture, as they have often done in the past, they would end up transforming an area twice the size of India.
That, in turn, could make it nearly impossible to stay below 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, the agreed-upon international goal, even if the world’s fossil-fuel emissions were rapidly phased down. When forests are converted into farmland, the large stores of carbon locked away in those trees is released into the atmosphere.
“Food is the mother of all sustainability challenges,” said Janet Ranganathan, vice president for science and research at the World Resources Institute. “We can’t get below 2 degrees without major changes to this system.”
Less meat, but also better farming
The new study, the result of six years’ worth of modeling work conducted in partnership with French agricultural researchers, is hardly the first to warn that feeding the world sustainably will be a formidable task. But the authors take a different view of the most plausible solutions.
In the past, researchers who have looked at the food problem have suggested that the key to a sustainable agriculture system is to persuade consumers to eat far less meat and waste far less of the food that’s already grown.
The new report, however, cautions that there may be limits to how much those strategies can achieve on their own. The authors do recommend that the biggest consumers of beef and lamb, such as those in Europe and the United States, could cut back their consumption by about 40 percent by 2050, or down to about 1.5 servings a week on average. Those two types of meat have especially large environmental footprints.
But the authors are not counting on a major worldwide shift to vegetarianism.
“We wanted to avoid relying on magic asterisks,” said Timothy D. Searchinger, a researcher at Princeton University and the World Resources Institute and lead author of the report. “We could imagine a significant shift from beef to chicken, and that by itself goes a long way.” (Poultry production has about one-eighth the climate impact of beef production.)
So, in addition to actions on diet and food waste, the researchers also focused on dozens of broad strategies that could allow farmers and ranchers to grow far more food on existing agricultural lands while cutting emissions, a feat that would require a major shift in farming practices worldwide and rapid advances in technology.
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A farm in the Pays de la Loire region of France. Cows have an especially large environmental footprint.CreditLoic Venance/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
For example, they note, in parts of Brazil, the best-managed grazing lands can produce four times as much beef per acre as poorly managed lands — in part owing to differences in cattle health and how well the grass is fertilized. Improving productivity across the board could help satisfy rising meat demand while lessening the need to clear broad swaths of rain forest.
The authors also pointed to possible techniques to reduce the climate impact of existing farms. For instance, new chemical compounds could help prevent nitrogen fertilizers from producing nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. And scientists are exploring feed additives that get cows to burp up less methane, another big contributor to global warming.
The report notes that producing 56 percent more calories without expanding agricultural land could prove even more difficult if, as expected, rising temperatures reduce crop yields. But, Mr. Searchinger said, many of the recommendations in the report, such as breeding new, higher-yielding crop varieties or preventing soil erosion, could also help farmers adapt to climate change.
Conserving the world’s remaining forests
The researchers emphasize that strategies to improve the productivity of existing croplands and pastures will have to be paired with more rigorous conservation policies to protect existing forests in places like Brazil or sub-Saharan Africa. Otherwise, farmers will just find it more profitable to clear more forests for agriculture — with dire climate consequences.
“In the past, we’ve often seen agricultural policies and conservation policies moving in parallel without a lot of interaction,” said Linus Blomqvist, director of conservation at the Breakthrough Institute, who was not involved in the study. “The big challenge is to link the two, so that we get more intensive farming without using more land.”
In another contentious recommendation, the report’s authors call for a limit on the use of bioenergy crops, such as corn grown for ethanol in cars, that compete with food crops for land.
Money is also a hurdle. The report’s authors call for large increases in research funding to look at ideas like fertilizers that can be made without the use of fossil fuels, organic sprays that can reduce waste by preserving fresh food for longer, and genetic editing techniques that might produce higher-yielding crops. They also urge new regulations that would encourage private industry to develop sustainable agricultural technologies.
Over the past three years, 51 countries have spent roughly $570 billion a year to support food production, said Tobias Baedeker, an agricultural economist at the World Bank, which contributed to the new study.
If those subsidies were overhauled so that they helped support more sustainable practices, Mr. Baedeker said, “we could have a real game-changer on our hands.”
How UAE’s Food Security Agenda Will Impact Dubai
Minister reveals key initiatives of National Food Security Strategy
January 26, 2019 Sharmila Dhal, Chief Reporter
Mariam Al Muhairi, Minister of State for Food Security Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Dubai: Soon, your visits to the supermarket will be a different experience. As you browse the shelves for your tomatoes, dates, leafy greens, meat or fish, you will find there will be far more options of premium local produce than currently available.
Reason: The UAE has launched its first-ever Food Basket which has identified 18 different food items (see infographic) whose large-scale local production in some cases is set to make prices more competitive. Not just that, many items will have an all-new ‘Emirates Sustainable Agriculture Label’, which means they are ‘Agriculture-tech’ or ‘Ag-Tech’ products complying to standards of sustainable production, water efficiency, without chemicals and in line with innovative technologies. Basically they will be “clean and traceable foods.”
Food consumption is growing at the rate of 12 per cent a year. Looking at climate change and global food demand, we need to ensure we have different plans in place to secure food for today and the future.
- Mariam Al Muhairi, Minister of State for Food Security
Making these revelations to Gulf News in an exclusive interview at her office, Minister of State for Food Security Mariam Al Muhairi said, “We are looking at a domestic production target of over 100,000 tons by 2021 in line with the National Food Security Strategy 2051 announced in November.”
100000
tons is the target set for domestic production of foods by 2021
She said, “We need to understand what’s in our food basket and say which of these foods makes sense to be grown in the UAE and still have a competitive price, compared to imports. We arrived at the basket based on consumption patterns, local production capacity and nutritional value of foods. The basket is dynamic and could change in a few years depending on these factors.”
Image Credit: ©Gulf News
Image Credit: ©Gulf News
Challenges
UAE’s food imports currently stand at 90 per cent. How will the new thrust on domestic production impact this figure? “It is difficult to put a number on where we want to head in terms of imports,” said Al Muhairi. “We need to factor the many challenges — less than five per cent of our land is arable and water is scarce. Our population is growing rapidly — it is expected to go up from nine million now to 11.5 million by 2025.
11.5 million is the estimated population of the UAE by 2025
A graduate of the Latifa School for Girls, the minister, who has a master’s degree in engineering from Germany, said, “Food consumption is growing at the rate of 12 per cent a year. Looking at climate change and global food demand, we need to ensure we have different plans in place to secure food for today and the future.
“We have to be in a position to absorb food shocks, secure the continuity of food supplies and also enhance the quality of food.”
12 is the percentage rate at which food consumption is growing in the UAE
Another challenge, she said, pertains to the consumption behaviour of the diverse mix of people (UAE is home to people of over 200 nationalities), their eating patterns, and the way we deal with food wastage and loss.
Community’ role
The government is not the only entity that will make the change happen. “Food security is not just the government’s responsibility,” she said. “Individuals, families and communities also have to play their part. When you choose your food, you are taking part in the food security outlook. If we make sure we educate our communities and give them the tools to do that, we could nudge them to go for more sustainable foods and make healthier choices. Also, the community is involved when we talk of consumption habits or reducing food loss and waste.”
Accessibility
Explaining the difference between food security and self-sufficiency, she said, “People tend to relate food security to self-sufficiency, which is not the case. Food security for the UAE means enabling all residents to have access to safe, nutritious, sufficient and affordable food to lead a healthy and active lifestyle at all times.”
90% UAE's current food imports
Taking the example of Singapore, she said, “Singapore is No. 1 in the Global Food Security Index even though it imports 90 per cent of its food. Why? Because it has managed to have access to food at all times.”
Supermarkets will soon have a lot more options of premium local produce than currently available. Many items will also have an all new ‘Emirates Sustainable Agriculture Label’Image Credit: Abdul Rahman/Gulf News
According to her, the UAE, which ranks 31 in the index, aims to make it within the top 10 by 2021 and to the first place by 2051. “To be able to do that, we need to diversify, with some food grown at home, some food grown by our companies abroad and some imported from different sources.”
With land and water being scarce in the UAE, she said local companies can invest abroad to boost supplies. “There are many possibilities they can explore across all continents. Recent investments have been made in Romania, Egypt, Sudan, Serbia, and Cambodia. Lately, Uganda has also allocated 2,500 hectares of land as an agricultural free zone dedicated to the UAE. The government’s role is to facilitate agribusiness to increase food trade of quality products.”
She said the UAE’s food security stems mainly from its economic and political stability. “We have the buying power but we need to be prepared for what lies in the future concerning the global food systems. At the same time we should work on the opportunities of becoming a world leading hub in innovation-driven food security by enhancing facilitation for agribusiness and increasing R&D and place more emphasis on sustainable and efficient ways of food production.”
New economic sector
The Office of Food Security has introduced 10 strategic initiatives as part of a “new economic sector” to encourage the adoption of new technologies in the agricultural sector. “We wanted to develop a new economic sector with food systems that are sustainable and don’t use water excessively. We had to first see what were the barriers.”
So a joint programme between the Future Food Security Office and the Government Accelerators was undertaken. It was attended by over 50 representatives of federal and local government authorities and the private sector.
“The idea of coming together was to see how best we could remove existing barriers companies faced in the sector and come up with solutions in 100 days. The result was the set of 10 initiatives.
“The first — an Emirates Sustainability Agriculture Label — tells the consumer that the product has been grown in a sustainable way, using innovative technologies, without chemicals or soil and in keeping with human and animal rights. This is the first national logo of its kind to be introduced anywhere in the world. Unlike earlier, when investors would require four-five different licences to set up a facility, the new economic sector provides a single unified licence, under which activities have been consolidated and updated, reducing costs by 60 per cent.
“It also offers a hassle-free framework for providing agriculture finance and an Ag-tech loan guarantee and supply chain financing. In other words, cash flows have been streamlined.
“Similarly, a new Ag-tech building code allows for hi-tech greenhouses or closed system fish farms to be built to required specifications while a food security data framework and platform (bayanat.ae) provides easy access to information.
“Investors can also benefit from a new standard for aquaculture in keeping with Good Aquaculture Practice, besides a local aquaculture atlas that shows places in the UAE that are suitable for fish farming and a dedicated fish feed facility.”
The minister said 70-80 per cent of the operational costs of fish farming derives from feed which is currently being imported. So it was important to build a sustainable fish feed facility locally.
What Ag-Tech means
Ag-Tech covers advanced agricultural methods that differ from traditional ways of farming. Among other things, it encourages the use of “controlled-environment agriculture” (CEA) that includes efficient technologies to manage inputs and maximise outputs, aquaculture or farming of fish and other marine life in controlled conditions, vertical farming where plants are grown indoor in vertically stacked layers using artificial light, regulated humidity, temperature and minimal pesticides, thus enabling large-scale production of vegetables in the absence of soil, sunlight and chemicals. It also covers drones to map farming areas and adoption of sensors that can help boost yields.
Hi-Tech Agriculture in the UAE
Badia Farms in Al Quoz, Dubai: Based in Al Quoz, the region’s first vertical farm employs hydroponics technology and uses 90 per cent less water than open field farming and recycles the water it uses. It produces a wide range of lettuces, microgreens and baby leaf herbs among other varieties.Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Masdar City’s eco villa Bustani: A pilot project in Masdar City, this smart showcase has been designed to use 72 per cent less energy and 35 per cent less ater than a typical comparably sized villa in Abu Dhabi.Image Credit: Supplied
Al Dahra BayWa Greenhouse in Al Ain: The facility in Al Ain consumes 67 per cent less water than traditional greenhouses and the cooling technology employed is the first of its kind in the world. It has the capacity to produce 3,000 tons of tomatoes locally.Image Credit: WAM
The UAE can boast of several hi-tech projects:
Al Dahra BayWa Greenhouse in Al Ain
Pure Harvest, Al Ain
Fish Farm LLC, Dubai, Fujairah
Al Qouz-based Badia Farms
Masdar’s eco villas initiative — Bustani with Madar Farms
Upcoming indoor farm by Emirates Flight Catering and Crop One Holdings of the US
Dedicated fish feed facility for which a letter of intent has just been signed
The National Food Security Strategy:
The National Food Security Strategy 2051 was presented by Minister of State for Food Security Mariam Al Muhaiari in November 2018 during the UAE Government’s second Annual Meetings. The meetings were chaired by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
The food security strategy was among seven national strategies that outlined the early stages of implementing the UAE Centennial 2071 goals in vital sectors.
The strategy, which includes 38 short and long-term key initiatives, seeks to facilitate the global food trade, diversify food import sources and identify alternative supply schemes, covering three to five sources for each major food category.
The strategy aims to:
Make the UAE the world’s best in the Global Food Security Index by 2051 and among the top 10 countries by 2021.
Develop a comprehensive national system based on enabling sustainable food production through the use of modern technologies.
Enhance local production.
Develop international partnerships to diversify food sources.
Activate legislation and policies that contribute to improving nutrition.
Activate legislation and policies to reduce waste.
Masdar City's Steel Urban Allotments Could Help Solve Food Security Crisis
Vertical farms and eco-villas to be profiled at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week could help UAE grow more of its own crops
Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City is piloting a project that could see urban communities growing their own food in an allotment, but with a very modern day twist.
A pilot future farming facility built from recycled shipping containers could solve the region’s food production crisis by allowing communities to grow produce, despite the harsh desert climate.
Masdar City, which was built to be one of the world's most sustainable communities, is collaborating with Madar Farms, who try to find sustainable solutions to the GCC's food security issues, to develop vertical farming inside shipping containers. They are equipped with hydroponic systems that can operate using minimal water.
“With the world’s population expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, efficient and sustainable production and distribution of food is becoming increasingly important,” said Yousef Baselaib, executive director of Masdar City.
“This is particularly true for countries with arid climates and harsh environmental conditions like ours.”
Hydroponics systems allow tonnes of greens to be grown in small spaces. Antonie Robertson / The National
The 1.5 acre plots inside each 12-metre container have the capability to grow crops using less than 40 litres of water a day.
The crops are constantly monitored by the latest technology within a sealed environment, shortening the growing cycle.
Temperature and carbon dioxide levels can be regulated via a mobile phone app, with an automated nutrient delivery system to produce the best possible results.
“We have begun investing in technologies and partnerships focused on sustainable agriculture with the aim of commercialising farming techniques,” said Mr Baselaib.
“These systems can be applied to urban areas to encourage people in the UAE to eat home grown produce.”
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Food security and sustainable farming will be one of the key focuses of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), which begins on Saturday.
The technology and methods used by Madar Farms use approximately 95 per cent less water and land than conventional farming, making the company one of the most efficient and sustainable growers in the GCC.
The initiative joins other similar schemes such as one run by Agricool in Sustainable City in Dubai, where they are growing fresh strawberries for the local community in hydroponic grow room inside shipping containers.
Masdar City first engineered ideas of productive landscapes in 2008 to address food security issues.
Since then, community gardening plots have been developed to allow for plant research, agricultural education and to encourage people to grow their own food.
Masdar’s agricultural strategy hopes to encourage traditional farming methods and the growth of indigenous plants.
An eco-villa has been built in the eco-friendly city to show how green living could be used in the home on a wider scale.
Kyle Wagner, head of operations at Madar Farms, checks the growth of crops grown in a retrofitted shipping container. Antonie Robertson / The National
“The villa is an example of Masdar’s commitment to sustainability and is a pilot project conceived as a template for affordable, energy- and water-efficient residential villas,” said Mr Baselaib.
By this month, they also hope to have implemented home farming technologies and they will be showcasing the project at ADSW.
The eco-villa uses about 72 per cent less power and 35 per cent less water than a typical villa in Abu Dhabi, displacing an estimated 63 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
During ADSW, Masdar will also show other projects focused on vegetable and livestock farming, water harvesting and recycling, waste recycling and how to use energy for cooking.
Less than 1 per cent of the region is arable and permanent crop land, and more than 40 per cent of the UAE’s food is imported.
Importing that volume of food will cost more than US$100 billion (Dh367b) by 2030.
The crops are grown inside shipping containers. Antonie Robertson / The National)
More than 40 per cent of natural water sources have been lost in the past 20 years through overuse and despite water scarcity, 84 per cent of water is used for agriculture and irrigation, which contributes less than 1 per cent to GDP.
That has left conventional farming unsustainable in the UAE, forcing the development of alternative models.
Masdar has paired up with the UAE Office for Future Food Security to rubber stamp its commitment to addressing the most important environmental issues likely to impact the nation.
Other sustainable farming methods are being developed in a Central Park project, using vertical farming techniques, solar-powered greenhouses, a self-contained farmers’ market and edible maze.
“Tackling the challenge of food security is a priority for Masdar and one that we are addressing in a holistic manner by looking at solutions in energy, food and water,” said Mr Baselaib.
Uber CEO, Temasek Invest in Urban Farming Startup
The New York-based company plans to announce on Wednesday that it raised US$90 million from investors including Alphabet Inc's GV and Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, said Bowery's co-founder and CEO, Irving Fain.
THU, DEC 13, 2018 - 7:28 AM
The New York-based company plans to announce on Wednesday that it raised US$90 million from investors including Alphabet Inc's GV and Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, said Bowery's co-founder and CEO, Irving Fain. The company declined to provide its valuation.
PHOTO: REUTERS
[SAN FRANCISCO] Bowery Farming Inc, a two-year-old startup that uses robotics to cultivate crops indoors, is on track for more growth. The New York-based company plans to announce on Wednesday that it raised US$90 million from investors including Alphabet Inc's GV and Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, said Bowery's co-founder and CEO, Irving Fain. The company declined to provide its valuation.
Bowery is part of a new crop of agriculture technology startups growing leafy greens in controlled environments near cities. Last year, Plenty, a San Francisco-based vertical farming company, raised US$200 million from the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund.
Bowery grows its veggies in layers of sensor-rich trays that move and react to humidity, carbon dioxide and light. One square foot of Bowery's indoor farm is 100 times more productive than an equivalent plot of arable land, Bowery says. Plenty makes similar claims.
Part of the urgency of Bowery's business plan is the prospect of looming global food shortages. The United Nations says food production will need to double in the next three decades to feed the planet's swelling population. Bowery and its ilk see a business opportunity in building massive indoor farms in and on the outskirts of cities - a costly proposition, but one that could cut down on waste and ensure fresher produce.
"This round is solid validation for the scope of the problem and the opportunity," said Mr Fain. To date, Bowery has raised US$118 million from investors including First Round Capital and General Catalyst.
GV, formerly Google Ventures, led the most recent investment, which includes funding from Singapore's state investment firm, Temasek Holdings Pte.
Mr Fain said Uber's Khosrowshahi became an investor because of his interest in futuristic cities. "Uber is a big believer in cities and the importance of sustainable cities," said Mr Fain.
Bowery currently operates two indoor farms in Kearny, New Jersey. The facilities send greens like kale, bok choy and butterhead lettuce to Whole Foods and salad chain Sweetgreen. Mr Fain said the fresh funding will be used to open new farms in the US and internationally.
Bowery declined to disclose how many new farms are in the works or where they would be located. "There is no question that we intend to have our farms in cities across the world," Mr Fain said.
Andy Wheeler, a Bowery board member and partner at GV, echoed Mr Fain's global expansion ambitions. "The company is poised to have a significant impact on the global produce market," he said.
Bowery is planning to expand its headcount too, Mr Fain said. The company employs 65 people. Some of these employees could come from Amazon, Mr Fain suggested. Though competition for talent will likely be tough as the e-commerce giant ramps up hiring for its new office in New York.
This year, Bowery hired Brian Donato, a former senior operator of Amazon Fresh and Pantry food delivery services; Scott Horoho, a former senior Amazon engineering manager; and Jeff Raines, a former director of data center engineering for Amazon Web Services.