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Survey Shows Influence of Outbreaks, Recalls On Consumers
Fifty-six percent of U.S. shoppers are more concerned about food safety than they were a year ago, according to a survey from British consulting firm Lloyd’s Register
February 27, 2020
Fifty-six percent of U.S. shoppers are more concerned about food safety than they were a year ago, according to a survey from British consulting firm Lloyd’s Register.
According to a report on the survey, 46% of respondents said they have changed their food shopping or consumption habits in the last 12 months due to a food safety scare.
Lloyd’s Register conducted a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers in November. Survey questions did not mention fresh produce or outbreaks tied to romaine lettuce but referenced food safety overall.
Media coverage of various incidents as a key factor.
The extent to which this kind of coverage damages consumer confidence seems clear,” Lloyd’s Register wrote. “ ... Interestingly, just under half of the men polled said they were more concerned, while over 60% of women said the same. Those polled in younger age groups also tended to express greater concern than older generations, who were more evenly split.”
The report suggested that the food industry figure out how to minimize the fallout from outbreaks and other food safety incidents.“
It is therefore within suppliers’ interests to alleviate concerns and question how to better manage food scares that are reported in the media,” Lloyd’s Register wrote.
The report delved into U.S. consumer attitudes toward food waste, plastic, meat alternatives, and other topics.
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Zimbabwe: A Backyard Hydroponic Farm Beats Drought To Grow Vegetables
Hydroponically grown plants require no pesticides because there are no soil-borne diseases
Hydroponically grown plants require no pesticides because there are no soil-borne diseases.
BY: BY MACDONALD DZIRUTWE
21 JAN 2020
Innovation ... Venensia Mukarati, whose day job is an accountant, always had a passion for farming, but no land on which to plant (REUTERS / Philimon Bulawayo)
In a backyard in Zimbabwe’s capital, a 50-year-old mother of two is using hydroponics to grow vegetables for some of Harare’s top restaurants, defying drought and an economic crisis that have left millions needing food aid.
Venensia Mukarati, whose day job is an accountant, always had a passion for farming, but no land on which to plant.
Just over two years ago she did a web search on how to grow vegetables on the deck of her Harare house, importing a small hydroponics system from Cape Town for US$900 that enables plants to draw soluble nutrients from water.“
The good thing about hydroponics is that it saves water by 90 percent,” Mukarati said in a 46 square-meter greenhouse where water flowed in a maze of pipes decked with plants.“
I buy water because I don’t have a borehole so I cannot do conventional farming,” she told Reuters.
Her immediate desire was for fresh vegetables for the family as the country’s economic fortunes deteriorated and grocery store prices spiraled. But she quickly realized her pastime could be a profitable venture. It now makes US$1,100 a month – in a country where some government workers get just US$76.In hydroponic farming, water is conserved because it is reused multiple times. Hydroponically grown plants also require no pesticides because there are no soil-borne diseases.
Much of southern Africa is in its worst drought in more than a century, with crops failing and some 45 million people in need of food aid. The region’s temperatures are rising at twice the global average, says the International Panel on Climate Change, spurring the need for innovative ideas to get food on tables.
Harare also faces chronic water shortages due to aging pipes and a shortage of dollars to import treatment chemicals.
It takes six weeks for Mukarati to harvest vegetables such as lettuce compared to 10 weeks if the crop is grown in the soil.
She initially grew 140 plants per cycle – now she produces 2,600, including lettuce, cucumbers, spinach, and herbs in two greenhouses fed by a makeshift system using gutter pipes from the roof.
Lesley Lang, a restaurant owner who buys Mukarati’s produce twice a week, said she had “the best lettuce I have ever had the pleasure of buying in Zimbabwe”.
Mukarati hopes to quadruple production from June by constructing bigger greenhouses on 2,600 square meters of land on the outskirts of Harare.
Last year, she began training others to do the same, designing a hydroponic “starter pack” which she sells for US$200. – Reuters
Lead Photo: New ways … A worker tends to plants at Venensia Mukarati’s hydroponic garden in Harare (REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo)
Scottish Response To Global Food Security Profiled At UAE Summit
REPRESENTING IGS, the Scottish-based agritech business, CEO David Farquhar traveled to Abu Dhabi this week to attend the prestigious invitation-only 2020 Milken Institute Middle East and Africa (MEA) Summit
14th February 2020
David Farquhar, CEO IGS
REPRESENTING IGS, the Scottish-based agritech business, CEO David Farquhar traveled to Abu Dhabi this week to attend the prestigious invitation-only 2020 Milken Institute Middle East and Africa (MEA) Summit.
IGS supplies highly sophisticated plug-and-play vertical growing technology to indoor farms to enable the efficient production of food in any location around the world. The innovative Total Controlled Environment technology is capable of delivering yields of 225% and labor savings of up to 80% compared to glasshouse production, and energy savings of 50% in comparison to other indoor growing environments.
David was one of more than 100 speakers at the event and joined a panel of experts for a session focusing on how global food producers can scale up supply to ensure we can sustain the projected global population of 9 billion by 2050. David highlighted the potential of vertical farming, as well as the challenges still faced by the sector and the importance of increasing its credibility as we seek to help seriously address food sustainability and security.
During the event, he spoke alongside guests including United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Food Security Her Excellency Mariam Al-Muhairi, Chairman and CEO of Fresh Del Monte Produce, Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, and His Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, Founder and CEO of KBW Ventures.
David commented: “It was an honour to receive the invitation to attend this remarkable summit and to represent Scottish innovation on a global stage, where such vital discussions are taking place. It is no secret that the global population is rising at an unprecedented rate and our ability to grow healthy food reliably under mounting pressure. It is vital that we act now to ensure that we are putting systems in place and adapt our behaviours to develop a sustainable route forward.
“This was a hugely exciting opportunity for IGS to join some of the most influential people in the world to profile our platform and met other people with bright ideas. It is essential that we talk honestly about the role of technology in agricultural development and the opportunities provided by vertical farming to exist alongside traditional agriculture for future generations.”
The annual summit is now in its third year and brought together a carefully curated group of more than 1,000 interdisciplinary thought leaders and decision-makers to address global topics including food security, trade, capital markets, financial inclusion, job creation, gender parity and more.
Let's Have The Conversation That Needs To Be Had
Why is there a growing perception that something is fundamentally wrong with our food system?
Eating together is a pleasure to be celebrated. No wonder #food is one of the most popular hashtags in social media. But the reality of how food gets on to our plates is quite a different matter.
Yes, There Really Is An Arugula Shortage
Unexpectedly wet weather and a serious fungal infection have disrupted the rocket supply chain. Thanks to climate change, we can expect more volatility in the future
Unexpectedly wet weather and a serious fungal infection have disrupted the rocket supply chain. Thanks to climate change, we can expect more volatility in the future.
January 27th, 2020
by Jessica Fu
In any given week, the Bix Produce Company in Little Canada, Minnesota, ships between 1,600 and 2,000 pounds of arugula to restaurants and cafeterias throughout the Twin Cities region. Like most wholesalers, Bix sources its winter leafy greens from farms in the desert Southwest and Florida, where it’s warm enough to grow the produce at this time of year. The field-to-fridge journey typically takes around four days. But this week is not a typical week.
Right now, growers in the Southwest are suffering from a severe arugula shortage, brought on by an unexpectedly colder and wet winter growing season. The conditions have paved the way for the spread of a fungal disease called downy mildew. Simultaneously, growers in Florida—which supply a smaller portion of winter greens than the Southwest—are holding clients to strict buying limits, Eric Reitz, a buyer for Bix, tells me. That means distributors can’t make up the difference by going to another supplier: “There’s just not enough volume to cover it.”
You may have been tipped off about arugula’s woes while grocery shopping or ordering lunch. A number of restaurants have announced that they’ve started to substitute spinach in its place because of low supplies. One reporter shared on Twitter a photo of an arugula pizza they’d ordered, which contained no more than a pitiful pinch of “half-leaves.” I began to suspect that there might be some kind of deficit two weeks ago at Trader Joe’s after my cashier commented offhandedly that arugula hadn’t appeared in the retailer’s inventory tracking system for a few days.
“In Florida, we shouldn’t be having any rain right now, it’s considered the dry season.”
For Del Bene, a produce wholesaler serving the Detroit region, the shortage has been an issue since the beginning of 2020. Vice president Mike Del Bene tells me it’s the most intense arugula shortage the company has experienced in nearly 30 years. (Keep in mind, he noted, arugula wasn’t nearly as popular three decades ago.)
“We definitely haven’t been harvesting much the last couple of weeks,” says Matt McGuire, chief agricultural officer of JV Smith, a vegetable farming company in Yuma, Arizona. “In the desert Southwest, we’re supposed to be dry. We usually don’t get rain much, even in the wintertime. But through a part of November and December, we were having storms dropping anywhere from a quarter to an inch of water every seven to 10 days.” And those were the exact conditions that welcomed in the downy mildew, which had been waiting in the weeds.
Once infected, arugula leaves become spotted with yellow lesions that can make them fall off and even kill an entire plant. As a pathogen, downy mildew spreads rapidly and can kneecap the yield of an entire field. Interestingly, the mildew is specific to arugula. “Cross infection does not take place,” says plant pathologist Steve Koike, formerly of the University of California Cooperative Extension. That means that the mildew pathogen spreading around Arizona’s arugula fields can’t transfer over to, say, spinach and lettuce, too. However, that also means that there’s no catch-all fungicide that can treat the issue either.
Representatives from three other growers in Arizona shared similar concerns about the impact that downy mildew has had on the recent arugula harvest. In an unfortunate coincidence exacerbating the shortage, producers in Florida, have had their share of harvesting woes due to wetter-than-usual weather, too.
“In Florida, we shouldn’t be having any rain right now, it’s considered the dry season,” says Eberhard Mueller, co-owner of Satur Farms, which sells packaged leafy green products. Heavier than normal rains in December have disrupted Mueller’s harvest; he tells me that his operation has encountered more and more moisture throughout his time in the business—something he suspects is related to climate change.
Bacteria and other molds can continue to flourish even after arugula has been packaged and shipped.
That falls in line with the deluge of weather-related ag difficulties that farmers have encountered in recent times. Just last year, farms in Minnesota and North Dakota experienced colder and wetter weather than usual, creating a sugar shortage that compelled the Department of Agriculture to raise import limits from Mexico. A few months earlier, flooding in the Midwest and the Great Plains submerged some of America’s most productive farmland underwater. In California, farmers are calling abnormal weather patterns the “new normal” and trying to adapt accordingly. And there’s no shortage of research linking rising temperatures with erratic and extreme weather events.
Chances are, the further away from Florida and the desert Southwest you are, the less likely you are to find arugula at the grocery store right now. For one, mildew-infected arugula is vulnerable to what is known as “secondary spoilage,” according to Trevor Suslow, an extension research specialist at the University of California, Davis. In essence, Suslow says that bacteria and other molds can continue to flourish even after arugula has been packaged and shipped. “Those things can grow even under refrigeration temperatures,” he explains. This means that infected arugula probably won’t survive the journey from Yuma to your local supermarket, at least not in a condition that you’d still like to eat.
Then there’s the issue of cost. As with most retail products, a drop in arugula supply causes prices to rise, explains Teressa Lopez, administrator of the Arizona Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement. Consequently, some cost-averse retailers might simply opt-out of buying rocket salad until the market stabilizes. Most growers I spoke with estimated that the arugula harvest would gradually return to “normal” in the next few weeks, though none were specific about timing—and understandably so.
Right now, all companies like Bix and Del Bene can do is keep customers in the know about the shortage, and hope that it lets up soon. As Reitz of Bix says: “It’s been a bumpy ride.”
ENVIRONMENT, HOME FEATURE ARUGULA CLIMATE CHANGE SHORTAGE SUPPLY CHAIN
Jessica is a reporter for The New Food Economy. Reach her by email at jessica.fu@newfoodeconomy.org and on Twitter @JessTiaFu.
US (PA): Hydroponic Farm Provides Hunger Relief
The pilot farm, which is now in production, is growing leafy greens, herbs, and microgreens
First Light Project announced the opening of their pilot for a hydroponic vertical farm located at the W. Berks Street warehouse location of the Delaware Valley’s largest hunger-relief organization, Philabundance.
The pilot farm, which is now in production, is growing leafy greens, herbs, and microgreens. These greens are grown using hydroponic technology in a 5-tier vertical racking system that supplies nutrient-rich water to the plant’s roots. High efficiency LED lights mimic optimal sunlight conditions up to 18 hours a day.
The 312 sq.ft. Pilot Farm is the precursor for First Light Project’s full-scale indoor hydroponic farm. The pilot farm is growing:
9 varieties of lettuce
2 varieties of Arugula
Varieties of Mustard Greens, Asian Greens, Kale and Swiss Chard
Genovese Basil
Mild & Spicy Microgreens
Crop cycles vary from 12-17 days for Microgreens, 31 days for lettuce and up to 45 days for Basil. Over the next 6 months, the pilot will grow continuous small batches of leafy greens, microgreens, and herbs to test for growth rate, yield, flavor and visual appeal. This testing enables First Light Project Farm to determine which optimal attributes of taste, size, and texture appeal to the customer base.
The host for the farm pilot is Philabundance who serves 90,000 people each week, 30 percent of whom are children and 16 percent of whom are seniors. A portion of the food grown by First Light Project Farm will be available to the community through Philabundance and its network of 400 member organizations. First Light Project Farm is one of a number of innovative community partners working with Philabundance to end hunger for good.
For more information:
First Light Project
Lois Davidson, Co-Managing Director
ldavidson@firstlightproject.org
www.firstlightproject.org
Publication date: Fri 24 Jan 2020
Entrepreneurs And Government Are Teaming Up to Boost Food Security in The United Arab Emirates — And Beyond
Tucked away in Masdar City, a quiet planned neighborhood in the emirate of Abu Dhabi that combines earth-tone Arabic architecture with wind turbines and other innovative technology is a cluster of container-style buildings
Tucked away in Masdar City, a quiet planned neighborhood in the emirate of Abu Dhabi that combines earth-tone Arabic architecture with wind turbines and other innovative technology is a cluster of container-style buildings.
These containers are the site of Madar Farms, co-founded by Abdulaziz Al Mulla, a Kuwaiti entrepreneur based in the United Arab Emirates. Al Mulla began getting interested in food security while at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., where he worked with several of the region’s governments addressing a variety of national risk challenges. He left McKinsey after one particular project introduced him to the national security threats food and water challenges will bring to the region. He decided he wanted to do something about it, and ended up purchasing old shipping containers and transforming them into these indoor farms as a way to increase local food production. Today lettuce, basil, kale, and other leafy greens grow without soil in trays that sit under red and blue LED lights, stacked in levels much like floors in a building.
"I was overwhelmed by the numbers: less than 5 percent of land in the Arabian Gulf is arable farmland (PDF). Despite this, over 80 percent of water use in our drier climate is used for agriculture. If we keep going at the same pace, we will deplete a significant amount of our natural resources in the next 50 years," says Al Mulla. "This didn’t make sense to me, and I knew there had to be a better way. A week after this project, I resigned and began Madar Farms."
This approach to indoor agriculture, known as vertical farming, has been gaining popularity in many parts of the world — the business consulting firm Grand View Research, Inc., estimates the global market will reach $9.96 billion by 2025 — but is still an emerging concept in the Middle East. Madar Farms — along with many other innovations attempting to lead to sustainable agriculture in the region — represents the humble beginnings of a new bid the UAE is taking on to end food shortage globally.
With increasing uncertainty around food production in the face of climate change and global political instability, the Middle Eastern country is looking to take on more of its own food production.
Homegrown
Although the UAE currently is not short on food, its harsh climate and limited supplies of water and arable land offer little opportunity for agriculture, and over 80 percent of its food is imported. With increasing uncertainty around food production in the face of climate change and global political instability, the Middle Eastern country is looking to take on more of its own food production.
In November 2018, UAE minister for food security Mariam Al Mheiri launched a national food security strategy that aims to implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production. This primarily involves increasing investment in research and development of agriculture technologies and facilitating a market that supports agribusinesses.
Hina Kamal, a UAE-based food and nutrition researcher at United Arab Emirates University, explains that much of the focus is on boosting the use of agricultural technology required in both indoor and outdoor farming to increase homegrown produce. Kamal has been studying which produce is best suited for growth in UAE’s climate.
While Madar Farms is one of the first companies capitalizing on this interest, it isn’t the only one catching onto the trend. A growing number of companies, including more traditional outdoor farms, see similar opportunities.
Fruit farms in Abu Dhabi, UAE’s oil-rich capital, and Ras Al Khaimah, another emirate, for example, already have started testing and implementing drones to map farming areas that supply farmers as well as farming researchers with images, from bird’s-eye views of the fields to up-close images of individual plants. According to Fatima Al Hantoubi, head of environmental protection and natural reserves at Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality, a few organic farms in Ras Al Khaimah have started using sensors and artificial intelligence to improve seed selection, determine the amount of fertilizer needed for specific crops in specific soils and detect early signs of diseases.
In the Khor Fakkan area, meanwhile, the Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment has installed artificial caves in the Persian Gulf. The hope is to further contribute to food security by boosting fish stocks and promote sustainable fish farming.
Al Hantoubi explains that the caves were built out of eco-friendly materials and then placed along a stretch of the coast using cranes.
The initiative also includes the establishment of coral gardens over 9,100 square feet along the coast to help rehabilitate natural marine ecosystems in the area and to promote research and studies in marine biodiversity, which also will enhance the fisheries stock.
Food waste
While Al Mulla and others are using agriculture technology to boost food security, other approaches are also helping the UAE become self-reliant with respect to food.
Among them are efforts to address the issue of food waste. On average, each UAE resident wastes an estimated 434 pounds of food per year. Over 30 percent of that waste happens in restaurants, and another 30 percent is leftovers that get thrown out after family and corporate celebrations.
One of the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment’s newest projects is encouraging the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in kitchens, particularly in hotels and restaurants, to track food waste and guide kitchens on how to minimize it.
Over 100 of the biggest kitchens in the country, including major hotel groups such as Emaar and Majid Al Futtaim, already use AI to reduce food waste.
Huzaifa Waheed, an entrepreneur and a developer for food-waste-tracking software that is to hit the market soon, says that the main reason this technology can prove to be effective is because it is offering businesses a major cost-saving incentive. "And it helps the government meet its sustainability targets, making it a win-win," he adds.
Over 100 of the biggest kitchens in the country, including major hotel groups such as Emaar and Majid Al Futtaim, already use AI to reduce food waste.
The computer vision-based product, launched in the UAE by the government and made by a food tech company called Winnow, uses a camera that sits over the kitchen’s bin to take pictures before and after food is thrown away. It then runs a classification algorithm to identify the discarded food, as well as its weight and cost. That information can be used to identify and address specific sources of food waste, such as spillage or preparation techniques.
The AI program was launched as a proof-of-concept project in 2018. Through this program, the government is encouraging UAE’s lavish hospitality sector to save the equivalent of 2 million meals’ worth of wasted food in 2019 and 3 million in 2020, thanks to better decision making based on data. Several significant public and private entities in the UAE, including Dubai Municipality, Etihad Airways and Hilton Hotels, already have pledged to incorporate the program in their operations.
International cuisines
An issue that the UAE has yet to tackle is how to accommodate the discerning palate for international cuisines in a country that is home to over 200 nationalities and that has a high per capita consumption of staples such as rice, which require acres of tropical land to flourish.
Government bodies, research institutions and commercial ventures need to work together to address the issues of research, technology, human capital and other factors that arise.
"The major emphasis must be in increasing local production by focusing on targeted major staple foods and enhanced efficiency in the agriculture sector through constant investments in agricultural research and development for modern farming techniques," Kamal says.
What this means is that in order to most effectively become self-reliant, the UAE needs to have an accurate sense of what food needs to be grown and how to do it at competitive prices.
According to Kamal, a more "holistic food security" is the only way UAE can proceed toward this goal. Government bodies, research institutions, and commercial ventures, Kamal adds, need to work together to address the issues of research, technology, human capital and other factors that arise through the process.
"And perhaps not keep a specific year as the end-all target that has to be reached because it is not a realistic way to conduct research and development — at least not in a sustainable way," Kamal says.
Overall, while the UAE’s efforts to tackle its food dependence can boost food security in the region and diversify its economy, the success of its strategies will depend on how it tackles the many challenges in a sustainable way.
Editor’s note: Rabiya Jaffery wrote this story as a participant in the Ensia Mentor Program. The mentor for the project was Rachel Cernansky.
Topics: Food & Agriculture Cities
Tags: Food & Agriculture Food Waste Artificial Intelligence
GHANA: Create A Conducive Environment For Your Kids—As IGrow Urges Parents
It’s widely perceived across the globe that the future of a country lies in kids or even the unborn babies, as such As I Grow, a non-governmental organization known for its commendable works in the rural areas of Ghana has urged parents to prioritize the creation of a conducive environment for their kids
01.12.2019
By Raphael Nyame
It’s widely perceived across the globe that the future of a country lies in kids or even the unborn babies, as such As I Grow, a non-governmental organization known for its commendable works in the rural areas of Ghana has urged parents to prioritize the creation of a conducive environment for their kids.
The organization is of the strong opinion that the creation of a conducive environment for our future leaders [children] can unlock their hidden potentials and also bring out the best in them both at school and their various homes.
Speaking with the media at donation exercise, undertaken by the organization at the Larteh Salvation Army Primary School in the Eastern region of Ghana, Ms. Opoku, a member of the organization encouraged school children to make the most out of the education they are currently receiving from their teachers even though “As I Grow” is always fighting to provide them with all the basic things they need at their various school to enhance the acquisition of knowledge.
Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac, Chief Executive Officer of the organization appealed to the government to prioritize the establishment of ICT labs, libraries and other basic facilities at the Junior high schools especially schools at the rural areas.
He, however, encouraged NGOs and other stakeholders in education to join their campaign in developing these kids for a better and brighter future.
Meanwhile in attendance of the colorful event were Mr. Agyei Obeng, a field team member, Mr. Osei Bonsie, member of the organization and Mr. Afrani Isaac, the transport officer of the organization.
Items donated at the Larteh Salvation Army Primary school
White marker boards
Exercise books
Pens, pencils & erasers
Modern desks (to basic 2)
Office chair for the headteacher
Manila cards
Whiteboard markers
Buckets, sharpener and set of drums
Past projects
In the past years, the organisation has been involved in educational development projects geared towards helping children in the basic and primary schools.
In November 2018, the organisation aided Larteh Salvation Army Primary school in the renovation of its kindergarten block as a means of support to the children.
Early this year [2019] the organisation organized a workshop for all the BECE candidates in Larteh to help them in the core subject area on how to answer questions during their examination.
US: Texas - Vertical Farming Technique Growing At A&M
TAMU Urban Farm United is a concept organization with the intent of introducing vertical farming to A&M’s campus and the local community
By Luis Sanchez @LuisSanchezBatt
November 12, 2019
TAMU Urban Farm United is a concept organization with the intent of introducing vertical farming to A&M’s campus and the local community.
An Aggie Green Fund major grant project, TUFU is overseen by capstone students from various majors who grow the crops to provide food for locals. The group will be hosting an open house on Friday at 530 Floriculture Rd. from noon to 7 p.m.
TUFU was co-founded by Broch Saxton, plant and environmental soil science senior, and Lisette Templin, instructional assistant professor in health and kinesiology. Saxton, who serves as a student coordinator, said that it only made sense for A&M to develop methods of vertical farming, with such a historical background in agriculture; although originally Saxton envisioned using a hydroponic system, where the roots of plants would sit in water.
“In my interest, I see that it is not here, hydroponics isn’t here,” Saxton said. “So I was thinking to myself, ‘Why is it that this huge agriculture monster of an entity isn’t taking a step towards this specific agriculture field of interest?’”
Saxton said he and Templin both wanted to bring their respective expertise in order to help others in this innovative manner. It wasn’t until the two put their ideas together that they were able to commence with the building of the vertical farming towers.
“[Templin] had the tower garden idea,” Saxton said. “I came there thinking, ‘I want to get some help launching some sort of hydroponic system,’ and it turned into, ‘Okay, she has a similar idea that I do.’”
Saxton said he and Templi applied for a grant from the Aggie Green Fund. The application was submitted in 2018, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2019 that they could start working. According to the Aggie Green Fund website, the TUFU project was awarded $59,566 in the spring of 2019.
Templin said the project worked with The 12th Can, a food pantry for A&M students, faculty and staff, to provide a fresh and local food source with the first harvest on Nov. 7.
“This is the first time that The 12th Can has received fresh, locally grown, living food, that [has] not been sprayed with a chemical product,” Templin said.
Templin said the towers used for the vertical farming are based on an aeroponic system, an environment of air rather than soil for the plants. She said the tower system feeds the plants via mimic rain, and since each tower is isolated, contamination does not spread among them.
“The aeroponic system means that the roots are in a [cylindrical] tower base, where the roots are exposed to air,” Templin said. “There’s a pump that pumps the [mineral] water upward, and then the water trickles down like rain. And [that] feeds the roots with minerals and nutrients.”
Templin said the shape of the tower not only conserves space but is able to cycle the water as needed. Templin said the system also brings a 30 percent higher yield when compared to traditional alternatives.
“It uses 90 percent less water because there’s no evaporation,” Templin said “The only loss of water is through root absorption. It uses 90 percent less land because, per tower, we can grow forty-four heads of lettuce in about four square feet of space. [And] we don’t get earth-borne pests.”
Stephon Warren, plant breeding graduate student, is a member of TUFU and said the organization is trying to expand in any way possible. Warren said alongside forming business relationships, TUFU is looking to educate more students about the project.
Saxton said although he would be graduating soon, he was confident the project will grow and make connections in the academic and market settings. Saxton said too much effort has already been put into the project, and he only sees it growing in the future.
“We already have too much university involvement, student involvement and time invested from partners that we have accumulated,” Saxton said. “The interest is there and this is going to keep going when I’m gone.”
How Indoor Ag Is Growing A Resilient Food Revolution
We're at a pivotal moment in an important trend for sustainable food systems: the emergence of sustainably grown food in urban environments. As the growth and maturity of these operations continue, they could play a critical role in food security amid a changing climate as well as the continuing shift in global trade patterns
November 12, 2019
We're at a pivotal moment in an important trend for sustainable food systems: the emergence of sustainably grown food in urban environments. As the growth and maturity of these operations continue, they could play a critical role in food security amid a changing climate as well as the continuing shift in global trade patterns.
They also could be key in eliminating food deserts, neighborhoods that lack a supermarket selling produce, serviced only by convenience stores that stock nutrient-poor packaged foods and beverages.
A great deal of the technology that enables indoor growing was developed and honed over the past two decades by cannabis farmers, who learned how to grow plants at scale in confined (and usually hidden) spaces. They use controlled-environment agriculture, including hydroponics — growing plants without soil — a technology as ancient as the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon thought to be the first example of soilless gardening.
Today, such technologies are used on the International Space Station to study plant growth outside the Earth’s atmosphere and how best to supply food and oxygen for future colonization missions to Mars and beyond.
Growing leafy greens, specialty herbs, tomatoes and other produce indoors using hydroponics consumes up to 95 percent less water than growing them outdoors and uses fewer pesticides.
Even on Spaceship Earth, such technologies make a lot of sense. Growing leafy greens, specialty herbs, tomatoes and other produce indoors using hydroponics consumes up to 95 percent less water than growing them outdoors and uses fewer pesticides — sometimes none at all. Hydroponics has long been central to the Dutch and Japanese food systems, but the relatively cheap cost of land and water in the United States, combined with the costly energy intensity of lighting, made hydroponics too expensive for growing anything but high-value cash crops (such as cannabis).
That’s changing. Today, there is the new breed of indoor ag companies sprouting up all over, many using tricked-out shipping containers, LED lighting and a simple continuous-flow watering system. Environmental controls ensure that temperature, airflow, carbon dioxide, and humidity levels remain optimized.
In the East Ward neighborhood of Ironbound in Newark, New Jersey, for example, AeroFarms built the world’s largest vertical farm using aeroponics, in which racks of crops are grown indoors using neither soil nor water. Most of the seed money for the operation came from Goldman Sachs’s Urban Investment Group.
AeroFarms' 69,000-square-foot facility, in a former steel factory, can grow 2 million pounds of leafy greens annually, all without using a speck of dirt or a ray of sunlight. The company says the same seed that would take 30 to 45 days to grow in the field can grow in 12 to 16 days indoors, enabling up to 30 crop turns a year.
Rising tide
Operations such as AeroFarms are a perfect example of the need for a distributed network that can provide security and resilience in the face of societal shocks — in particular, extreme weather events.
Case in point: Most of the food that finds its way into New York City — cabbage from New York, oranges from California, blueberries from Chile, bell peppers from the Netherlands, beef from Australia, fish from Nova Scotia — passes through a single facility: the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center in the South Bronx. Opened in 1967, and home to 8,500 workers at 115 companies, it is the largest food market in the United States, feeding more than 23 million people throughout the region.
The million-square-foot facility is not just critically important, but also vulnerable. It sits on a peninsula with the East River on two sides and the Bronx River on the third and is subject to storm surge during high tides.
If Hurricane Sandy had hit 12 hours earlier, during high tide, the food supply for all five boroughs would have been disrupted.
In fact, if Hurricane Sandy had hit 12 hours earlier, during high tide, Hunts Point would have been flooded, the facility would have lost power and the food supply for all five boroughs would have been disrupted. As a result, AeroFarms offers an additional route to bring food into New York — food produced locally, indoors, year-round — enabling the region's food supply chain to be more adaptive to challenging circumstances.
It’s important to note that few of these operations rely on federal dollars or subsidies to grow their businesses. (As Haggerty notes, the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill allotted $10 million annually to develop an Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production at the U.S. Agriculture Department, a pittance but a start. Among other things, it requires the ag secretary to conduct a census of urban, indoor and other emerging agricultural production sites). Indeed, when it comes to creating the new menu for how America grows and consumes food, Uncle Sam is largely absent from the table.
Instead, these companies were built by innovators and entrepreneurs chasing market opportunities, helped along by nonprofit and for-profit incubators, food aggregation and distribution centers catering to smaller operators, and local tax breaks for landowners who lend or lease their property to urban farmers.
And, of course, a healthy appetite for locally produced food that will only continue to grow.
For more on these topics, I invite you to follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my Monday morning newsletter, GreenBuzz, and listen to GreenBiz 350, my weekly podcast.
Topics: Food & Agriculture Climate Change Cities Risk & Resilience
Report: Sea Level Rise To Affect 3x More People Than Anticipated
Rising sea levels will severely impact nearly triple the number of people previously estimated to be affected, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications and co-authored by the CEO of Climate Central
AUTHOR: Katie Pyzyk@_PyintheSky
October 31, 2019
Dive Brief:
Rising sea levels will severely impact nearly triple the number of people previously estimated to be affected, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications and co-authored by the CEO of Climate Central. The data suggests coastal flooding (at least once per year) will reach levels where 300 million people currently live, and more than 150 million people live in locations that could be permanently inundated by 2050.
Climate Central's interactive map that accompanies the study shows old projections compared with the expanded risk areas. The map indicates that whole cities could be inundated; in the United States, for example, most of New Orleans and large portions of New York are among the numerous communities shown to be underwater or prone to frequent, severe flooding by 2050.
The areas of most concern are concentrated in developing countries in Asia. More than 70% of the world's population currently living on implicated land are in just eight Asian countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, the increased flood risk touches every continent.
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Coastal communities worldwide must prepare for more difficult times than previously anticipated, according to the study. Cities with dense populations like New York and Mumbai are projected to experience serious flooding impacts if no actions are taken to prevent the negative consequences. Flooding effects are projected to be widespread, but major global cities could experience particularly harsh consequences that carry to other areas.
Jakarta, Indonesia, is a city projected to face large swaths of permanent inundation. The city has long been known to be sinking, in part due to land management decisions, exacerbating flooding caused by rising sea levels. The Indonesian president announced this year that the multi-island nation's capital would move from Jakarta to a new location on the island of Borneo. Moving an entire governmental hub to an area known for its beaches and rainforests undoubtedly will turn out to be no small feat.
Coastal flooding reportedly will have profound economic and political implications for the affected countries, which could have a ripple effect on other countries. The expense of relocating people away from rising waters — such as the Jakarta case, or otherwise — is incredibly expensive both for citizens and governments. New infrastructures must be built and others reinforced to support an influx of citizens moving to a new area in a short amount of time.
Besides everyday infrastructure such as transportation, utilities or buildings, coastal cities will need to reconsider the integrity of their flood prevention infrastructure. The study suggests that levees, seawalls and other preventative measures already in place will need to be expanded to cover more territory as sea levels rise. In addition, existing coastal infrastructure likely will not protect against the enhanced threats without continued maintenance and upgrades.
"[E]ven in the US, sea-level rise this century may induce large-scale migration away from unprotected coastlines, redistributing population density across the country and putting great pressure on inland areas," the study says.
Beyond the raw expense of moving populations away from a coast, the study warns against social and political instability. Historically, conflict erupts in areas that experience a large-scale migration, especially in resource-constrained areas. The study recommends further research should be performed on the timing, locations, and intensity of global migrations related to flooding.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia
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BREAKING NEWS: Listeria Risk Leads To Vegetable Recall In U.S. and Canada
Mann Packing Co. Inc. announced the voluntary recall of a series of vegetable products sold to select retailers in the United States and Canada
November 04, 2019
Mann Packing Co. Inc. announced the voluntary recall of a series of vegetable products sold to select retailers in the United States and Canada. The voluntary recall is a response to a notification by the Food & Drug Administration and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency of potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes. To date, public health officials have not reported any illness associated with these products.
The recalled products have “Best If Enjoyed By” date of Oct. 11 to Nov. 16. The full list of products and all corresponding product images are available here and here.
Mann Packing is issuing this recall out of an abundance of caution. Listeria monocytogenes is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women. Mann Packing will continue to work closely with the authorities to investigate the issue.
‘We Really Need To Wake Up Quickly’: Al Gore Warns of A Looming Food Crisis Caused By Climate Change
Some 40 panelists, most of them farmers and scientists, took the stage to discuss topics from healthy soil to carbon sequestration, but the main event was Gore’s slide show, delivered with his characteristic mix of bravado and humility, detailing the impacts of climate change on food systems worldwide
Former vice president Al Gore backstage at the Time 100 Health Summit in New York in October. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images For Time 100 Health)
By Amanda Little
Oct. 22, 2019
CARTHAGE, Tenn. — “I’ve done so many presentations I just never get nervous anymore, but I was nervous before this one — so much new material,” Al Gore said last week as he launched into the latest iteration of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the slide show that won him an Oscar, a Nobel Prize and a Grammy. Gore had invited 300 guests — chefs, farmers, food executives, and activists — to “The Climate Underground,” a two-day conference last week at his family farm here that explored the intersection of food, climate change and sustainable agriculture.
Some 40 panelists, most of them farmers and scientists, took the stage to discuss topics from healthy soil to carbon sequestration, but the main event was Gore’s slide show, delivered with his characteristic mix of bravado and humility, detailing the impacts of climate change on food systems worldwide.
Will technology or tradition save the global food supply? Why not both?
“This is in Georgia; a heatwave cooked these apples before they could be harvested,” he said, issuing forth rapid-fire examples alongside bone-chilling images and video. “This is the Australia wine region that’s going to be untenable. . . . Rice yields in 80 percent of Japan have declined due to the rising temperatures. . . . In nearby Murfreesboro, Tenn., we’ll see a quarter decline in soybean yields within the next 30 years.”
Gore spent the better part of 90 minutes detailing the pressures of drought, heat, flooding, superstorms, “rain bombs,” invasive insects, fungi and bacterial blight on food producers. “We may be approaching a threshold beyond which the agriculture that we’ve always known cannot support human civilization as we know it,” he declared in a low growl. “That’s something we need to avoid.”
Alice Waters, who Gore said catalyzed his interest in food and who had volunteered to cook the vegetarian lunches served to attendees (using local, seasonal and organic ingredients, natch), said the presentation was bittersweet: “I am deeply depressed. But on the other hand, the solution seems so, so unbelievably transformational. . . . We can restore the health of the planet while also restoring the health of people and communities.”
Naomi Starkman, editor-in-chief of Civil Eats, which covers news on sustainable agriculture, was similarly fraught: “Gore spoke with such devastating and fierce clarity, connecting the dots between the ways agriculture is implicated in and impacted by the climate crisis. But it also felt like a hopeful moment wherein agriculture, and farmers in particular, are taking a front-and-central place in solving one of the most urgent issues of our time.”
Mark Bittman, the former New York Times food columnist, was more circumspect: “There are ways in which the conversation here isn’t quite realistic. Regenerative agriculture is not about increased yield, it’s about producing more of the right food in the right ways. ... But kudos to Al Gore for taking it on. There’s no more important conversation to have.”
I sat down with the former vice president to dive deeper into the details. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow:
Q: The main way most humans will experience climate change is through its impact on food: Is this a fair statement?
A: Ever since 2015, it’s been clear that the impact on the food system was underestimated in previous years. And there is a natural resistance that many of us have had to getting too concerned about the food system. Food insecurity had been declining steadily for the last couple of decades, just as extreme poverty had been declining. But in the last couple of years, that too has changed, and the principal reason is the climate crisis.
Africa, by mid-century, will have more people than either China or India. And by end of century, more people than China and India combined. And you combine that with the impact of the climate crisis on subsistence agriculture in Africa, the importance of subsistence agriculture in Africa, the poor quality of the soils, the persistent problems of land tenure, and the economic and social structures that discourage good stewardship of the land, then, wow. We really need to wake up quickly to the serious crisis that could develop there.
We have no idea yet how to feed the planet without frying it
Q: What are the most crucial policy measures that need to be taken to encourage regenerative farming in the U.S. and climate-smart agriculture broadly?
A: We need leadership to completely refocus USDA to completely change the system of farm subsidies to stop the massive subsidies for crops that are not eaten by people, that go to biofuels, that go to animal feed. We should eventually work our way toward a system for compensating farmers for the buildup of soil carbon. That’s not possible yet, partly because we are still developing a measurement of soil carbon buildup that is necessary for the confidence of policymakers and voters that this is not some boondoggle. But eventually, that’s where we need to be.
Q: On one hand you have Bill Gates saying, “The time has come to reinvent food,” and on the other you have Alice Waters and others saying, “Let’s de-invent food, let’s go back to preindustrial agriculture,” essentially. What do you think the role of tech should be?
Alice Waters, at The Washington Post in 2017, has advocated for a return to traditional farming. (Kristoffer Tripplaar/For The Washington Post)
A: We want a single, magic answer that’s going to solve a big, complicated problem, and I think that in agriculture and food and climate, these systemic approaches are usually more likely to be successful. But technology and science has an important role to play. Measuring soil carbon is one. That team at the Salk Institute has a really interesting proposal to modify roots to sequester more suberin, a form of carbon that stays in the soil for a long time. If their hypothesis is correct, the root structures of food plants can be made much more robust in a way that simultaneously sequesters more organic carbon and increases yields. So that’s technology that is worth exploring and evaluating.
In general, the solutions in agriculture are more to be found in going back to some traditional approaches that worked but were discarded because of the pressure for short-term profit maximization. And that includes crop rotation. It includes cover crops to put key chemicals and nutrients back in the soil after it’s been used for a particular cash crop. It includes rotational grazing, which is not without controversy but has been proven to work, at least on farms of this scale.
Climate change is sapping nutrients from our food — and it could become a global crisis
Q: What role must consumers play in the shift toward sustainable food systems and climate resilience?
A: There’s a danger in focusing on consumer behavior. There’s a danger of giving the impression that the solutions to the climate crisis have to be shouldered by women and men who care enough about it to change their personal choices. They do. But as important as it is to change a lightbulb, it is way more important to change policies. And in order to change policies, we have to have new policymakers. So the most important role that individuals can play is in taking their concern and passion for a better world into the voting booth and turning out in large numbers to overcome the dominance of our political system by big money.
Q: Some permaculture and regenerative farmers that I met with have said that it’s more expensive to farm this way. They can’t afford their own products. How do we address that?
A: I don’t want to deny the premise of your question, but some regenerative farmers have saved a lot of money on their input costs. Now, how do we develop markets for healthier, organic, regenerative-agriculture food? That’s one of the reasons we’re incorporating efforts to get school systems and hospitals and nursing homes and long-term care facilities to provide markets for healthier food.
Q: Still, there are real concerns from middle- and low-income consumers that this is an elitist movement.
Solar panels on a home in Maryland in 2016. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post)
A: It hasn’t been very many years since solar panels were considered an elitist movement. And you heard exactly the same critique. “For those who can afford them, that’s fine. But don’t tell me that’s going to be a significant development, because only the wealthy elite are doing it.” Well, that’s not true anymore, because that was the beginning of a movement that drove scale and accelerated the cost reduction curve. And now you’ve got people putting rooftop solar on and community solar, and it is really taking off dramatically. But it started as an elitist movement. The same thing is beginning to be true of electric vehicles. If we can democratize and widely distribute the soil carbon assessment technologies, I don’t think it’s that hard to imagine technology driving the cost down to the point where this can spread more rapidly.
Q: The agriculture industry is so interesting because it is a major driver of the climate problem, but it is also more vulnerable than any other industry to the pressures of climate change.
A: Many pioneers of regenerative agriculture are finding that their farms are more resilient to drought and flood and extreme weather than with the older established farming techniques. Building the health of the soil does not mean just more organic carbon. It also means building the ability of the soil to absorb the higher rainfall events and to withstand drought events more effectively.
Q: One scientist said to me the most delicious fruits are dying because the specialist crops, the ones that we love the most, are hardest to adapt to new circumstances. Of all the crops that are most vulnerable, which would be the hardest for you to live without?
A: Chocolate. Cacao. Absolutely.
Little is author of “The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World” (Harmony, 2019).
95% of Tested Baby Foods In The US Contain Toxic Metals, Report Says
One in five baby foods tested had over 10 times the 1-ppb limit of lead endorsed by public health advocates, although experts agree that no level of lead is safe
By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
October 17, 2019
CNN)Toxic heavy metals damaging to your baby's brain development are likely in the baby food you are feeding your infant, according to a new investigation published Thursday.
Tests of 168 baby foods from major manufacturers in the US found 95% contained lead, 73% contained arsenic, 75% contained cadmium and 32% contained mercury. One-fourth of the foods contained all four heavy metals.
One in five baby foods tested had over 10 times the 1-ppb limit of lead endorsed by public health advocates, although experts agree that no level of lead is safe.
The results mimicked a previous study by the Food and Drug Administration that found one or more of the same metals in 33 of 39
Read Full Article Here
The World Loses $400 Billion of Food Before It Reaches Stores
Some 14% of all food produced is lost annually, with central and southern Asia, North America and Europe accounting for the biggest shares, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report, citing the latest data as of 2016
October 14, 2019
About 14% of food supplies are lost each year: the United Nations
Food wastage causes unnecessary pressure on the environment: FAO
The world loses about $400 billion of food before it evengets delivered to stores, according to the United Nations.
Some 14% of all food produced is lost annually, with central and southern Asia, North America and Europe accounting for the biggest shares, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report, citing the latest data as of 2016. Better cold storage and infrastructure would help reduce losses, but more detailed data on the supply chain is needed to tackle the problem, it said.
Food wastage is drawing increased scrutiny because of the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and as more than 820 million people are estimated to go hungry each day. World leaders have pledged to try to halve global food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030 and reduce food production losses. Companies are also trying to improve efficiency in the food industry.
Perished Food
Share of food that's lost from post-harvest to distribution
“Losing food implies unnecessary pressure on the environment and the natural resources that have been used to produce it in the first place,” Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Rome-based FAO, said in the report. “It essentially means that land and water resources have been wasted, pollution created and greenhouse gases emitted to no purpose.”
Consumers also squander huge amounts. As much as 37% of animal products and potentially a fifth of fruit and vegetables may be wasted after being purchased, according to the FAO. Rich nations have higher levels of waste due to limited shelf life or poor consumer planning, while poorer countries typically grapple with climate and infrastructure issues.
Lost Produce
Share of produce lost from post-harvest to distribution
Reducing the world’s food losses and waste is a challenge because more information is needed in order to take effective action, the FAO said. Still, adequate cold storage, in particular, can be crucial, as well as good infrastructure and trade logistics. Boosting farm productivity through research and development has been found to be more cost-effective than curbing post-harvest losses, it said.
RELATED COVERAGE
High-Tech Indoor Farming Seen As Key To Fixing Dubai’s Food Supply
Desert terrain, extremely high temperatures, and limited rainfall have historically made agriculture unworkable in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — but thanks to new technology, companies in Dubai are finding ways to grow locally-sourced produce.
October 2, 2019
Desert terrain, extremely high temperatures, and limited rainfall have historically made agriculture unworkable in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — but thanks to new technology, companies in Dubai are finding ways to grow locally-sourced produce.
With temperatures in the desert city regularly exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in summer months, a massive 80% of Dubai’s food supply is imported. But the government is keen to reduce dependency on imported foods.
Badia Farms is one of several firms tapping into the demand for locally grown foods by developing an indoor farm in the city.
Using hydroponics, a growing technique that doesn’t require soil, the farm is successfully growing fruit and vegetables that are already being served in some of Dubai’s top restaurants.
Speaking to CNBC’s Dan Murphy, founder and CEO Omar Al Jundi explained that crops are moved along a production line in artificially optimized conditions.
“As they move along the production line they sprout and grow, (then) at the end we take them out and offer them to the market,” he said, adding that some plants can be grown and sent to a restaurant in as little as 30 days.
“Our region is agriculturally challenged,” Al Jundi added. “I really wanted to solve a problem and impact this region positively — and I want to inspire the rest of the region as well. We have a long list of issues and problems, we need to start tackling them.”
By confronting the UAE’s food supply problem, Badia Farms is also helping Dubai work toward its sustainability goals. By reducing the need for long-distance transport, Al Jundi’s indoor farm and others like it are reducing the carbon footprint of the food consumed in the city. Additionally, thanks to the technology being employed, Al Jundi’s said his facility uses 90% less water than open-field farms.
“We control the humidity, we control the temperature, we control the CO2,” he told CNBC. “We’ve got dehumidifiers to regulate the humidity… and each one produces 60 liters of water, so in the summer we were water positive for the first time.”
The farm’s annual crop yield is claimed to be much higher than that of a traditional farm.
“Depending on the crop (we can produce) between four to eight times (as much),” Al Jundi said. “For example, with lettuce, we could grow twelve cycles a year, compared to conventional farming which has four cycles a year.”
“Once we take care of all the leafy greens we want to go into vine crops — tomato, capsicum, chilies, melons — everything that could be grown within this type of controlled environment,” he added. “In the future, you’ll be able to grow all these crops anywhere in the world, pesticide-free, with minimal use of water and environmentally-friendly setups,” he said.
Magic Johnson Says This Hospital-Run Greenhouse Is Changing Health In N.J.
Basketball legends, greenhouses, and hospitals might not seem to have a lot in common, but Magic Johnson, this particular greenhouse, and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center sure do
September 27, 2019
Amanda Brown| For NJ Advance Media
Basketball legend and entrepreneur Magic Johnson (left) toured the greenhouse at Newark Beth Israel. Community Wellness Coordinator Lorraine Gibbons (right) shows him some of the crops they grow.
By Brianna Kudisch | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Long rows of fresh herbs and vegetables neatly line the enclosed and sunlit space, filling it with an earthy scent and an abundance of green. Tiny plants of basil peek out from their squares, string beans grow on winding vines on the left side of the entrance, and toward the back, a lone bright lemon hangs from its stem.
“Oh yeah, this is great,” Earvin “Magic” Johnson says to the greenhouse’s community wellness coordinator, gently touching the yellow fruit in admiration.
Basketball legends, greenhouses, and hospitals might not seem to have a lot in common, but Magic Johnson, this particular greenhouse, and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center sure do.
Johnson, 60, toured the hospital’s greenhouse—the only hospital to have one in New Jersey—Thursday afternoon, as part of the hospital’s health and wellness initiatives and partnership with Johnson’s own company, SodexoMAGIC. Both organizations are working to increase access to nutritious food and wellness in the city, along with educating people on healthy lifestyles.
Eighteen percent of Newark’s 72,000 children live in extreme poverty, compared to 7% of New Jersey children overall, the hospital said in a release. More than half of the children receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Essex County live in Newark, it also said.
Johnson and Darrell Terry, the hospital’s president and CEO, talked about the limited access those kids have to fresh fruits and vegetables while they’re growing up -- something they’re aiming to change now.
“You had the bodegas, but you didn’t have the access,” Terry said. “So we’re not only trying to educate about it, but provide the access. I was born in this hospital, and grew up not far from here, and you’re right, there was no supermarket, so you go to the bodega. You didn’t have these healthy options, so people chose what was convenient and cheap.”
“And you can see it, you can touch it, you can eat it,” Johnson added, referencing the hospital’s greenhouse and farmer’s market, a weekly program at the hospital that invites urban community farmers to sell their goods. “You know, I’ve been to a lot of hospitals, but I’ve never seen fresh produce right here and they can pick it up right here. That’s been amazing to see.”
Amanda Brown| For NJ Advance Media
Basketball legend and entrepreneur Magic Johnson (center) toured Newark Beth Israel along with President and CEO Darrell K. Terry (left). He took a look at their greenhouse and farmers' market and spoke to the employees. Amanda Brown| For NJ Advance Media
The Beth’s Greenhouse, which started in 2016, utilizes hydroponic growing, which grows plants in a water-based, nutrient-rich solution, instead of soil. About 100 pounds of food— cultivated and harvested at the greenhouse—is sold every week at the Farmer’s Market and donated to local food pantries.
Located in the hospital’s lobby every Thursday, the Farmer’s Market opened in 2011, as one of the hospital's first wellness initiatives. From Granny Smith apples and parsnips to butternut squash and microgreens, there was a variety of fresh produce at the most recent market.
And in October 2017, the hospital started accepting NJ SNAP benefits at both the greenhouse and the farmer’s market, allowing people to affordably purchase fruits and vegetables.
Newark Beth Israel is the first and only hospital-based vendor in New Jersey that allows people to use SNAP for its locally grown produce, it said. Proceeds from sales are reinvested in programming for health and wellness activities in the community, a release said.
But more than providing access to healthier foods and wellness programs, the hospital and Johnson said they want to educate on and encourage lifestyle changes. He stressed that practicing what he’s preaching is a crucial step in impacting the community.
“So I had my protein shake, I eat egg whites,” he said, “So my diet changed years ago, and so, now maybe to say (to someone else), ‘Hey, I’m doing it myself.’”
Last year, the hospital partnered with SodexoMAGIC to provide food services for both employees and patients. The company focuses on diversity and inclusion within the community, Terry said.
Amanda Brown| For NJ Advance Media
Basketball legend and entrepreneur Magic Johnson toured Newark Beth Israel, a RWJBarnabas Facility. He took a look at their greenhouse and farmers' market and spoke to the employees.
This week marked the first time the basketball hall of famer visited the hospital, and people were excited. Throngs of people closely surrounded Johnson as he moved through the hospital, their arms extended with their phones, in hopes of taking a selfie with the star, whose infectious smile was hard to miss.
Johnson graciously obliged, taking photos with as many people as possible, and greeting everyone individually, with a warm handshake and a sincere “How are you?”
In his concluding talk to a packed auditorium at the hospital, filled with enthusiastic doctors, nurses, staff, and community members, Johnson spoke of his childhood and his dreams growing up. The basketball player, who has lived with HIV since 1991, talked about the importance of healthy living and said Terry is doing “great things, out of the box things” at the hospital.
“This is a true community-based hospital, with its leader being born right here, and also having ties to the community,” Johnson said. “So I love it, I love being a part of something. It’s changing mindsets, attitudes, and now, your body.”
Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com.
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No Soil? No Problem. H2Grow Can Cultivate Crops Practically Anywhere
The project is part of H2Grow, an initiative that aims to solve hunger in arid regions and help vulnerable communities become more self-reliant by securing food resources. H2Grow currently sponsors seven projects around the globe, from refugee camps in Chad to desert slums in Peru
By Dyllan Furness September 23, 2019
Will Hawkins/Digital Trends
This article is part of The Food Fight: a series that explores how the UN World Food Programme is using technology to battle food scarcity and put an end to hunger by 2030.
Check out the rest of the articles here.
A lush, green mat of fresh animal fodder is an unlikely sight in the harsh Sahara Desert, but a project from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is helping crops flourish in unexpected places. Using purpose-built hydroponic systems, Sahrawi refugees in Western Algeria have been able to grow barley grass to feed their livestock, in turn increasing milk production and meat quality. By selling surplus fodder, the refugees have been able to earn additional income and buy goods once beyond their means. Some 150 units have been installed in the past few years, producing nearly 4,500 pounds of fodder per day.
The project is part of H2Grow, an initiative that aims to solve hunger in arid regions and help vulnerable communities become more self-reliant by securing food resources. H2Grow currently sponsors seven projects around the globe, from refugee camps in Chad to desert slums in Peru. With the help of agritech systems, the hope is that desert-dwelling communities may overcome food scarcity and gain resilience against some of the most immediate impacts of climate change.
Leaving dirt in the dust
The secret to H2Grow is hydroponics, a soil-free cultivation technique that uses up to 90% less water than traditional agriculture, according to Nina Schroeder, head of scale-up enablement at the WFP Innovation Accelerator. Better still, hydroponic agriculture doesn’t require lots of land or depend on seasons. As long as you have the right basic ingredients (seeds, water, light, and nutrients), crops can grow year-round.
Hydroponics is by no means a new concept, but most people are familiar with the technique in urban settings, as a way of growing crops indoors, with an eye toward large-scale cultivation in a limited space. These ventures tend to be high-tech and business-minded.
“What’s different about the way we do hydroponics is we take the technique and adapt it to the challenging conditions we work in
“What’s different about the way we do hydroponics is we take the technique and adapt it to the challenging conditions we work in,” Schroeder said. “We turn it into a localized, affordable, and simplified solution designed for people with no particular background [in agriculture], using only locally available materials.”
WFP
That poses a challenge for the H2Grow team. What’s local and affordable in Peru might not be local and affordable in Sudan, so WFP works with community partners to pinpoint and understand some of their most urgent problems.
H2Grow uses a common base system for each region and adapts the system from there. The result is a tailor-made hydroponic system that’s customized for the community it’s designed to serve. “There is no one size fits all,” said Schroeder.
Different strokes for different folks
In Chad, residents wanted to grow fodder to feed their livestock. Seeds for fodder such as barley grass contain sufficient nutrients to grow using only water and light. “Users just need to soak the seeds, add them to the hydroponic containers, make sure they receive adequate sunlight, and on day seven, it’s ready for harvest,” Schroeder said.
World Food Program
In Lima, Peru, however, residents wanted to grow produce, such as leafy greens, which require nutrient solutions to be added during the growing process. With the help of community partners, WFP launched a pilot program in three districts across the capital, reaching more than 200 vulnerable women and their families. The group is now looking into ways to scale-up the system in a bid to provide these residents with business opportunities.
The most high-tech H2Grow units are the Food Computers developed for Syrian refugees in the Azraq refugee camp east of Amman, Jordan. The Food Computer uses sensors to monitor climate, energy, and plant growth inside a specialized grow chamber. Powered by a Raspberry Pi, the system tracks things like temperature, humidity, dissolved oxygen, and mineral consumption to achieve optimum growth potential. WFP was helped by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology and the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development in developing the Food Computers.
It takes a village
In each case, H2Grow aims to keep the initial investment below $100,000, while providing a few community partners with the resources needed to motivate neighbors into following in their footsteps.
“We start with champions who are most motivated in the community,” Schroeder said. “They start to cultivate their own fodder, we give them a bit of extra training, and have them go out with that training material in hand to train others in the community.”
H2Grow systems boast benefits beyond solving food scarcity — they’re designed to ensure financial and physical security as well. During the dry months at the Belail refugee camp in Sudan, women often search for fodder outside the safety of the camp, Schroeder said, which exposes them to risks of theft, violence, and abduction. Through the hydroponic pilot program, WFP hopes to foster food security and, in turn, physical security for the residents.
There are inherent challenges to delivering these solutions. Some of the cultures WFP aims to serve are traditionally pastoral, meaning agricultural production is new and unfamiliar to them. But the hope is that by learning to use these systems, vulnerable communities will be better equipped to withstand existential threats at their doorsteps.
One of those threats is climate change, which is causing conflict around the globe as people fight for access to shrinking water and food sources. Equipped with hydroponic systems, “people wouldn’t have to migrate and ‘share’ the fewer grazing lands that are available,” Schroeder said. “If they can grow crops in harsh conditions and save a lot of resources, this will be a game-changer. Now, the trick is to spread the knowledge and increase access to the tools for more people to start growing.”
Why Maldives Needs To Declare A State of Climate Emergency - IMMEDIATELY (PT. I)
As an apocalyptic future approaches with alarming speed, rather than give rise to action, many seem to have settled for apathetic outlook
As Maldives gears up for Climate Strike on Sep 20, the UN Climate Summit on Sep 21 and COP25 in Dec, the time is ripe for the nation's leaders to acknowledge the urgent climate crisis and rise to action. Part I of a II part mini-series on the Climate Crisis.
Why Maldives needs to declare a state of climate emergency - IMMEDIATELY (PT. I). IMAGE: JAUNA NAFIZ / THE EDITION
Rae Munavvar
19 September 2019
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as of right now, 11 percent of the world’s population is vulnerable to droughts, floods, heatwaves, extreme weather events and sea-level rise caused by climate change. As the state of the Earth worsens, in as little as 2-3 decades, 100 percent of Maldivians stand to lose their livelihoods, heritage and homelands… presumably in that order.
Most people are aware that Maldives, presenting little in the way of world-wide carbon emissions and one of the least contributors to global warming and climate change on this shared planet - is fated to be first in line for the repercussions, along with a further 800 million vulnerable people.
As an apocalyptic future approaches with alarming speed, rather than give rise to action, many seem to have settled for apathetic outlook. Though no longer ignorant, urgent discourse and mitigation have taken a backseat to idle post sharing.
Perhaps this hurdle can be blamed on human psychology, for historically, discussions about a possible end of days have never gone down well. However, donning ‘eco slogan’ tees and hashtag fuelled rants, though immensely satisfying, is sufficient no longer. Beach cleanups, exporting plastic waste for recycling or stocking government offices with recyclable gear though fantastic, are only a start. There is a larger message that needs to be addressed and delivered to the masses.
By confronting the difficult truth of climate change and accepting the inevitable call to arms, this low-lying country not only succeeds in owning its reality - Maldives is presented with an opportunity to set an example for the world, leading the fight. To quote Bristol councillor Carla Denyer, the woman responsible for bringing the emergency movement to England, "It is the first step to radical action."
Sure, ‘Green Ambassadors’ from Maldives have done a remarkable job of voicing out these concerns to the global community - but this is more about the average Amina and Ali coming to terms with the fact that the threat of climate change is an issue they will most likely have to deal with in their lifetime, and providing everyone the best chance at survival.
Coming together and presenting a united front may be the only leverage the nation has in demanding that larger, more powerful nations of the world accept their share of responsibility and join islanders on the battlegrounds.
Sands of Time
At the time of the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, which provided the scientific input into the Paris Agreement, the goal was to maintain global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.
In 2018, IPCC shifted course and began advocating for temperatures to be kept below 1.5 degrees celsius, describing the difference as “a significantly lower risk of drought, floods, heatwaves and poverty” for hundreds of millions of people.
The document states, “without increased and urgent mitigation ambition in the coming years leading to a sharp decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, global warming will surpass 1.5°C in the following decades, leading to irreversible loss of the most fragile ecosystems, and crisis after crisis for the most vulnerable people and societies.”
Terrifyingly, IPCC’s 1.5 Special Report further emphasizes that presently, humans have only a 67 percent chance of reducing global temperatures below the 2 degree Celsius limit.
Data recorded in 2016’s Second National Communication of Maldives (NCM) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also supports IPCC’s claims, noting “future climate projections indicate that the extreme flooding events are likely to become more frequent in the future with changing climate”.
NCM then goes on to declare, “despite the fact challenges, Maldives is determined to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change”. But how ready are we really?
Consider psychologist Abraham Maslow’s five levels of human needs, a theory most of us are familiar with to better comprehend the severity of today’s climate crisis, and the impact it has on the people of Maldives at the most basic levels.
1. Food
In the event of any extreme climate activity, let alone sea level rise, the country’s ability to both produce and store food will, without a doubt, be compromised. Similarly, as nearly 90 percent of the food consumed in the country is imported, any impact on food production in the source countries will also directly affect food security.
Food reserves in the capital city, as with the remaining 200 inhabited islands, are located in close proximity to the sea. As such, preparations for future storage needs are not in effect.
The race is on. For small island nations such as , winning the race against #ClimateChange is no longer a choice but a necessity for future existence. Time is running out and we need immediate #ClimateAction! #ClimateAction4Maldives @AkikoFujii1
On the subject of food production, environmentalists allege that agricultural centres like that of Thoddoo Island, are not pressured to farm sustainably and that simple measures such as utilizing rainwater for watering are not in place. Further, their unchecked profuse use of pesticides doesn’t just make the food dangerous to consume - it also contaminates groundwater and may leak into surrounding waters.
Fish and seafood are essential to the islanders’ diet. As such, changes in sea temperature and ocean acidity will affect fisheries. The issue of marine debris is also a concern, along with rising levels of untreated or improperly disposed sewage, which is the case for most islands. Though the expanding local tourism industry has encouraged cleanups, the wastewater situation has not benefited at all.
That’s not all. Microplastics have been discovered in the bodies of various species of fish and to account for dissolved toxins is nearly impossible. For a country that relishes concentrated fish products like ‘Rihaahukuru’ - this is far more than a footnote.
Aside from proper waste management and storage, adaptive measures for food could also include incentivizing other means of food production, for instance vertical farms, small-scale hydroponic farms and so forth. Harmful agricultural practices should be discouraged by taxes and bans.
Targeted awareness programs about the immediate impact of marine pollution could be conducted. A system where fishermen and boat crews could profit from fishing out waste from the ocean could be implemented.
2. Water
Certainly, water deserves to be ranked far higher than food as scientists estimate humans can go 3 weeks without food but less than 100 hours without water, that too in “average temperatures” and “without exposure to sunlight”, rendering the fact irrelevant to Maldives. However, the issue of water here is slightly murkier.
Most Maldivians have already noticed drastic changes to the usually predictable monsoon seasons. Sources from the MET Observatory confirmed that climate change has already begun to affect precipitation patterns in the Maldives.
According to NCM, overall decreasing trends in annual rainfall were observed over the 3 regions of Hanimaadhoo, Malé and Gan. The total number of rainfall days per year is also decreasing. Adding to the issue is that groundwater is hardly an option anymore; the freshwater lens used in our well water have become salinized and polluted in a majority of islands.
Another Male in creation? #ActOnClimate #ClimateStrikeMV #ClimateEmergency https://twitter.com/litmustimes/status/1174242550472945664 …
Replying to @AdamIshamMV and 10 others
Residents of Fuvahmulah need to question on the affects of their fresh water supply! Now all r supplied frm the island’s fresh water supply. All of which is flushed to the sea! This will deplete the island’s fresh water supply & affect the kilhis too.
See mariyam mohamed 's other Tweets
“Traditional rainfall patterns have changed over the last decade. If you’ve monitored precipitation or even asked elder locals to compare Hulhangu Moosun these days with the traditional Nakai Calendar, the difference is clear, “ revealed Sharafulla Thoha Hussain, technician at Maldives Climate Observatory based in Hanimaadhoo Island, Haa Alif Atoll.
Devoid of natural freshwater sources, the archipelago as a whole currently relies on desalination, a process that is heavily fossil fuel dependent. Even as resources deplete and prices rise, several alternatives are already on the market. Technology that allows for absorption of water from the atmosphere exists and there are forms of water extraction using clean energy that must be explored.
Furthermore, rather than abandoning traditional and more sustainable methods like the collection of rainwater, islands can be designed to capture heavy downpour. Instead of wasting water during showers and storms as happens now, this natural resource can and should be utilised.
3. Shelter
One of the most important factors to account for in this regard are rising global temperatures, after all, 17 of the 18 warmest years in the history of the planet took place after 2000. In the Maldives, NCM reveals temperatures are increasing in the capital city by approximately 0.3 °C per decade, although in this case the urbanization of the area bears most of the responsibility; however, the fact that the ‘replication of Male’ is a growing trend, makes it quite concerning.
Maldives, as vacation-goers often describe it, is a land of endless summers. But what was a blessing stands soon to become a curse - our asphalt and concrete homes will no longer be tolerable a few degrees later.
Cooling our homes uses up fossil fuels we will soon not be able to acquire. “One of the best championed answers is to examine ancestral resources and marry them with elements of modern tech to curate solutions with a smaller carbon footprint”, offered a Maldivian property developer.
Presently, 44% of all Maldivians and their homes, stand within 100m of the sea. Even for those settled further inland, nearly 80% of the nation is below 1.5 meters of mean sea level. In the event of a natural disaster people have nowhere to seek refuge.
To begin with, the building of high-standing homes, is a decent adaptive measure for low-lying islands as it would alleviate immediate threats of flooding. Presently, in most islands including the capital area, the majority of homes are based at ground level.
Finland’s answer was the introduction of floating villages six years ago and has had remarkable success. Equipped with energy-saving systems and technologies, prefabricated homes are designed to withstand extreme winds and wave conditions. Even if it means abandoning island ways of life, testing the far more resilient floating homes is something that must be considered.
Prior to that though, stands the protection of nature's own barricades - the mangroves. wetlands and coral reefs which together not only mitigate the effect of wave swells, tsunamis and storms, but also absorb 10 times more carbon from the atmosphere than tropical forests.
For example, another idea may be to test the Modular Artificial Reef Structure (MARS) introduced at Summer Island Resort, which was initially developed by Austrailian designers as a wave break, but in this case one that allows for water and sand movement thereby possibly preventing erosion, while also welcoming coral growth. There are many other promising projects to look into as well.
Environmental protection, public health & livelihoods are linked. Delayed action to protect the remaining parts of the mangrove , a clear violation of basic human rights, specially the rights of 400+ @DrHussainHassan @naeembe @hrw @hrcmv #SaveKulhudhuffushiKulhi
@AfaHusayn
4. Energy
Maldives has become extremely, unforgivably dependant on non renewable - as a single glance around the typical household or office building demonstrates.
As fuel prices climb, these lifestyles that have only just become accustomed to modern conveniences are set to become incredibly restricted, and fast. Heaters, coolers, inter-atoll travel, intra-atoll travel, cooking, learning - without energy normalcy in the island nation will need to be redefined, drastically. Soon even this article, may be far out of reach.
Renewable energy is the future; and in the long run, it will prove to be several times cheaper. In addition to halting the subsidization of fossil fuels and incentivizing clean energy, the government could commence initiatives tailored around projects for which the country has already served as a testing ground such as Swimsol’s Floating Solar Panels, Professor Tsumoru Shintake’s The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University Wave Energy Converter units (WEC-units), and more.
Frankly, few countries are better poised to enter a rapid fossil fuel phaseout or has more reason to actively seek out and begin testing, implementing and subsidizing clean energy alternatives, than Maldives.
5. Security
The issue of security is best described by Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid at the United Nations Security Council meeting on the impacts of climate-related disasters on international peace and security, this January.
He asked, “While we are still busy trying to decide which forum of the United Nations must address which aspect of climate change, in our countries across the world; lakes are drying up depriving fresh water to tens of millions of people. Unseasonal droughts are leaving millions of people homeless. Hunger and displacement are leading to conflicts. And entire nations are sinking under water. What is a bigger security risk than this?”
Nevertheless the country is yet to see such statements translate into action at home. The same disruptive unsustainable development continues, antagonizing and destroying the fragile ecosystems.
Intensifying climate events pose serious threats to the Maldives, as demonstrated by the devastating loss caused by the 2004 Tsunami, where development was set back decades.
I want a military that proactively strives to build our resilience and well prepared to tackle the #ClimateCrisis please @MNDF_Official @NDMAmv @presidencymv @mvpeoplesmajlis https://twitter.com/koamasfurolhi/status/1174497830011977730 …
Replying to @koamasfurolhi
What do you think is more important for us? A military that waits in anticipation of a foreign attack or a military that actively tries to increase resilience of islands and are prepared to manage disasters all across the country?
See Aisha Niyaz's other Tweets
Although Tsunami and Weather warning protocols are in place, if citizens fail to understand the gravity of the current climate situation, appropriate response will not follow. Indeed mitigation measures concerning security begins with informing people of the ‘undiluted’ truth.
6. Relationships
There’s no telling, really, how our human connection will suffer in the coming years. First there is the loss of culture and heritage. Next, few countries have a population as dispersed as the Maldives; and when damage extends to travel and communication, relationships will face immense stress.
Internet, which itself carries a large carbon footprint, has nevertheless improved the lives of Maldivians in ways that are hard to describe. Having to ration power will mean that digital lives will be one of the very first compromises Maldivians may need to sacrifice in favour of the essentials; security, energy, water, and food.
Can any of us recall what life before the world-wide-web was really like? Is being disconnected in that fashion something we even want to remember?
For ‘digital generations’ at least, this might be one of the most compelling arguments as to why Maldives needs to spend money researching and implementing clean energy solutions.
Devastation In Progress
For most of the innovations mentioned in each category, wide-scale applications are yet to be seen. What the country’s leaders are waiting for, is just as much a mystery.
Marine experts state that rise in ocean temperatures to levels causing serious and widespread coral bleaching was first recorded in 1988, followed by 1998, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 - it doesn’t take a genius to understand the incidence is increasing and fast. The latter three may not have been mass bleaching events, but effects are significant.
The IPCC report expresses high confidence that if global temperatures can be stabilized at a maximum of 1.5 degrees celsius, 70 - 90 percent of coral reefs will deteriorate. If these temperatures exceed the 2 degrees celcius mark the report calculates with ‘Very High Confidence’ that 99 percent of reefs will die. Of course if that happens, the human race will follow shortly after.
Surveys conducted over the last two decades lead to clear deductions that at least 80 percent of coral reefs in the Maldives, are already severely damaged. The tourism industry works overtime to create a facade of perfect isles - despite existing legislation that prohibits excavation of sand, destruction of marine habitats and so on. The constant ‘beach nourishment’ that occurs in resorts, unjustifiable development of harbours, newly reclaimed resorts and airports, removal of ‘Heylhifah’ (vegetation buffer zone) by guesthouses, all serve to exacerbate an environment already slipping into deep decline.
Plz dont narrow minded ur thinking of having a resort is enough! Yes, We need jobs, Q healthy facilities, Q education, reliable transpt, proper waste mgmt and so on.Y not invest on food security!? @ali20waheed@YasirLathyf @JamsheedMohame6 @gafoor2656 @Mraee12 @FitteyZ @edzyadam https://twitter.com/MoTmv/status/1170663206261383169 …
Minister @ali20waheed meets with respective Parliament Members; @gafoor_moosa, @FitteyZ, @YasirLathyf, @JamsheedMohame6 and @Mraee12 to discuss potential islands for resort development in Haa Dhaalu Atoll.
Environment Impact Assessments are necessitated and therefore are carried out to ensure minimal harm occurs. However, for in instance, most consultants agree requirements like silt curtains and sediments screens are hardly ever used, and without enforcement by EPA and authorities, developers do get away with ‘oceanic’ murder. One of the most important steps that needs to be taken is to ensure that EIA’s are seen as more than a rubber stamp of approval for business owners to skirt around.
In terms of waste management, islands and atolls have moved to ‘take the matter into their own hands’, announcing everything from ‘banning single-use plastics’ to ‘recycling and composting’. Unfortunately the truth of the matter is, plastic is still being used momentarily and discarded, recycling and composting are only conducted in very small proportions. Across the archipelago, waste is still being burned and toxic emissions freely released into the atmosphere, including at the infamous Thilafushi garbage island where even a decade ago, up to 330 tons of rubbish was collected daily.
The technology to incinerate waste using clean energy with zero emissions does exist, and has been utilized by many including Indian inventor Shanavas Sainulabdeen. So does means of turning waste into energy, which is especially well carried out in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Incineration Plant which turns trash to ash in 30 minutes. However, foreign sources have confirmed that the government has, on occasion, deemed investing in such innovations as too costly.
Arguably, the depletion of the Maldives’ natural resources, and the permanent depreciation of its marketable value is a price the country cannot afford to pay.
Continue to Part II...
Why Maldives needs to declare a state of climate emergency - IMMEDIATELY (PT. II)
We're Barreling Towards Another Dust Bowl
In 1935, the Dust Bowl came to Washington—and if we don't change our ways, it could come back. A new report from the UN climate committee warns that much of the world risks the kind of land degradation that turned fertile farmland into desert during the 1930s
We Have To Fight Fast To Keep Our Soil From Slipping Away
August 19, 2019
In 1935, the Dust Bowl came to Washington—and if we don't change our ways, it could come back. A new report from the UN climate committee warns that much of the world risks the kind of land degradation that turned fertile farmland into desert during the 1930s. Luckily, this desolate stretch of history doesn't just serve as a warning. It also provides potential solutions.
The District of Columbia was an unlikely place for a dust storm. Though the Midwest had been shrouded in clouds of dust since 1932, the lawmakers discussing the Dust Bowl in March 1935 were more than 1,000 miles away from the disaster. Then, something uncanny happened: As lawmakers deliberated the very issue of how to stem a series of droughts and the erosion and catastrophic dust storms that followed, a literal cloud fell on the city. Soon, the capital's familiar marble monuments were covered in a layer of reddish dust. "A clay-colored veil hung before the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol and the Library of Congress," a reporter observed. That scenario may come to mind when you read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's new Climate Change and Land Report, which details the ways humans have stripped the planet and calls for sustainable land management practices, many of which were developed in the wake of the Dirty Thirties.
If we continue to use land the way we do now, the report concludes, our species faces a grim future indeed. Humans directly affect more than 70 percent of Earth’s terrain, and it shows: Population growth, farming, and other land use have taken their toll, fueling rapid shifts in climate and threatening Earth’s ability to sustain both humans and itself. Land can only absorb 29 percent of humans’ total CO2 emissions per year. And desertification—the same kind of land degradation that caused dust to fly during the 1930s—further threatens Earth’s climate.
It's been called "the greatest environmental challenge of our time," and for good reason. In desertification, areas with scarce water get even less moisture, and irrigated farmland goes from fertile to desiccated. Climatic trends play a role, but humans' land management mistakes fuel desertification, too.
Severely eroded farmland during the Dust Bowl.USDA
The Dust Bowl is a classic example. White settlers poured onto the United States' Great Plains during the mid-19th century, spurred by free property the federal government offered in exchange for cultivation. The semiarid prairie was home to a variety of native grasses, but the notion that it could be converted into productive farmland was misguided. The would-be farmers had no idea that the region went through extended wet periods followed by drier ones. Local plants had adapted to survive, and settlers thought that the existence of moisture meant more would follow. They also believed that "rain follows the plow"—a long-abandoned theory that the presence of farmers and settlers could bring humidity to dry climates—and the maxim set them up for disaster.
"They removed windbreaks and trees to plant fields in a relatively semi-arid area that had been wet," says climatologist Marc Svoboda, who directs the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska. Then, during the 1920s, Great Plains farmers planted huge amounts of wheat in response to international demand. Investing in the drought-intolerant crop meant uprooting resilient prairie grasses, which had previously helped the soil survive dry seasons by storing moisture in their deep roots. "When the drought came, that landscape was much more vulnerable," Svoboda says.
Come it did, and with catastrophic results. Beginning in 1931, the region experienced a series of four major drought episodes considered the worst in the nation's history. Farmers weren't prepared for this, or for the erosion that followed. Failing crops left soil rootless and loose, leaving it vulnerable to high winds.
Soon, epic dust storms swept the region. The same tempest that blew through Washington, DC left 12 million pounds of dust in Chicago alone. A month later, one of the most severe storms of the era, nicknamed "Black Sunday," enveloped the Great Plains. It was 1,000 miles long, contained 300,000 tons of dust, and traveled up to 100 miles per hour. This weather didn't just affect the land: Farm animals choked on dust and suffocated. At least 7,000 people died from "dust pneumonia" as a result of breathing in the fine particulates, and countless more were driven from their homes and livelihoods by the endless, swirling dirt. The storms are also thought to have hastened the spread of measles and other infectious diseases. It was an environmental catastrophe—and one that humans had the power to sidestep.
A farmer's son in Cimarron County, Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl era.Arthur Rothstein, for the Farm Security Administration
A farmer's son in Cimarron County, Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl era.Arthur Rothstein, for the Farm Security Administration
The IPCC's latest predictions sound awfully familiar. The committee warns that ongoing soil degradation will hasten desertification, which can fuel climate change. When soil degrades, it can't trap as much carbon, releasing this greenhouse gas (along with nitrous oxide) into the atmosphere. That means a warmer climate, which means more droughts and still more desertification. Resource-intensive uses of land, like massive farming operations, will cause water scarcity and degrade the soil—a vicious cycle like the one farmers faced during the Dust Bowl. During that event, human-induced land degradation not only led to dust storms, but made the droughts worse.
But the Dust Bowl might offer more than a warning. The event actually led to sensible land management practices that are still used today, says Charles Rice, a distinguished professor in Kansas State University's department of agronomy. In the wake of the Dust Bowl, he explains, the concept of soil conservation—protecting soil's fertility and keeping it from eroding—finally got traction in the United States.
Soil conservation has three guiding principles, he explains: don't till the soil, keep it covered, and keep crops diverse. Reduced tillage preserves the root pathways forged by preexisting plants. Those paths act like pores, allowing the ground to store water for use in dry times and soak it up more effectively during floods. Cover crops, like alfalfa, clover, and sorghum, keep the soil loose after a cash crop has been harvested. When cover crops become part of the soil during preparation for a crop like corn or wheat, they increase soil moisture and provide larger yields. Since they keep a field's precious soil covered and preserve its pores, cover crops also prevent earth from becoming so fine it turns into dust. Planting diversely prevents the nutrient drain that occurs when the same crops grow season after season. Rotating through different varieties acts more like a multivitamin, adding a variety of nutrients to the soil over time. Drought-resistant crops can step in occasionally to save water, and use the water that's already in the soil more efficiently.
Farmers can also conserve their soil by diversifying their farmland's portfolio, notes Rice. They might plant several kinds of crops in one area and keep livestock on another, so that drought doesn't put the entire swath of soil at risk.
Those post-Dust-Bowl practices have paid off. “Over time, we got better fertility and crops that have been bred for more drought tolerance,” says Rice. The United States’ investment in soil conservation has made the land more resilient than it was before the days of dust pneumonia.
But that doesn't mean it can't happen again. Rice warns that 21st-century farmers have to do more than just follow the basic tenets of soil conservation if they want to stave off further desertification. Landowners must rethink their approach to crops, profits, and technology. By sharing data and creating advanced computer models, he says, farmers could use better drought forecasting to dictate which crops they choose. Dust Bowl-era farmers didn't have computers to help them adapt.
Rice looks forward to a future where high-tech sensors help provide real-time data about soil moisture, and robots that water just the individual plants in need of moisture instead of soaking entire fields. "I guess I'm an optimist," he says. "The right investments could really help reduce desertification and provide some resilience to those Dust Bowl type events."
Despite a heaping dose of bad news about humanity’s use of land, the IPCC strikes an optimistic note, too. Not only can we prevent future desertification, but we can take the action required to do so in the near-term—if we’re willing to acknowledge the dust clouds ahead.
Lead photo: Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas in 1935.NOAA George E. Marsh Album