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Growing Your Own In 30 Below - The Chef On An Arctic Self-Sufficiency Mission
Growing Your Own In 30 Below - The Chef On An Arctic Self-Sufficiency Mission
Polar Permaculture aims to produce enough food for the town and process all its organic and biological waste. It sounds ambitious, but the firm, which received support from a government-funded body that helps startups, broke even last year, just two years in.
03-12-18
LONGYEARBYEN, Norway - In one of the planet's most northerly settlements, in a tiny Arctic town of about 2,000 people, Benjamin Vidmar's domed greenhouse stands out like an alien structure in the snow-cloaked landscape.
This is where in summer the American chef grows tomatoes, onions, chilies and other vegetables, taking advantage of the season's 24 hours of daily sunlight.
During winter's four months of darkness, when temperatures can reach -30 Celsius, Vidmar tends to microgreens - the leaves and shoots of young salad plants - and dozens of quails in two rooms beneath his home.
He is the sole supplier of locally-grown food in the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen in the Svalbard archipelago. The North Pole is about 1,050 kilometers to the north; mainland Norway is about as far south.
Growing food in such conditions can be "mission impossible" but it is necessary, said Vidmar. He hopes to set an example for other remote towns in the region.
"We are so dependent on imports. Everything is by boat and plane," said Vidmar, who comes from Cleveland, Ohio, and who has lived here for nearly a decade.
That makes the town vulnerable, he said. In 2010, stores in Longyearbyen stood empty after an Icelandic volcano erupted, bringing air transport to a halt. And the cost of imported food and its quality "is often disappointing".
His company, Polar Permaculture, aims to produce enough food for the town and process all its organic and biological waste.
It sounds ambitious, but the firm, which received support from a government-funded body that helps startups, broke even last year, just two years in.
It was helped by the fact that he and his teenage son do not draw salaries, and Vidmar still cooks full-time at a school.
'CRAZY' TO TRY
Vidmar's produce now appears on many of Longyearbyen's menus, including at Huset restaurant where intricate, multi-course Nordic tasting menus are served in stately surroundings.
Alongside reindeer steak and tartare of bearded seal is a delicate dish of quail egg with dill, red onions, and anchovies on flatbread.
"We would not use quail eggs unless they were local so we designed a dish as soon as we got the opportunity to try them," said Filip Gemzell, Huset's head chef.
Vidmar first stepped foot in Svalbard in 2007 while working as a chef on a cruise ship. One of his first thoughts was, "How can people live here?", but he was also intrigued.
"The sad part (in America) is you work so hard and you still have to worry about money. Then you come here and you have all this nature. No distraction, no huge shopping centers, no billboards saying, 'buy, buy, buy'."
A year later, he moved to the island and started working at restaurants and bars in Longyearbyen, a coal mining town turned tourist-and-research attraction.
He decided to grow his own food after becoming frustrated with the absence of fresh produce and the fact that a lack of treatment sites meant organic waste was dumped into the sea.
People thought he was "crazy" trying to grow food in the Arctic.
Initially, he experimented with hydroponics - farming in water instead of soil - but that meant using fertilizer, which comes from the mainland. Eventually the city authorities gave him permission to bring in worms from Florida to do the job.
Now, whenever he or his son deliver a tray of microgreens to restaurants, they collect the previous tray and feed the soil to the worms, which break it down to produce natural fertilizer for bigger plants.
His next aim is to heat the greenhouse during winter using a biodigester - which generates energy from organic material - so he can use it all-year-round.
SUSTAINABILITY
Vidmar also helps fourth- and ninth-grade students at Longyearbyen school to learn farming and sustainability. That has led older students to query the island's supply chain, said teacher Lisa Dymbe Djonne.
"They question the transportation of food from the mainland to here and how expensive that is," she said.
"They're going to interview some of the leaders ... to figure out how much it costs for the island and if it is possible to grow our own food," she added.
"It's a question a lot of people up here have."
Eivind Uleberg, a scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research in Tromso in northern Norway, said that fitted a pattern of rising interest in locally produced food and sustainability in agriculture.
In a phone interview, Uleberg said that, although he was unaware of Vidmar's undertaking, efforts to produce food locally in Norway were positive.
A short growing season and low temperatures are the main barriers to producing food in such latitudes, he said, but higher temperatures caused by climate change could help.
"There is definitely the potential to produce more vegetables and berries," he said.
But there are also challenges, Uleberg added, including more rain in the autumn during harvest, and changing conditions in winter that could kill grasses crucial for animal feed.
For Vidmar, such obstacles and the unique conditions are the reason he is determined to produce "the freshest food possible".
"We're on a mission ... to make this town very sustainable. Because if we can do it here, then what's everybody else's excuse?" - Thomson Reuters Foundation
Paving The Sustainability Superhighway: Connecting Food Tech, Mobility, and Energy
As anyone who has followed our work knows,Seeds&Chipsis dedicated to transforming the food system to a more just and sustainable system, from farm to fork and beyond.
Paving The Sustainability Superhighway: Connecting Food Tech, Mobility, and Energy
#SAC18 #SUSTAINABILITY
Source: Marco Gualtieri, Founder and Chairman, Seeds&Chips
16-03-2018
As anyone who has followed our work knows,Seeds&Chipsis dedicated to transforming the food system to a more just and sustainable system, from farm to fork and beyond. Our mission has always been to bring together a multiplicity of voices from every corner of the food, tech, and agricultural world to create an ecosystem by all, and for all. As the population continues to swell, and our resources grow scarce, we must rethink the way that we grow, that we cook, and that we eat in order to continue writing our story, together.
However, in order to bring good food, good technology, and good practices to everyone, we need good forms of transportation and mobility to complete the equation between producers, distributors, and consumers. Sustainable mobility goes to the very heart of the drive towards a better food system, and it is intrinsic to each and every link along the food chain. Just imagine that by 2030, passenger traffic will exceed 80,000 billion passenger-kilometers, and freight volume will grow by 70 percent globally. This is a 50 percent increase over current levels, and the effects of it are alarming: under current policies, greenhouse gas emissions are forecast to increase between 2030 and 2050 to 15% above 1990 levels,which is significantly higher than the 60% reduction target proposed for 2050 in the Paris Protocols.
If we do not begin to see the food system and the global mobility infrastructure as interconnected entities, we risk undoing the progress that we are all so deeply committed to making. Mobility is essential to the productivity and distribution of food to every human being in the world, because food is not a novelty, nor is it a vanity project, but is a necessity for each of us. Likewise, without a thriving food system that will guarantee the health and vitality of the global population, for whom will the incredible advances in mobility, transport, and energy be?
As Andrew Ive of FoodX notes so eloquently: “As I get deeper into Food-X I realize just how critical the food industry is. It’s not lipstick...or something that people sort of use. It’s absolutely fundamental to our survival, existence, and health.” Even as we move towards circular economic models, we remain dependent on transport systems, from the first harvest to the next planting. As the transport food chainincludes infrastructure, fuel, equipment, repair and maintenance, traffic management, and safety, transforming the global mobility complex into a sustainable system means understanding that each of these aspects are intimately connected both with each other as well as the goods that they carry. It is precisely for this reason that we must integrate the needs and goals of the global food system with those of the mobility and transport sectors. Indeed while it was not designated as it’s own goal, sustainable transport is essential to achieving most, if not all, of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly as it relates to food security.
As stakeholders in the food tech sector, this challenge may seem too vast to take on, when seen in its totality. If we are not able to rethink transport at the point of harvest, production, distribution, delivery and post-consumption, all that we have done risks being for naught. Yet rather than being deterred by this enormity, we must reach out to those who are themselves grappling with another thread in the tapestry of sustainable development.
In Italy, Enel has developed one of the most advanced programs for green energy adoption, circular economic models, and innovative mobility. As a highly influential company leading the chargeof innovation, Enel has inspired more than 350,000 businesses in the country to adopt green business models. Francesco Starace, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Enel SpA, points out that“If there is a particular strength in our country it is the circularity of the economy, which is bigger, more diversified and more creative than we thought ". This investment in alternative energy makes Enel uniquely positioned to act as a catalyst for the wide scale implementation of clean energy in the transport and mobility sectors, which they have wholeheartedly embraced. At the Green Economy Festival in Trento, Starace declared that, “in ten years, and possibly less, we will be witness to a progressive and inevitable advancement of electric power in every energy site in the world. As the use of electric cars spreads, there will be an increasing need for energy storage. Batteries will be widely disbursed, and will consequently increase the importance of energy distribution systems and data management ".
Indeed, Italy is poised to become a leader in the renewable energy sector, with “more than 650,000 medium and low-voltage energy production plants ready to host an integrated digital network”, accordingto Starace. The seeds of change have already been planted in the Italian transport sector: companies like Piaggio are embracing the shift to green energy with their Piaggio Ecosolution portfolio, which has been exploring electric vehicles and biopower for more than 20 years. As a crossroads for so many different countries in Europe, particularly in the transportation of goods by land, Italy’s shift to a green economy signals a tremendous opportunity for food and ag tech to play a foundational part in this transformation.
All over the world, transport and mobility is undergoing a paradigm shift towards renewable energy and integrated systems that are better for companies, consumers, and the planet, and companies areintegrating innovative transport methods into their structure. The Dutch grocery delivery startup Picnicuses custom built electric vehicles to deliver local produce, and after only a year and a half in operation,they received €100 million in funding during a historically large series B round. While there are many reasons that Picnic as achieved such a meteoric rise, there is no doubt that their commitment to sustainability has been a cornerstone of their incredible success. This commitment has delivered impressive returns: Picnic’s fleet has grown to include 400 electric delivery trucks, and their historic funding will allow the company to expand their distribution throughout the Netherlands.
Tesla’s Semi, a long haul electric truck with four independent motors, an enhanced autopilot, and energy costs that are half those of diesel, has the potential to alter the very nature of transporting our food around the world. Not only is the Semi a more efficient and sustainable method of transport, but its safety technology will save lives in one of the world’s most dangerous industries. In one of the most audacious programs in automotive history, Tesla has taken the ethos of disruption to heart and created a product capable of performing better than a traditional truck with a drastically reduced impact on the planet. Advances like these are a sign of the potential benefits that come from thinking beyond innovation for innovation’s sake: if our future highways are filled with fleets of Tesla Semi’s carrying our food to parts unknown, then we will know that we have succeeded in making the world a better place.
We are all aware of the advances in electric cars and transport, hybrid technologies and the search for alternative fuels, but we don’t often take note of the way that our actions in one sphere can affect the other. By developing a close collaboration between food, agriculture, energy, and mobility, we can truly begin the work of changing our global economy in a comprehensive and meaningful way. Now is the time to start thinking about the bigger picture, and to think of how we can work together. Our food system touches everyone, and everyone is affected by what powers our planet and moves us around it. These two areas are so closely linked that they are almost in the same family. Perhaps this is not such a stretch. After all, two of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs are brothers, and their specialties are telling: Elon Musk has revolutionized the way the world thinks about mobility, and his brother Kimbal Musk is a pioneer in sustainable agriculture and food innovation.
In Italian, we have a saying that often comes to mind when I think of these challenges: fare sistema. Just as we find strength in numbers by bringing great minds in food and ag tech together at Seeds&Chips, we must join forces with all of the sectors which interact with the food system on the road from farm to fork. I believe in a future where Tesla Semi’s will transport the incredible bounty of food that Italy has to offer, and that along the way they will stop at Enel-powered charging stations to complete their rounds. Through collaboration not only in food and ag tech but across sectors we can build tomorrow’s sustainability superhighway, where both what we move and how we move it are aligned towards a common goal of a better future.
How The UAE Secures Its Future Water Needs
How The UAE Secures Its Future Water Needs
On World Water Day, we look at how adaptive and innovative technologies developed through government and private sector partnerships will help the UAE tide over an imminent water crisis
Non-profit initiatives such as Surge’s Water: The Global Passport help raise awareness on water conservation
Image Credit: Supplied
March 22, 2018
By Iona Stanley, Special to GN Focus
While there is no doubt whatsoever that the UAE faces an imminent water crisis, anxiety over the future may be assuming colossal proportions. And this is quite appropriate.
In late February, Minister of State for Food Security, Mariam Al Muhairi, said that water security is the biggest challenge in the UAE and added that it can only be met through innovative solutions and technologies that are both adaptive and innovative. She was speaking at the Ministerial Session of the Food Security Forum in Dubai, held alongside the annual food industry event Gulfood 2018.
“Governmental and water authorities are doing a great job of raising awareness through various campaigns, often working in conjunction with non-profit organisations ”-David King, Founder of Save Water UAE
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A week later, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazroui told members of the Federal National Council that the nation’s water consumption is now a huge concern, as he outlined plans to initiate various water-saving programmes.
Both alarms follow the launch of the UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 last September, which seeks to ensure sustainable access in normal and emergency conditions.
Accordingly, both government and private sector entities have been spurred into action. Announcements made in the first 45 days of this year alone hold testimony.
With rainfall that rarely exceeds 10cm a year, the UAE is one of the ten most arid countries in the world. It also consumes about 15 percent of the world’s desalinated water.
World’s largest water reserve
These factors combine to make Abu Dhabi’s new reservoir a vital safety net for the provision of water, and an excellent regional model for foresight and planning. Built at a cost of Dh1.6 billion after 15 years of continuous work, the world’s largest reserve of high-quality desalinated water was launched in January.
Located in Al Dhafra in Liwa, it stores 5.6 billion gallons of water, or enough to provide 1 million people in the capital with 180 litres per person for up to 90 days.
A model of the new Liwa water reservoir showcased at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in January
In February, news agency WAM detailed how five international companies are testing new solutions as part of the Masdar Renewable Energy Desalination Programme near Ghantoot. These projects include solar-powered reverse osmosis, a technique where salt water is purified through membranes.
A Masdar report confirms that these solutions are also up to 75 percent more energy efficient than thermal desalination technologies currently in use and capable of delivering annual energy savings of $550 million (about D2 billion).
March saw the launch of Badia Farms in Dubai, a vertical farm that uses hydroponic technology and 90 percent less water than open-field farming. The farm also recycles the water it uses and helps combat the carbon footprint of international food imports that typically travel thousands of kilometers to reach local restaurants.
Speaking at the inauguration of the farm, Dr Thani Ahmad Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, commended it. “Badia Farms is an exceptional example of how the UAE’s agricultural industry can thrive while protecting our environment for future generations,” he stated.
Omar Al Jundi, Founder, and CEO of Badia Farms set up the farm up with an eye on sustainability. “Not only can we grow the freshest greens, with no pesticides or chemicals, but we do this in the most ecofriendly way possible, using minimal recycled water. This is our way to give back to the UAE and start a new wave of farming in Dubai.”
Private initiative
The private sector is also weighing in with new partnerships. Tottori Resource-Middle East, a joint venture between Emirati entrepreneur Muntaser Al Mansouri (right), and Japanese firm Tottori Resource Recycling is launching a soil amendment solution, which will save 50 percent of water consumption in agriculture and urban greening, increasing yields by 20 per cent.
“When I learnt about Porous Alpha technology during a life-changing internship in Japan, I immediately thought this technology will be so useful in the UAE where water is scarce,” says Al Mansouri. “I believe the technology will save the environment by saving on water consumption and also reducing energy requirements for desalination, and CO2 emissions.”
Another partnership, between Eshara Capital and Veragon Water Solutions recently launched new technology that creates cost-effective and sustainable mineralised drinking water by harnessing humidity from the air. Veragon’s innovative Air-to-Water system can produce up to 1,000 litres of potable water per day in hot or tropical environments for as little as 3 fils per litre. The water is certified to World Health Organisation standards and approved for use in the UAE.
Veragon executives demonstrate how they create water from the atmosphere
Raising awareness
Across the nation, numerous other projects are underway. “Governmental and water authorities are doing a great job of raising awareness through various campaigns, often working in conjunction with non-profit organizations such as EWS-WWF,” says David King, Founder of Save Water UAE (right). “There are also environmental groups such as Emirates Green Building Council and Emirates Environment Group raising awareness through various channels. The key issue for everyone is to encourage both individuals and businesses to act and reduce their water consumption.”
Save Water UAE’s new website allows residents to buy simple water-saving devices for their homes.
“After eight years of working with businesses to reduce their water consumption, we recognised that members of the community also feel a responsibility to practise an environmentally conscious lifestyle at home. We saw an opportunity to help households reduce their carbon footprint and also their monthly utility bills, with these easy-to-install devices,” says King.
Marita Peters, Executive Director Middle East for Surge (right), an international not-for-profit organisation that promotes safe water and sanitation solutions, is unequivocal about collaboration and cooperation.
“To win the war on water sustainability here in the UAE, we all need to work together. It begins with greater awareness of the issues we could face as our ground water supplies decrease, our population grows and demand for water increases,” she says. “The key lies in education about the global water crisis and how that ties back to our situation here in the UAE.”
Surge has developed two flagship programmes that engage both the public and private sectors and raise a call to action by every individual in the country.
Its bilingual project for school children, Water: The Global Passport, is delivered in association with the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the UAE Water Aid Foundation (Suqia), to sensitise children to serious water issues and inculcate good habits.
Surge’s H2O Games brings the same transformative information to corporations. “Every participant emerges a water champion as they engage in innovative and educational games consisting of hands-on activities and challenges,” Peters tells GN Focus. “These foster a better understanding of the importance of water conservation.”
Need to know: The UAE's Water Security Strategy
The UAE Water Security Strategy 2036, launched in September last year, aims to ensure sustainable access to water in normal conditions and in emergencies. Below are some salient points
Overall objectives
- Reduction of water resources by 21%
- Increase water productivity index to $110 per cubic metre
- Reduce water scarcity index by 3 degrees
- Increase the reuse of treated water to 95 %
- Increase national water storage capacity up to 2 days
The comprehensive, long-term strategy covers all components of the water supply chain over a time frame of 20 years. It focuses on three main areas: water demand management, water supply management and emergency production and distribution.
Networks will be able to provide 91 litres of water per person per day in an emergency, or 30 litres per person per day in extreme emergencies.
The strategy also includes the establishment of six connecting networks between water and electricity entities across the UAE.
Once implemented, the Water Security Strategy 2036 will achieve savings of Dh74 billion and reduce the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), associated with water desalination process, by 100 million metric tonnes.
— GN Focus report
How Developers Plan To Convert A Dead Maine Paper Mill Into 1 Salmon Point
BUCKSPORT, Maine — A little more than three years after losing their paper mill, the most vital piece of their town’s economic engine, Bucksport residents got glimpse of their next big industry — salmon.their first
How Developers Plan To Convert A Dead Maine Paper Mill Into 1 Salmon Point
By Nick McCrea, BDN Staff • March 21, 2018
BUCKSPORT, Maine — A little more than three years after losing their paper mill, the most vital piece of their town’s economic engine, Bucksport residents got their first glimpse of their next big industry — salmon.
In February, Whole Oceans announced its plans for an indoor salmon farm that would produce 50,000 tons of salmon per year on the banks of the Penobscot River.
More than 200 locals took a seat in Bucksport Middle School’s auditorium Tuesday night for their first chance to ask questions and hear directly from company officials who want to breathe new life into the shuttered mill site.
The company plans to secure a new name for its address — 1 Salmon Point, a fitting name considering this river once had the most dense Atlantic salmon population on the planet, said Whole Oceans CEO Robert Piasio.
“I would say we looked at every possible site up and down the Maine coast,” Piasio told the audience. “Bucksport and Salmon Point blew everything else away.”
Just a month before Whole Oceans’ announcement, a Norwegian aquaculture firm, Nordic Aquafarms, revealed its plans to build another massive indoor salmon farm in Belfast. Maine suddenly found itself at the forefront of a budding U.S. land-based fish farming industry.
Because wild Atlantic salmon are a protected species, it’s illegal to catch and eat them. If an American is eating Atlantic salmon, it’s effectively guaranteed to come from a farm. More than 95 percent of Atlantic salmon consumed in the U.S. comes from foreign offshore pens, primarily in Norway, Chile and Canada.
As the price of recirculating aquaculture systems technology falls, companies are building larger farms, and the industry is starting to spread to the U.S. after decades of experience in Europe. Another large-scale indoor farm is in the works in Florida.
The most common questions from locals were related to wastewater discharge. The system will recirculate 99 percent of the water that enters the tanks, but there will still be about 4 million gallons discharged each day. That’s about one-fifth of what the paper mill discharged when it was operating.
There are already discharge pipes stretching into the middle of the Penobscot River that was used by the mill.
Whole Oceans expects the pollutants released to be significantly lower than what the mill produced, though the nitrogen will be about on par, given the amount 20,000 tons of salmon would produce. Discharge limits will be set and monitored as part of the permitting process through the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The company also says it’s aware of the mercury contamination in the river, caused by the former HoltraChem facility upriver in Orrington, and will filter out all metals before the water flows into the tanks.
Other questions ranged from expected fish mortality rates — likely in the 3 percent to 11 percent range at the smolt stage — to how the fish would be killed — likely with percussive stunning or striking the fish, according to Whole Oceans. Percussive stunning is believed to be among the quickest and most humane ways to harvest fish, according to the European Food Safety Administration.
Whole Oceans expects to start preparing the site for construction this fall. Developers hope to have foundations poured and the shell of the 8½-acre building up by winter, so work can continue inside the building. Construction will last 12 to 16 months, then the first salmon eggs will be brought in.
The eggs will be shipped in from a foreign company, possibly based in Iceland. Ultimately, Piasio said, he’d like to source eggs locally, but there isn’t a year-round supply available yet. It takes about two years to grow a salmon from egg to harvesting size.
The building will hold more than 60 tanks of varying sizes, with the largest about 60 feet in diameter and 25 feet deep.
The Belfast project will take a little longer to get started because Nordic Aquafarms and the city need to complete a lengthy land rezoning process before the company can start seeking necessary permits and approvals.
Nordic hopes to start construction in 2019, and expects to produce about 33,000 tons of salmon once it’s operational.
Piasio said Whole Oceans wants to be open about its work and invite the public into the facility to learn more about how it will operate. That might involve an information center, or even an enclosed catwalk above the tanks so people can look down at the schools of salmon and get a sense of the vast scale of the operation.
“We prefer you judge us by what we do, not by what we say,” Piasio told the crowd. “We are genuine and want to be part of this community for the long term.”
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.
Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news.
Photos Courtesy of Whole Oceans | BDN
Computer renderings of Whole Ocean's indoor salmon farm, slated for construction at the former Verso paper mill site in Bucksport. Work on the site is expected to start in August.
Courtesy of John Gutwin of Pepperchrome | BDN
Computer renderings of Whole Ocean's indoor salmon farm, slated for construction at the former Verso paper mill site in Bucksport. Work on the site is expected to start in August.
Gabor Degre | BDN
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the projected salmon production at the Bucksport aquaculture site. It’s expected to produce 50,000 tons of salmon per year.
Stephen Hawking’s Most Dire Predictions For The Future
Stephen Hawking’s Most Dire Predictions For The Future
by Alexandra Ossola on March 14, 2018
Stephen Hawking was a brilliant astrophysicist who inspired and awed. He pushed our understanding of, curiosity about, and excitement for the universe around us. He made us laugh. He made us curious. He made us imagine.
He also, at times, made us afraid.
Hawking, who died this morning at the age of 76 after 52 years of living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), will leave behind a deeply important legacy. But his paranoia about the future of humanity, especially in his later years, may prove to be one of the most lasting (and pertinent) aspects of that legacy.
These are a few of his most dire predictions:
AI Takeover
“The genie is out of the bottle. We need to move forward on artificial intelligence development but we also need to be mindful of its very real dangers,” Hawking said last year in a Q&A with WIRED. “I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that will outperform humans.”
As AI permeates more of our daily lives, Hawking isn’t the only one to fear a robot takeover.
But there are other threats.
Self-Destruction
“Our earth is becoming too small for us, global population is increasing at an alarming rate and we are in danger of self-destructing… I would not be optimistic about the long-term outlook for our species.”
Hawking said this in 2016 at an event at Cambridge University, attesting his pessimism in part to the recent referendum for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union. In a 2017 documentary, he said humanity has just a century left on Earth, down from the 1,000 years he predicted the year before.
That’s in part because of climate change and environmental destruction that, he feared, may make the Earth uninhabitable. Since he became president, Donald Trump had become a favorite target of Hawking’s:
“We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action [pulling out of the Paris Agreement] could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid,” Hawking told BBC News.
“Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it’s one we can prevent if we act now. By denying the evidence for climate change, and pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children.”
Fortunately, though, he sees a solution.
Planetary Colonization
“If humanity is to continue for another million years, our future lies in boldly going where no one else has gone before,” Hawking said at a festival in Norway last year.
“We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems,” he continued. “Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth.”
“I hope it would unite competitive nations in a single goal, to face the common challenge for us all… A new and ambitious space program would excite [young people], and stimulate interest in other areas, such as astrophysics and cosmology.”
He laid out a fairly comprehensive series of benchmarks: nations should send astronauts to the Moon by 2020 (and set up a lunar base in the next 30 years). And we should get to Mars by 2025.
If Hawking is even remotely right, Musk had better hop to it.
French Food Waste Law Changing How Grocery Stores Approach Excess Food
French Food Waste Law Changing How Grocery Stores Approach Excess Food
February 24, 2018
Heard on All Things Considered
Ahmed "Doudou" Djerbrani, in the orange vest, delivers the food French supermarkets must donate to food banks by law.
Eleanor Beardsley/NPR
Every morning at a supermarket called Auchan in central Paris, Magdalena Dos Santos has a rendezvous with Ahmed "Doudou" Djerbrani, a driver from the French food bank.
Dos Santos, who runs the deli section of the store, is in charge of supervising the store's food donations. She sets aside prepared dishes that are nearing their expiration date.
Opening a giant fridge, Dos Santos shows what else the store is giving away – yogurt, pizza, fresh fruits and vegetables, and cheese.
But giving leftover food to charity is no longer just an act of goodwill. It's a requirement under a 2016 law that bans grocery stores from throwing away edible food.
Djerbrani checks food donations from a French grocery store before driving it across town to a church, which will distribute it to poor families.
Eleanor Beardsley/NPR
Stores can be fined $4,500 for each infraction.
Food waste is a global problem. In developing countries, food spoils at the production stage. Well-off nations throw it away at the consumption stage. Grocery stores are responsible for a lot of that waste. France is trying to change that with its 2-year-old law.
Out back on the store's loading dock, Djerbrani plunges a thermometer into a yogurt. "I take the temperature of dairy products to make sure they've been kept refrigerated," he says.
Djerbrani loads the food into his van and drives it across town to a church, which will distribute it to poor families.
Gillaine Demeules is a volunteer with the St. Vincent de Paul charity. She's getting ready for the weekly food handout.
"Tomorrow, we'll give people soup, sardines, pasta and whatever fresh items they deliver us today," she says. "We never know what they're gonna bring."
Across France, 5,000 charities depend on the food bank network, which now gets nearly half of its donations from grocery stores, according to Jacques Bailet, head of the French network of food banks known as Banques Alimentaires. The new law has increased the quantity and quality of donations. There are more fresh foods and products available further from their expiration date.
He says the law also helps cut back on food waste by getting rid of certain constraining contracts between supermarkets and food manufacturers.
"There was one food manufacturer that was not authorized to donate the sandwiches it made for a particular supermarket brand. But now, we get 30,000 sandwiches a month from them — sandwiches that used to be thrown away," Bailet says.
While the world wastes about one-third of the food it produces, and France wastes as much as 66 pounds per person per year, Americans waste some 200 billion pounds of food a year. That is enough to fill up the 90,000-seat Rose Bowl stadium every day, says Jonathan Bloom, the author of American Wasteland, about food waste in the United States. He says there are different ways of cutting back on food waste. For example, you can start from the end of the chain by banning food in landfills.
THE SALT
Anthony Bourdain Urges Americans To 'Value The Things We Eat'
Bloom says the French law is great, and he would love to see such a policy shift in Washington. But it strikes him as difficult, politically, especially in today's climate. He knows Americans will be less excited about the government telling businesses what to do.
"The French version is quite socialist, but I would say in a great way because you're providing a way where they [supermarkets] have to do the beneficial things not only for the environment but from an ethical standpoint of getting healthy food to those who need it and minimizing some of the harmful greenhouse gas emissions that come when food ends up in a landfill," he says.
The French law seems to have encouraged the development of a whole ecosystem of businesses that are helping grocery stores better manage their stocks and reduce food waste, although a formal review is still in the works.
Parliamentarian Guillaume Garot wrote the law. He believes the fight against food waste should be as important as other national causes, like wearing seatbelts. Garot says he has been contacted by people from all over the world who want to do the same thing.
"It's changed the supermarkets' practices," he says. "They're more attentive to their environment, and they give more."
But most important, says Garot, is that a supermarket is now seen as more than just a profit center. It's a place where there has to be humanity.
Melony Edwards: Trailblazer in Sustainable Agriculture
Melony Edwards, Farm Manager at Willowood Farm of Ebey’s Prairie, will be speaking at the Inaugural Seattle Food Tank Summit, “Growing Food Policy,” which will be held in partnership with the Environmental Working Group, Food Action, Garden-Raised Bounty, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Seattle University’s Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability on March 17, 2018.
Melony Edwards: Trailblazer in Sustainable Agriculture
Melony Edwards, Farm Manager at Willowood Farm of Ebey’s Prairie, will be speaking at the Inaugural Seattle Food Tank Summit, “Growing Food Policy,” which will be held in partnership with the Environmental Working Group, Food Action, Garden-Raised Bounty, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Seattle University’s Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability on March 17, 2018.
Melony Edwards will be speaking at the Seattle Food Tank Summit.
Melony Edwards is a first-generation farmer currently working as Farm Manager at Willowood Farm of Ebey’s Prairie on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle. Bringing her unique perspective as a young, African American woman working on a small farm, Edwards started her food journey in the culinary and hospitality field. Driven by her personal love for food and insatiable curiosity, Edwards has worked in many different aspects of the culinary world, quickly climbing the industry ladder. Starting out as an intern in a four-star Seattle restaurant, Edwards has also worked on cruise ships, managed the ordering and event details for a division of Boeing’s Eurest catering program, and worked at Whole Foods Market.
Since starting at Willowood Farm in 2016, Edwards immediately immersed herself in the small farming community she now calls home. She quickly rose through the ranks at Willowood, starting out as a field crew grunt hand, which lead her to her current farm management role. Edwards has been involved in local efforts to relaunch the Whidbey Island Grown brand, helping to promote Whidbey as a unique culinary and agricultural destination. In addition, Edwards is currently working on a program in collaboration with Finnriver Farm and Cidery and Port Townsend Land Trust to bring more young African American students interested in farming to local Pacific Northwest farms so they can experience farming and get their hands dirty.
Edwards holds a degree in hospitality and restaurant management from Johnson & Wales University Miami as well as a degree in culinary arts from Le Cordon Bleu.
Food Tank spoke with Edwards about her ongoing efforts to encourage young aspiring farmers:
Food Tank (FT): What originally inspired you to get involved in your work?
Melony Edwards (ME): I studied culinary arts and hospitality and have worked in fine dining restaurants and high-end hotels and cruise ships. I began wondering where our food comes from. When I was told our food was sourced from a major distributor, I wondered where they got the food from? Oftentimes as a culinary student and a new chef you are tasked with creating seasonal menus, but how can one understand seasonality without first-hand experience of growing food or raising animals for meat and then processing them? I kept finding myself thinking, “How can I call myself a chef when I don’t even know how to grow my own food?” And I began exploring that question. First, I signed up for local farm classes, then volunteered at local small farms, and eventually landed a full-season internship at Willowood Farm of Ebey’s Prairie, a high volume mixed vegetable farm selling directly to some of Seattle’s best restaurants. I remained at Willowood Farm of Ebey’s Prairie and now work as the farm manager.
FT: How are you helping to build a better food system?
ME: I actually grow and produce food. I like to lead by example, and I have found that while there are more conversations about food and food systems, those conversations often lack the voices of real farmers who are typically more comfortable working in the field than attending food conferences and posting on social media. I help to bridge the gap for the farming community. Additionally, I am very passionate about educating my own Black American community about the need for healthy, well-grown food for our communities, and about the principle that working in agriculture is not demeaning, as perceived by many Black Americans. I want to bring pride in farming back to the Black American community because I know we have a lot to give and an unique history of agriculture and culinary food traditions.
FT: What’s the most pressing issue in food and agriculture that you’d like to see solved?
ME: I see three distinct issues. The first issue is the lack of racial diversity in land ownership and access, particularly for Black Americans. Agricultural land is a great natural resource, and Black Americans simply do not have a seat at that table, especially when it comes to farmlands. In the last few years, Black Americans have started to become a more powerful presence in the farming movement; however, that typically is in regards to urban farming. And while urban farming holds much promise, especially as an initial introduction to agriculture for many Black Americans, we need to reach beyond rooftop and alleyway plots for real agricultural lands with real yield potentials. Black Americans are almost completely excluded from purchasing land in rural areas, including in our communities. I would like to see more Black Americans purchasing agricultural lands, and more resources, and encouragement and discussion that can help them to do so. And clearly, this is double-sided because it has to start with us! Black Americans need to stop thinking that farming is slave work. Before we were slaves in this country, we were great agriculturists in our homelands. Not only that, we were brought unwillingly to this land, yet we were the ones getting sweaty and dirty. Who were the true farmers that created the great Southern agricultural tradition? It was my people. Now we simply need to do it on our own terms, with our own lands. As Malcolm X said, “Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.”
The second issue is the concept that food needs to be cheaper. And this is a sentiment that seems to cross all racial boundaries. As a real working farmer, I quickly learned that farming isn’t about being rich. One of my farming mentors likes to say, “You don’t farm to make a million dollars. You farm because you find you cannot, not farm. Once you admit that, well then you figure out how to make it pay the bills.” Whole, unprocessed food grown on farms and sold directly at farmers markets is usually sold at a fair price. However, processed food is sold at an unbelievably low price due to farm subsidies. When a burger and fries from McDonalds cost less than a pound of broccoli, something is broken in our system. We need to stop underwriting the costs of cheap food that is harming our health, our agricultural communities, and our environment on so many levels, and we need to encourage a shift to fairly priced food. With that said, it will not be an easy conversion to have, and this sort of change will take time. We need to find ways to make good, healthy food accessible for lower-income communities. Oftentimes, the very farmers growing our food can’t afford to buy it.
The third issue is the notion that one farming practice is better than another farming practice: Conventional vs. Organic vs. Permaculture vs. Veganic vs. Bio-dynamic vs. Tilling vs. No-Till — the list goes on. There is no one right way to farm. But there is one truth, when farms and farmlands are in the hands of their owners, rather than giant international corporate farms, they are inherently invested in creating sustainable farming systems and practices that foster good stewardship of their lands. We need to shift the conversation away from what is the latest trending on twitter farming movement and talk more about the basics of sustainable practices, ensuring that the land can keep being farmed by farmers that can afford to keep farming.
FT: What innovations in food and agriculture are you most excited about?
ME: This may not be innovative, but I really love the growing involvement of chefs and their demand to know where their food comes from. Many chefs have started going out to the farm to meet farmers and are actively engaging in the farming process. Impassioned chefs leading the farm-to-table movement can bring awareness and understanding to a larger audience more easily than most farmers can. And when those chefs serve local food, it can have a huge impact on those small farms they are purchasing from.
FT: What is one small change every person can make in their daily lives to make a big difference?
ME: I honestly think that all people need to go and volunteer on a farm! I think that this would help more people understand how difficult it is to grow food and perhaps help them understand why an heirloom tomato is sold for US$5 a pound at the Farmers Market.
FT: What is the best opportunity for young or aspiring farmers and entrepreneurs to get a foothold in America’s agricultural future?
ME: Getting your foot in the door can be challenging as there is a highly romanticized notion about farming and sometimes people do not realize how hard the work is. Internet warriors may know how to post about and frame their experiences, but they don’t know how to actually weed the onions. I think the best thing you can do is participate in a full season internship with a farm and learn as much as you can with an open mind. It definitely helps to stay for multiple seasons with the same farm if possible; being involved from seed to harvest is so beneficial. A great resource to find paid internships is ATTRA and Good Food Jobs. I think anybody with even a perfunctory interest in any aspect of food would benefit highly from this. I would also definitely encourage aspiring farmers to attend either a farm school like the Organic Farm School on Whidbey Island or incubator programs like Viva Farms or Tilth Alliance’s Farm Business Incubator.
FT: How can we best stimulate young people’s curiosity about food and agriculture and encourage their participation in building healthier food systems?
ME: Start them young! Get their hands dirty! In your region, consider purchasing seasonally. Look up your area’s food seasonality, go to your farmers market, and buy what is in season. Then go home and create a meal with only the seasonal ingredients. Be willing to seek out new experiences and new tastes, and the kids will follow suit (even if they protest a lot at first!). The two tweens on my farm know what a kohlrabi looks like. How many of you knew what a kohlrabi looked like when you were 10? Those are little things, but over a lifetime will make a huge difference.
Food Tank’s 2018 Seattle Food Tank Summit is SOLD OUT! Please join us via livestream on our Facebook Page or FoodTank.com.
Pure Flavor® - IFCO Partnership Ensures Year-Round Delivery
Pure Flavor® - IFCO Partnership Ensures Year-Round
Delivery of Quality Fresh Produce Across North America
Use of Shared and Reusable “Smart Packaging” Maximizes Operational Efficiency
Tampa, Florida (February 27, 2018) - Pure Flavor®’s use of IFCO Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) has had a positive impact for the Leamington, Ontario-based, a vertically integrated provider of a wide variety of fresh produce products year-round to retailers across North America. After six years of collaboration, Pure Flavor®’s use of IFCO RPCs has continued to grow rapidly to include packaging for a wide range of products, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and eggplants.
“IFCO is a valuable partner,” said Jason Veno, Packaging Operations Manager for Pure Flavor®. “Not only do they provide us with ‘smart packaging’ that protects and cools our products extremely well, they maximize our operational efficiency by ensuring we have an adequate supply of RPCs year-round, even during peak growing seasons. That predictability means we can continue to serve our customers and their shoppers efficiently, effectively and on time”, said Veno.
IFCO now provides Pure Flavor® with over one million RPCs annually. They are used to package fresh produce at locations in San Antonio, Texas, Romulus, Michigan, and Leamington, Ontario, and are then shipped to retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
“IFCO’s partnership with Pure Flavor® is based on thoughtful collaboration and the shared goal of providing consumers with a constant supply of high quality, safe, nutritious and affordable produce each- and every- day,” said Daniel Walsh, President, IFCO North America. “Our RPCs are tailor-made for growers like Pure Flavor® that want the best possible efficiency and sustainability for their packaging, and we are proud to work side-by-side with such a visionary company. We are also proud of our presence and expansion in the Canadian marketplace, as well as the supporting infrastructure we have established there to better serve our many Canadian customers.”
IFCO and Pure Flavor® have developed a forecasting model that tracks the company’s produce orders and growing seasons and ensures on-time delivery of the right number and type of RPCs throughout the year. In addition, some RPCs are stored on-site, providing the Pure Flavor® operations group with greater flexibility to manage its product flow.
Ongoing collaboration between Pure Flavor® and IFCO will continue to optimize supply chain operations, as well as reduce the companies’ environmental footprint in the months and years ahead.
IFCO and Pure Flavor® will be exhibiting at the upcoming Southern Exposure Convention & Trade Show in Tampa, FL on March 3rd. IFCO will be located at Booth #120. Pure Flavor® will be located at Booth #605. Retail partners are encouraged to stop by the Pure Flavor® booth to learn more about the company’s greenhouse vegetable products as well as the expansion to Georgia with a new 75-acre high tech greenhouse facility.
Need For Modern Technology Use In Agriculture Stressed
Use of modern techniques and technologies in Agriculture is the need of the hour which carries equal significance for both the businessmen and the men of science and technology.
Need For Modern Technology Use In Agriculture Stressed
Rukhshan Mir (@rukhshanmirpk) February 14, 2018
Use of modern techniques and technologies in Agriculture is the need of the hour which carries equal significance for both the businessmen and the men of science and technology
LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News
Use of modern techniques and technologies in Agriculture is the need of the hour which carries equal significance for both the businessmen and the men of science and technology.
It was the upshot of the speeches delivered at a seminar on 'High-Value Agriculture' held here at Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Wednesday. The LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid, Ceo Yuksel Seeds, Turkey Yaqub Yuksel, Convener LCCI Standing Committee on Mechanized & High Value Agriculture Mian Shafqat Ali, Ex-vice Chancellor Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi Dr Rai Niaz Ahmed, Dr Khawaja Asif, Mian Shaukat Ali, Faisal Iqbal Sheikh and Naeem Hanif also spoke on the occasion.
The experts said that there was a dire need for reforms in the agriculture sector and addition in the cropped area as a country could not afford to stay where it was today in terms of cropped areas and per hectare yield, because it was already running well short of per capita food availability.
They said that yield gap in the four major crops of Pakistan was three times from the best producers in the world such as China and Egypt.
They said that low yield had contributed to the poverty in rural areas besides forcing the country to import agriculture produces to feed its population.
Malik Tahir Javaid said the agriculture sector of Pakistan continued to be the single largest and dominant driving force for growth which contributed almost 19.5 percent in Gross Domestic Product.
It was the main source of livelihood for 42.3 percent of total labour force despite the fact that agriculture mechanization in Pakistan was very limited. He said that area under cultivation for important crops accounted for 23.85 percent of the value added in overall agriculture.
Wheat accounted for 9.6 percent of the total value added in agriculture and cotton production was 10.67 million bales. For the sake of increasing the share of agriculture sector in GDP, the existing area of cultivation had to be increased on war-footing.
Malik Tahir Javaid said that due to lack of technology usage in the agriculture sector, we face the problem of crops yields gaps. The average yields production in the agriculture sector of Pakistan was far below the level of those countries that used the technology in their agriculture sector, he said, citing that level of yields of different crops was 50 to 83 percent lower than the average of other countries of the world.
He said the prospects of Pakistan's economic prosperity heavily depended on the performance of agriculture sector. It had to be evaluated that government was giving subsidy to farmers at various stages of purchasing fertilizers, pesticides, seeds as well as selling their output at support prices but still this sector had not succeeded in enhancing the level of productivity.
He said that in the present scenario of water scarcity, the sustainable food security of Pakistan had to be ensured by way of adopting new techniques. "There are many developing countries like Pakistan which are encouraging corporate farming and in parallel to that, they are fostering high-value agriculture that includes vertical farming, hydroponics farming, aquaponics farming and arctic farming etc.
If government helps the farmers in acquiring these technologies at affordable prices then it is highly likely that new employment opportunities will be created and the productivity will also increase." Mian Shaukat Ali said that Chamber of Commerce and Industry played an important role to promote agriculture sector of any country.
All Chambers of Commerce and industry of Pakistan should pay attention to agriculture so that they could highly contribute to the development of this sector. He said that another problem of the agricultural sector was lack of agricultural graduates or their non-seriousness towards agricultural developments, adding that had they worked for the development of this sector seriously it would be beneficial for the country.
Transforming German Cities Into Organic Food Gardens
Transforming German Cities Into Organic Food Gardens
With ever more people living in urban centers, food security — and quality — is becoming a pressing issue. In Germany, cities are increasingly taking the task of producing organic products to a hyperlocal level.
In Nuremberg, every first-grader starts the year with a gift: a yellow plastic lunchbox filled with healthy food.
The gift, refilled daily, is part of a city initiative to increase the share of local, organic food in public institutions — not just daycare centers and schools, but also retirement homes, hospitals, correctional facilities and administrative centers.
As part of Biostädte, or organic cities, it joins a network of municipalities across Germany — including Munich, Bremen and Karlsruhe — working to make food production healthier and more sustainable.
Read more: How sustainably do Germans eat?
To mark their first day of school, first-graders in Nuremberg are given a flashy new lunch box — filled with organic food
Greening cities — also for food production
In other cities like Berlin, Cologne and Kiel, similar food councils are introducing urban and community-supported agriculture, which includes the greening of new buildings and the transformation of uncontaminated industrial land into community gardens.
Their plans also include projects for car-free, solar-powered districts where edible plants grow on and around buildings.
Read more: From gray to green: Urban farming around the world
Local citizens are being encouraged to cultivate useful crops, using public green areas in their neighborhoods to plant rows of potato plants or fruit trees. Doing so gives municipal coffers a break: it costs less than designing and maintaining public green spaces with ornamental plants.
Urban agriculture: Food grown in the city
These urban agricultural spaces are intended to become focal points where food is produced, processed and traded.
In Berlin — with its 3.6 million inhabitants and virtually no local agricultural land — the need for such initiatives focusing on high-quality, sustainable food is particularly high.
To meet these goals, Berlin has recently created the House of Food foundation, to help the city make the transition to organic products — without a budget increase, and if possible, without subsidies.
The city is following a model first created by Copenhagen, where in 2007 the Danish capital brought together cooks, food experts, teachers and designers to offer advice and cooking courses.
Today, roughly 70 percent of the food in Copenhagen's city-run kitchens is organic; in smaller institutions, like kindergartens, that figure is as high as 90 percent.
Taking the lead in Germany
In Nuremberg, the city wanted to lead by example: every February, Biofach, which according to organizers is the world's largest trade fair for organic products, takes place in the northern Bavarian city.
At this year's Biofach, increasing public demand for organic products is in the spotlight: The organic food market has grown by about 6 percent in Germany over the past year, making up about 5 percent of the total food market there.
Since 2003, certified organic caterers have been providing meals to daycare centers and schools in Nuremberg, and leading cooking workshops for students, teachers and caretakers.
"The proportion of organic ingredients has continuously increased — and usually without any increase in price," said Werner Ebert, head of the environment and health department at BioMetropole Nürnberg, an organization that works on the initiative with the city.
In the meantime, some of the facilities have begun cooking meals themselves, he added. "This fresh food has more nutrients, and is cheaper than having meals delivered."
By sticking to seasonal products and reducing the amount of meat on offer, the city is able to keep costs low.
Organic food catching on in India
"Back in 2003, organic initiatives were a fringe topic — but today we're seeing plenty of support for our work," Ebert told DW.
Those interested in the organic movement have the chance to visit farms in the region twice a year, though the "Bio on Tour" initiative, while organized trips abroad allow citizens to see how other regions in Europe are introducing sustainability into their lives.
Even Nuremberg's world-famous Christmas market has made the move to sustainability, with many stands offering products with quality organic labels — some coming directly from the producer.
As Ebert points out, organic efforts don't end at the city limits. For example, the city provides financial support for a traditional apple orchard project in the nearby Hersbruck Mountains, which produces bottles of Pom200, an organic apple juice.
Read more: Can Germany's heirloom apple varieties be saved?
'Nutritional change begins in the city'
"Civic space plays an important role in the societal debate on nutrition," said Philipp Stierand, an expert on nutrition and cities. "It's all about regionality and food origins."
Urbanization, he points out, takes a serious toll on the environment: arable land surrounding cities is built up and resources are depleted, while conventional industrial agriculture can deplete the soil, damage ecosystems and contribute to climate change with air pollution produced by long shipping routes.
Locally grown foods often have a much smaller carbon footprint
Conventional agriculture, believes Stierand, is not sustainable in the long run — water quality, biodiversity and climate change must be made a priority.
At the same time, society is faced with the task of ensuring food security, both in terms of quantity and quality. Cities are increasingly addressing food-related issues like obesity and allergies, and citizens are demanding that they have a say in where their food comes from.
Though the majority of the global food supply is still organized at a national and global scale, Stierand believes the regional share — be it local markets, corner stores or home delivery of organic products — will steadily increase, with the local food supply becoming more diverse.
"Nutritional change begins in the city," said Stierand. "These nutrition councils, being set up all over Germany, are a clear signal that consumers are looking for — and organizing — local alternatives to supermarkets and discount stores."
BCFN YES! 2018 Competition Motice Now Online
Like every year, the BCFN YES! (Young Earth Solutions) 2018 Research Grant Competition invites young researchers from all over the world to submit projects aimed at promoting agricultural and food sustainability.
BCFN YES! expresses the key values of the BCFN Foundation: the commitment to engage young people, the drive towards innovation and the desire to find new paths of sustainability, with an international and a multidisciplinary spirit.
Who can participate in BCFN YES!
As in previous editions, the competition is open to young PhD students and post doctoral researchers under the age of 35.
Awards
BCFN YES! will award the excellence in research with three grants of up to EUR 20,000 for the period of one year, to support the activities of the winning projects.
When to apply
Candidates must submit their applications by June 14, 2018, 11:59 CEST.
How to apply
Candidates can register for the competition, individually or as a team, on the BCFN Foundation website.
To apply, candidates must submit a research proposal aimed at improving the sustainability of the food system. Projects for the 2018 competition must address one or more of the following research areas:
1. Sustainable and healthy diets.
2. Sustainable agriculture.
3. Food security.
Learn all the details about the application procedure and research areas.
Peek Preview of Hubitus Urban Sustainability Hub in Israel
Peek Preview of Hubitus Urban Sustainability Hub in Israel
Hubitus at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens will be a zero-energy hub with smart water and solar collection systems, built from recycled containers.
By Abigail Klein Leichman FEBRUARY 5, 2018
Hubitus - the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
The architectural plans are completed for Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability, and it’s easy to see why the co-founders are fielding inquiries from botanical gardens all over the US and Canada.
“We took the entrepreneurship hub model from the startup world and adapted it to the environmental world. This is something that has never been done before, definitely not at a botanical garden,” says co-founder and director Lior Gottesman.
She and co-founder Adi Bar-Yoseph have described Hubitus, a unique co-working space for environmental entrepreneurs, environmental artists and designers, urban planners, social activists, gardeners and urban farmers, at international conferences in Hawaii, Miami, San Diego and St. Louis.
Open classrooms at Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
Recently they accepted invitations from the heads of the Chicago Botanical Gardens and the UC Davis Botanical Gardens in California.
“We are invited to talk all over the world as botanical gardens rethink their social role,” Gottesman tells ISRAEL21c. “We’ve taken it to the next level by having change agents sitting in the garden. We’re the startup nation so it’s clear this innovation will come from here.”
Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
Hubitus already exists virtually for the past three years, providing courses, training, events and professional connections to 80 change agents. The hub also runs outreach programs including an initiative to establish sustainable gardens in preschools.
The physical space to house 30 Hubitus members was planned with the input of that community in coordination with Noam Austerlitz, a prominent Israeli “green” architect and lecturer at Tel Aviv University’s schools of architecture and environmental studies.
Office of Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
The zero-energy hub will generate as much renewable energy as it uses, aided by intelligent water collection and solar energy systems. “It will be built entirely of recycled containers using green construction techniques,” says Gottesman.
“In addition to the workspaces, our hub also will have classrooms, open spaces, rooftop gardens, green walls and more because our community needs places to prove and demonstrate concepts in areas such as beekeeping, hydroponics and vertical gardening.”
Closed classroom at Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
The grading of the site has started, with funding from Leichtag Foundation, and further fundraising is being conducted through JNF Australia and the Jerusalem Foundation. In addition to Austerlitz Architecture, the hub has engaged the services of Shlomo Aronson Architects for landscape design.
Italy Among virtuous Nations Against Food Waste
Italy Among virtuous Nations Against Food Waste
How much food do we waste every year? The BCFN foundation invites us to reflect, on the occasion of the Italian National Day Against Food Waste, held on February 5, every year.
Across the world, food waste costs 750 billion euros per year, that is almost twice the Italian GDP for 2017. This figure is even scarier if we translate it into kilograms. Focusing on Italy, we discover that household waste "weighs" 145kg per person each year, which is equivalent to 1,000 small apples (100g each) or 1,500 pasta dishes (circa 100g ) or just under 750 tinned beans (200g tins), much more than the average consumption of a 3-member household. But waste does not just come from households.
In Italy, the fruits and vegetables binned by retailers waste over 73 million cubic meters of water (used to produce them), that is 36.5 billion 2-liter bottles. According to the Food Sustainability Index, the research developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit with BCFN, Italy is scoring significantly in its fight against food waste, and with the help of national policies against industrial food loss and waste, such as the Gadda Law, it is 4th in the ranking of virtuous countries tackling food loss and waste.
1) Make a reasoned list: before shopping, check what you really need, make a list - and stick to it - remember that wasting food means wasting money
2) When you are cooking, keep an eye on quantities and only cook what you can eat
3) Check your labels: always monitor the 'eat before' dates
4) When storing food in the fridge, put the short-life food in front and store in the freezer what you are not likely to eat soon
5) Recipes against food waste: don't bin leftovers and food waste, they can become new creative dishes
UAE To Produce 60 Percent More Food By 2051
UAE To Produce 60 Percent More Food By 2051
Jasmine Al Kuttab/Abu Dhabi
February 5, 2018
The UAE stands in the vanguard of those supporting agricultural innovations and scientific research
The UAE aims to produce a whopping 60 percent more food to feed a global population of nine billion people within the next 33 years, the Minister of Climate Change and Environment announced on Monday.
During the fifth edition of the Global Forum for Innovation in Agriculture, held under the patronage of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs; Dr Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, said the globalised nature of the food supply chain means that no country, region or continent is immune to food insecurity.
"Given the growing scarcity of fresh water, the scale of degradation of arable land and the increasing volatility of weather as a result of the changing climate, the task at hand is immense," he said.
The minister stressed that the UAE is working hard towards achieving the production of at least 60 percent more food for export in just three decades.
"We believe this event will generate meaningful debate, actions, partnerships, and opportunities to help us - in just 33 years from now - produce at least 60 percent more food than we do today to feed a global population of nine billion.
"This is a challenge that transcends national borders and is one felt acutely here in the Middle East, where burgeoning populations in arid regions are placing a strain on the capacity of nations to feed their citizens."
Dr Al Zeyoudi said that innovation is thus crucial for agriculture, sustainability and food production. "We in the UAE, are among the countries in the region that stand in the vanguard of those supporting agricultural innovations and scientific research."
He pointed out that the UAE has had a unique experience in agricultural innovations. "This is spite of the hard climatic conditions and water scarcity, the country has succeeded thanks to political will and the adoption of modern farming techniques, in developing a sustainable farming sector that contributes to meeting some of the food requirements of the country."
UAE looks for collaborations
Dr. Al Zeyoudi added that the two-day forum, which is the world's largest showcase of agricultural technology, will help raise the level of collaboration between the UAE and other nations. "We recognize the need for global expertise, and welcome the opportunity for international involvement in the regional agricultural sector."
He said Abu Dhabi is ideally located on the shores of the Arabian Gulf, at the heart of the world's largest arid region. "There is the potential for innovative water-saving technologies, hydroponics and high-tech agriculture, amongst many technologies, to be deployed here to great success."
He pointed out that the public, private sectors, and the not-for-profit groups must work together to solve pressing challenges.
jasmine@khaleejtimes.com
New Regenerative Organic Certification Champions Healthy Soil And Healthy Farmers
New Regenerative Organic Certification Champions Healthy Soil And Healthy Farmers
The Rodale Institute’s new label goes beyond USDA organic.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF RODALE INSTITUTE
There’s a new organic label in town, and it’s definitely one you’ll want to pay attention to.
The Regenerative Organic Certified Label (seen above) builds on the standards set by the USDA organic label by putting a strong emphasis on soil quality and, most notably, setting social fairness benchmarks that focus on the health and safety of farm workers.
As we’ve reported previously, many of us believe the USDA label regulates more than it actually does. For example, the USDA rules focus on mitigating environmental damage through the use of synthetic pesticides, sewage sludge, and genetic engineering. All of that is a good start, but many feel it doesn’t go far enough when it comes to ensuring healthy soil, biodiversity, and high animal welfare standards.
The Rodale Institute, which is spearheading the Regenerative Organic Certification label along with a coalition of farmers, scientists, nonprofits, and sustainably-minded companies, aims to plug the gaps in the USDA standards and address some of these long-held consumer concerns. The Regenerative Organic Certification consists of three pillars: soil health, social fairness, and animal welfare.
The first pillar, soil health, is one of the founding principles of the Rodale Institute and has been the basis for much of their research over the past 70 years. They believe that organic agriculture should do more than just strive to mitigate damage to soil; instead, it should—and can—improve soil quality over time by adding nutrients and building up organic matter. In fact, research conducted by the Institute in 2014 estimated that if all current farmland and pasture shifted to regenerative organic practices, 100% of annual carbon dioxide emissions could be sequestered in the soil. The Regenerative Organic Certification moves towards making this a reality by promoting the use of cover crops, no or low tillage, and rotational grazing. (This small farm used regenerative practices to save farmland damaged by conventional practices, including pesticides and over tilling.)
The social fairness pillar of the new label is entirely missing from the USDA organic standards. It draws on international Fair Trade standards that protect growers in developing countries who are often exploited with harsh working conditions and meager compensation by big corporations. The Fair For Life label, which also serves as inspiration, extends Fair Trade standards to all countries, though it is not as widely recognized. However, the Regenerative Organic Certification is unique in considering human welfare a part of organic agriculture, making it as important as soil and animal welfare. Notably, the certification requires that living wages be paid to all farm workers and sets fair pricing standards.
In terms of animal welfare, the Regenerative Organic Certification looks for grass-fed and pasture raised animals, which goes further than the USDA organic rules, which only say animals must have access to the outdoors and that rudiments, like cows and sheep, must have access to pasture land during the grazing season, a minimum of 120 days a year. The new label would also prohibit concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which are massive industrialized feedlots that cram upwards of 1000 cattle into crowded, concrete quarters. In addition, it would adhere to the five freedoms of animal welfare, and seek to minimize transport distances for animals that can lead to excess suffering.
The label, which is being administered by NSF International, is currently undergoing a public review period that lasts until October 12, 2017. You are encouraged read the certification details here and send feedback.
(Whether you're starting your first garden or switching to organic, Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening has all the answers and advice you need—get your copy today!)