Could the Future of Farming Come from Thinking inside the Box?
Rural communities often lack the resources needed to access nutritious food. Farm from a Box is a toolkit that contains all of the core components needed to grow your own food, on a two acre plot of land, without the need for an existing grid. Imagine the good it can do by growing local, organic food for a school, or helping jumpstart food production after a disaster.
 
If You Want to See the Future of Electricity, Look to Africa and India
In the past few years, a growing number of energy-poor communities have gained access to electricity with small, independent energy systems fueled by the sun, known as solar microgrids. Microgrids have the potential to fast-track development in poor countries, shift the balance of power toward renewables, and upend conventional energy across the globe.
 
Soil Health Improving in US and Canada, Due to Acid Rain Decline
A group of scientists from the US and Canada have found that the acidity of soils in some parts of the continent has declined, abating years of harm to plants and aquatic life by reversing the depletion of a critical nutrient in soil: calcium. According to Gregory Lawrence, US Geological Survey chemist, soil recovery is a key step to remedy the acid rain impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
 
Five Scientific Developments That Will Change the Way We Eat
Bacon-lovers wailed and gnashed their teeth when processed meats were declared carcinogenic, but that’s not the half of it. Here are five recent scientific developments that will have an enormous impact on the way people eat.
 
Vibrating Bees Tell the State of the Hive
Recently, honeybees have been under stress from a mysterious threat called colony collapse disorder, which causes the majority of worker bees to abandon the hive. While scientists are investigating the causes of the phenomenon, beekeepers could benefit from technologies that help them monitor the health of their hives. Researchers have now developed and tested a new prototype device that can remotely monitor hive activity without disturbing the bees.
 
Insects Should Be Part of a Sustainable Diet in Future, Says Report
Insects should become a staple of people’s diets around the world as an environmentally friendly alternative to meat. But persuading consumers to overcome “the yuck factor” will be a key issue, says a report by the Waste and Resources Action Program. According to their findings, novel foods in Western diets will incorporate insects to some degree, but the major growth will be for feed to livestock.