The Future of Food, Agriculture, and Aquaculture

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caltrek
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Reality Bites Ultra-Fast Grocery Delivery
by Kia Kokalitcheva
April 2, 2022

https://www.axios.com/grocery-deliverys ... d986d.html

Introduction:
(Axios) It’s Groundhog Day — that is, if you’re watching the recent boom in ultra-fast grocery delivery services whose success hinges on achieving extraordinarily high order volumes, just like a generation of on-demand services hoped to a few years ago.

Why it matters: We’re already seeing market consolidation, companies going out of business, and desperation for new cash infusions as the realities of the ultra-fast grocery delivery business model set in.

The big picture: Over the past year or so, a number of companies promising to deliver grocery and convenience items in a matter of minutes have cropped up in U.S. cities. Some had already been operating in Europe, too.
  • The pandemic’s restrictions were a boon for all kinds of delivery businesses while people were stuck at home.
Conclusion:
The bottom line: Margins in grocery delivery remain very slim.
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funkervogt
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Re: The Future of Food, Agriculture, and Aquaculture

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Field tests show that knockout of KRN2 in maize or OsKRN2 in rice increased grain yield by ~10% and ~8%, respectively, with no apparent trade-off in other agronomic traits. This suggests potential applications of KRN2 and its orthologs for crop improvement.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg7985
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caltrek
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Big Tech’s Food-delivery Apps Face a Grassroots Revolt
by Dean Kuipers
April 6, 2022

https://thefern.org/2022/04/big-techs-f ... ts-revolt/

Introduction:
(Food & Environment Reporting Network) When Grubhub came to Iowa City in 2017, Jon Sewell got what he describes as a “call to action.” He owns a D.P. Dough franchise there and had been using a delivery service called OrderUp to get his calzones to college students. But then Grubhub bought OrderUp and doubled the commission on orders to an astronomical 30 percent, plus fees. At those rates, Sewell says, he lost money on every order.

So in January 2018, Sewell joined forces with about 25 Iowa City restaurant owners who chipped in to launch their own delivery co-op called Chomp. The business, which now employs five to seven people full time and about 100 independent drivers, caps commissions at 15 percent, redistributes profits to the co-op members, and offers local customer service, which Grubhub had outsourced.

Sewell’s local experiment has national implications. At the start of the pandemic, food delivery apps, including the “Big 3” — Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash — were hailed as saviors, facilitating a takeout boom meant to keep restaurants and their staffs working. But eateries were quickly confronted by a harsh reality: These Silicon Valley and Wall Street–backed firms, which together dominate 93 percent of the market share nationwide, are designed to scrape money out of local businesses — sucking up a combined $9.5 billion in revenues in 2020 alone — and send it to shareholders. Meanwhile, without dine-in customers, some restaurants were trapped in a money-losing proposition; 110,000 of them closed, either permanently or long-term, in the first year of the pandemic.

“The majority of consumers really want to support locally owned restaurants,” says Kennedy Smith, a senior researcher at the nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ISLR). “They think that by ordering food through the big delivery apps, they’re supporting them. It’s actually not, and that’s a real disconnect.”
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caltrek
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The Cacao Tree Enigma
April 6, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/948896

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Cacao has long been a sought-after raw material for the worlds food industry. At first glance, it therefore seems surprising that biology knows little about the pollination of the cacao tree – although it is precisely this process that is the basis for fruit set and ultimately for the yield.

At second glance, however, one quickly understands why the pollination of this tropical crop holds so many secrets: cacao flowers are very small and are usually found by the thousands on a tree. The insects that gather at the flowers are also tiny and very diverse in terms of species. All these factors make systematic observations difficult.

Study in the north and south of Peru

A new study now brings more clarity. It was conducted in Peru by an international research team at the Chair of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg, Germany. The leading project organization was Bioversity International, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) funded the project.

South America is the native region of the cacao tree, which occurs there in the undergrowth of tropical rainforests. In agriculture, too, the cacao tree is planted in the shade of larger trees, in so-called agroforestry systems. The researchers applied glue to cacao flowers in 20 such systems in northern and southern Peru to investigate which animals visit the flowers. They also analysed the influence of the degree of shading and the distance to the nearest forest on visitor activity at the flowers.

The results have been published in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence.
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caltrek
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New Technique for Evaluating Coffee
April 21, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/950365

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) When coffee is sold as single origin or as the more expensive Arabica beans— do you really know whether you are getting what you’re paying for? Different coffee-producing regions need to enforce the standards and reputation of their coffee; thus, there is a growing industry looking at different technologies to more accurately classify and test coffee beans from different origins. Researchers in Columbia from Universidad del Valle and Universidad del Atlantico and the company Almacafe have taken steps toward making it easier to validate the variety under which the coffee is being sold. For this, they analyzed hundreds of coffee samples from multiple countries using highly sensitive Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and made these data broadly available in an inexpensive and interactive manner; thus, allowing researchers to look at their coffee to see ‘what’s in that cup’ (or should be.) This study was published in the open science journal GigaByte1.

NMR is an extremely sensitive technique that provides very detailed information, down to the level of molecular structure, about the contents of any sample analyzed. NMR has long been the gold standard in medical and pharmacology studies for content identification, but it is less often used in the food industry as it has been far too expensive for more general use. To open up the use of this technique in the coffee sector, the researchers here gathered 715 coffee samples from 27 different countries and used NMR to obtain detailed information on the content of those samples. They then made all of these data openly available for general use.

The researchers have primarily been engaged in using their technique to aid the Colombian Coffee Federation to enforce the Protected Geographical Indication (GPI) that monitors agricultural products, such as Columbian coffee, whose quality and reputation is linked to a specific geographical area. For this they have primarily been involved in using different technologies to classify coffee beans from different origins. However, it quickly became apparent to the scientists that NMR could also give very accurate information about coffee quality.

Lead author Julien Wist from Universidad del Valle noted that “Although roasting is very important as it can ruin the best beans, it is impossible to make good coffee out of bad beans.”
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caltrek
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Re: The Future of Food, Agriculture, and Aquaculture

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Preliminary Study Finds Organic Vegetables Contaminated with Wide Range of Disease-Causing Microbes
April 22, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/950533

Introduction:
New research to be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal (23-26 April), suggests that disease-causing amoebas that live on organic leafy vegetables can shelter human pathogens like Pseudomonas, Salmonella, and Helicobacter and are a potential risk to public health. The study is by Dr Yolanda Moreno and colleagues from Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain.

Foodborne illness from consuming contaminated fresh produce is common and can have serious effects on human health, especially when eaten raw. There is a growing demand for organically grown fruit and vegetables as people strive to eat healthy diets and amid concerns over potential contamination from pesticides, chemical fertilisers and herbicides. However, during growth, harvest, transportation and further processing and handling, fresh produce can be contaminated with pathogens from human or animal sources, through contact with soil, irrigation water, air, rain, insects, and during industrial produce-washing.

Vegetables can become contaminated with certain protozoa (single-celled organisms) such as free-living amoebae (FLA), that feed on bacteria and can act as hosts to pathogenic bacteria (the so-called “Trojan horses") which resist FLA digestion and could be a threat to public health.

“Food and food-related environments create an ideal meeting place for free-living amoebae and pathogenic bacteria”, explains Dr. Moreno. “However, comparatively little is known about the occurrence and diversity of free-living amoebae on organic vegetables and their role in transmitting human pathogens.”

To conduct a preliminary study of the FLA microbiome isolated from organic vegetables, researchers collected 17 samples of lettuce and spinach from local supermarkets in Valencia between November 2020 and May 2021
caltrek's comment: To me, this doesn't come across as particularly new or surprising. It almost sounds like a corporate agriculture financed study to discredit organic food. Still, it should serve as a cautionary note to those who handle and sell such produce as well as vendors to take those precautions that our grandmothers recommended to us in handling produce. This goes for both conventionally grown as well as organically grown items.
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Bean Cultivation in Diverse Agricultural Landscapes Promotes Bees and Increases Yields
April 25, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/950709

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Pollination by insects is essential for the production of many food crops. The presence of pollinators, such as bees, depends on the availability of nesting sites and sufficient food. If these conditions are lacking, the pollinators also fail to appear and the yield of flowering arable crops, such as broad beans or oilseed rape, suffers as well. A team from the University of Göttingen and the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) in Braunschweig has investigated how the composition of flowering crops and semi-natural habitats in the landscape affects the density of bees, their behaviour when collecting nectar, and the faba bean (Vicia faba) yields. The results of the study have been published in the journal Basic and Applied Ecology.

The researchers show that in landscapes with a high proportion of semi-natural habitats and in landscapes with a high proportion of faba beans, more bumblebees were found in the bean fields. In addition, the bean yields were higher here. The scientists recorded and observed the foraging behaviour of honeybees and wild bees in bean fields in agricultural landscapes with different landscape compositions. They also worked out the parameters for the yield for an individual plant. "Insect pollination has a positive effect on faba bean yields. Our investigations showed around 34 percent more beans per pod in insect-pollinated plants compared to plants that were inaccessible to insects," explains Dr Doreen Gabriel from the JKI.

"The pollination success in faba beans does not only depend on the density of bees in the fields, but also on the particular bee species collecting nectar. Bumblebee species who have a short proboscis often steal nectar from faba beans by biting holes in the calyxes (the outer sepals that protect the flower bud). In contrast, the bumblebee species who have a longer proboscis collect nectar regularly from the front of the flower, resulting in increased rates of cross-pollination. However, there are hardly any studies that have investigated whether the behaviour of bees collecting nectar is also influenced by the availability and distribution of other resources in the landscape, that is the composition of the landscape," says first author Dr Nicole Beyer, who did her PhD at the University of Göttingen and now works at the Thünen Institute in Braunschweig.
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Global Study of Indigenous Oyster Fisheries Finds Evidence of Huge Sustainable Harvests Spanning Hundreds and Even Thousands of Years
May 3, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/951140

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) A new global study of Indigenous oyster fisheries co-led by Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History anthropologist Torben Rick and Temple University anthropologist and former Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow Leslie Reeder-Myers shows that oyster fisheries were hugely productive and sustainably managed on a massive scale over hundreds and even thousands of years of intensive harvest. The study’s broadest finding was that long before European colonizers arrived, the Indigenous groups in these locations harvested and ate immense quantities of oysters in a manner that did not appear to cause the bivalves’ populations to suffer and crash.

The research, published May 3 in Nature Communications, suggests that studying these ancient, sustainable fisheries offers insights to help restore and manage estuaries today. Further, the authors write that these findings make plain that Indigenous peoples in these locations had deep connections to oysters and that their living descendants are long overdue to be involved in decisions about how to manage what is left of this precious coastal resource.

In places like the Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay and Botany Bay near Sydney, oysters exist at tiny fractions of their former numbers. Oyster numbers declined in these places due to boom and bust exploitation—beginning with European colonizers establishing commercial fisheries that quickly raked in huge quantities of oysters, and ending with cratering oyster populations that were also being devastated by habitat alteration, disease and introduced species.

But these parables of ecological collapse wrought by colonization and capitalism often omit evidence of Indigenous fisheries that predated those of European settlers by thousands of years.

Rick said the new paper expands on a seminal 2004 paper that documented the collapses of 28 oyster fisheries located along the east and west coasts of North America and Australia’s east coast. But the 2004 paper’s timeline in each location begins with European colonists’ creation of commercial oyster fisheries.
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caltrek
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Karkangee Hibiscus Drink Launches in Maine
by Ulya Aligulova
May 6, 2022

Introduction:
(Amjambo Africa!) When Bishara Alkher arrived in the United States as a refugee in 2006 he had no idea that one day he’d be an entrepreneur launching Karkangee, a hibiscus beverage, with dreams to reach all 50 states with his product. But 16 years later, after years of labor, that is exactly what has happened. Karkangee launched earlier this month and has already been picked up for sale by Coffee by Design, the award-winning coffee house and roastery with three locations in Portland and Freeport. Alkher hopes to expand to more retailers, including grocery stores, soon.

Karkangee (or karkanji), which means hibiscus, is thought to have originated from Chadian cuisine, but is a popular drink all over North and Central Africa and Jamaica. The beverage is rich in antioxidants and is believed to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol as well as aiding in digestion. Studies have shown that hibiscus has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. In addition, hibiscus extract may also help with weight loss, according to some studies. But most importantly, Alkher said that beverages made from hibiscus are delicious, and he wants people in the U.S. to enjoy Karkangee, and for Africans and Jamaicans who miss it, to enjoy a taste of home.

“We have this hibiscus drink at home that I really love, which is drunk daily in Sudan, Chad, Egypt, and Central Africa, particularly during Ramadan,” Alkher said. “So one day I went to the market to see if I could find it, but all I found was dried hibiscus that the drink is made out of. So I bought some and came home and prepared the drink myself. That got me wondering. There are so many people from Africa in the U.S., and the market is huge and yet you can’t find this drink anywhere. So why don’t I put it on the market?”
Read further: https://www.amjamboafrica.com/karkangee ... -in-maine/
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A Shrinking Fraction of the World’s Major Crops Goes to Feed the Hungry, with More Used for Nonfood Purposes
By Deepak Ray
(The Conversation) Rising competition for many of the world’s important crops is sending increasing amounts toward uses other than directly feeding people. These competing uses include making biofuels; converting crops into processing ingredients, such as livestock meal, hydrogenated oils and starches; and selling them on global markets to countries that can afford to pay for them.

In a newly published study, my co-authors and I estimate that in 2030, only 29% of the global harvests of 10 major crops may be directly consumed as food in the countries where they were produced, down from about 51% in the 1960s. We also project that, because of this trend, the world is unlikely to achieve a top sustainable development goal: ending hunger by 2030.

Another 16% of harvests of these crops in 2030 will be used as feed for livestock, along with significant portions of the crops that go to processing. This ultimately produces eggs, meat and milk – products that typically are eaten by middle- and upper-income people, rather than those who are undernourished. Diets in poor countries rely on staple foods like rice, corn, bread and vegetable oils.

The crops that we studied – barley, cassava, maize (corn), oil palm, rapeseed (canola), rice, sorghum, soybean, sugar cane and wheat – together account for more than 80% of all calories from harvested crops. Our study shows that calorie production in these crops increased by more than 200% between the 1960s and the 2010s.

Today, however, harvests of crops for processing, exports and industrial uses are booming. By 2030, we estimate that processing, export and industrial-use crops will likely account for 50% of harvested calories worldwide. When we add the calories locked in crops used as animal feed, we calculate that by 2030, roughly 70% of all harvested calories of these top 10 crops will go to uses other than directly feeding hungry people.
Read more here: https://theconversation.com/a-shrinking ... es-181819
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