Edible Coating Allows Avocados to Stay Ripe for Twice as Long
A tasteless coating developed by Santa Barbara company Apeel Sciences controls the two main factors that cause fresh produce to go bad: the rate at which water escapes the surface of fruit and vegetables, and the rate at which oxygen enters. Apeel hopes its technology can also reduce the amount of fruit and vegetables that are thrown out by retailers and consumers because of spoilage.
Using food waste to enrich your soil benefits the earth in a number of ways, including reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and decreasing methane emissions in landfills. Launched in 2016, the ShareWaste app uses a digital map to connect individuals with food scraps to nearby neighbors who have a compost system like a heap or a bin. Users accepting compost scraps can mark their compost site on the map for other users to find.
ChemChina is substantially raising spending on research and development, with the biggest increases going to groundbreaking digital technology. FarmShots is a software that they developed that uses satellites and drones to pinpoint sick crops in the field. The advantage of satellite images is that they spotlight problem areas that could take a farmer a week or more to pinpoint scouting the spread.
Algae grows 10 times more rapidly than terrestrial plants and needs less than a tenth of the land for production. It grows on non-productive and non-arable land, doesn't compete with other crops for land, can use a variety of water sources, and produces no fertilizer runoff or downstream eutrophication. Some experts believe that algae could soon be used as biomass for carbon-neutral fuels, animal and marine feed, and high-quality protein supplements for humans.
Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (a UK based non-profit) supports the proactive sharing of open data to make information about agriculture and nutrition available, accessible, and usable to deal with the challenge of ensuring world food security. The organization argues that open access and open data increase transparency, as well as citations and recognition, which are essential for reaching lofty goals like beating world hunger.