A Diet Change to Fight Climate Change: Eat More Pulses
Climate change may seem to many of us a challenge too daunting to tackle directly through our own actions. But there is one small change each of us can do to play our part—shifting our diets to be healthier and more environmentally sustainable. An understated food group, pulses include common beans, chickpeas, faba bean, dried peas, and lentils, and have an extraordinary range of health and environmental benefits. Pulses reduce the use of fossil fuels, contribute to soil fertilization, and are highly water efficient.
 
Are Robots Taking over the Farm? In Japan, They Are.
A Japanese firm will soon open what may be the most futuristic farm yet: operated by robots, with human assistants in lab coats instead of overalls, and vegetables growing vertically on ceiling-high metal shelves. Spread, a cutting-edge food producer based in Kyoto, says its one-acre indoor farm will open in 2017, producing 30,000 heads of pesticide-free lettuce a day. By using efficient lighting and watering and shrinking the number of human employees, Spread will significantly reduce its costs.
 
Tax Food, Not Just Fuel, to Save the Planet
Every year that global carbon dioxide levels go up, countries need more ways to cut emissions. A new paper reasons that growing food, the source of about one-third of carbon dioxide pollution, should also be a target for taxation. The good news is that they're not talking about food that's good for you. The items most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions are often the least healthy, particularly red meat.
 
NY Students Win $20,000 Grant for Anti-Hunger App Idea
Students from a New York high school have won a $20,000 grant from Verizon for their concept for an app to combat hunger. The app would give consumers a chance to buy a meal for a needy person while ordering food for themselves. In addition to winning the grant, the students will work alongside experts from the Center for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab to turn their idea into a working mobile app.
 
Sizzling Steaks May Soon Be Lab-Grown
Several startups are racing to be the first to fill consumers’ plates with laboratory-developed hamburgers and sausages. The goal is to remake modern animal agriculture, which the UN estimates consumes one-third of the world’s grains. The companies say that growing meat with cells and bioreactors consumes a fraction of the nutrients, creates far less waste, and avoids the need for antibiotics and additives commonly used in meat production.