The Future of Food, Agriculture, and Aquaculture

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caltrek
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Agtech Robotics Firm FarmWise Just Raised Another $45 Million
by Brian Heater
June 3, 2022

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) The rest of the startup universe may be struggling to bring in funds, but it’s still a good time to get a robotic raise. Agtech is high on that list. The median age of farmers is 55 years old in the United States, and finding human help is increasingly more difficult of late.

FarmWise has been at this for a while, deploying its autonomous weeding robotics at farms in California and Arizona for the last few years. The Central Californian company says its robots have logged 15,000 commercial hours on vegetable farms, all told, capturing some 450 million scans of crops for its database.

Today the company announced a $45 million raise, led by Fall Line Capital and Middleland Capital. GV, Taylor Farms, Calibrate Ventures, Playground Global, SVG Ventures and Wilbur Ellis also got in on the Series B, which brings FarmWise’s total equity raise to $65 million, to date.

The funding will go toward accelerating the firm’s R&D and rollout of its existing product.

“We started FarmWise with the conviction that farmers should be supplied with cost-effective, sustainable solutions to feed a growing world, and artificial intelligence is the ideal technology to make this a reality,” co-founder and CEO, Sebastien Boyer said in a release. “With rising costs in the agricultural industry, we’re continuing to expand our technology to work with many more farmers.”
Read more here: https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/03/agte ... -million/
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Curtis J. Sitomer, writing in the Christian Science Monitor (May 24, 1968) presents a picture of California agriculture in the future: "harvested by automation, and shipped, marketed and sold by ultramodern, perhaps data-processes, methods." Such projections should be taken with a grain of salt because so many expected developments can, and usually do, intervene. But the trends foreshadowed in Factories in the Field have continued in the last three decades and the end is not in sight.
- Carey McWilliams, July 4, 1971
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Why this Quebec Farmer is Growing Seeds for ‘Resilience’
by Marc Fawcett-Atkinson
June 8, 2022

Introduction:
(National Observer) For the past several weeks, Marie-Claude Comeau has spent her days in the fields on her farm in Manseau, a small town in Québec, prepping them for the upcoming growing season. But unlike most farmers who are sowing crops destined for dinner plates, Comeau is planting a field of crops not for harvest, but for their seeds.

Few Canadian farmers grow their own seeds, a practice that takes time and specialized skills to do well. Instead, the majority of Canada's seeds, particularly for vegetables, come from specialized seed farms as far afield as Tanzania. Comeau is one of the rare farmers whose business is entirely devoted to producing seeds for North American distributors.

As global supply chains continue to struggle, food prices surge, and climate change threatens the world's farmland with droughts or floods, growers like Comeau say their locally grown seeds are key to making Canada's food supplies more sustainable.

"(Seeds) are the basis for resilience. You can't have a resilient food system without local seed," explained Comeau. To that end, the Quebec farmer and 11 more from across Canada will participate in a federally funded project to showcase Canadian seeds and teach more people how to grow them.

Spearheaded by SeedChange, a global organization that promotes local seed, the three-year effort will increase interest in local seeds, boost seed production, and help teach farmers how to save their seeds. It will also focus on sustaining heritage seed breeds otherwise at risk of extinction and breed new varieties better adapted to local climate and soil conditions.
Read more here: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/ ... esilience

Here is the site for SeedChange: https://weseedchange.org/
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The future of food is not just a matter of technological development, but also of shifting tastes and cultural trends. These trends in turn interact with market conditions and other societal developments. Here is what I think is an interesting article on some current trends, at least here in the U.S. market.

Tropical Fruits are Growing in Popularity
by Keith Loria
June 16, 2022

Introduction:
(The Produce News) There was a time not so long ago when certain tropical fruits were not mainstays of the typical American diet. They were instead enjoyed by more adventurous shoppers, or perhaps during special occasions. Things have changed. In the 21st century, more and more people are eating tropical fruits that were long considered obscure.

The trend began with the foodie craze, as shoppers discovered recipes on cooking shows and online, but it kicked into higher gear in 2020, as the nation quarantined during the pandemic and had time to try different foods and recipes. The trend shows no signs of slowing down. Restaurants are open again and lots of people are dining out, but they continue to seek out creative and healthy dishes to eat at home.

Of course, not every tropical fruit is an exotic, exciting food. Bananas, for example, are a tropical fruit and one of the most common fruits around. Other tropical fruits that have long been popular are pineapples, mangos, pomegranates, papayas and avocados.

What makes the tropical fruit trend so exciting is the growing popularity of previously lesser-known fruits, with some produce professionals noting that these once obscure items are now being showcased at the front of stores.

One fruit that has seen an increase in popularity is the dragon fruit, which is known for its white fruit and black seeds, and visually resembles chocolate chip ice cream. In fact, it can be eaten right out of the skin. It can also be featured in salads or as the basis for an ice cream. The fruit is also valued for its health benefits.
Other examples mentioned later in the article include lychee, and passion fruit.

Read more here: https://theproducenews.com/headlines/t ... pularity
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Melting Himalayan Glaciers to Affect Food Production in South Asia
June 12, 2022

Introduction:
(Janata Weekly) Climate change-induced melting glaciers in the Himalayas will soon affect agriculture and millions of farmers downstream partly dependent on glacial meltwater. This is likely to affect food production in South Asia, as per a new study titled ‘South Asian agriculture increasingly dependent on meltwater and groundwater’.

In addition to climate change, the increasing demand for water—due to expanding farmlands to feed a growing population—plays an important role in determining future water shortages, the study, published in Nature Climate Change, states.

The results of this study can be used for targeted climate adaptation and sustainable water management in this geopolitically complex region. This could include increasing water storage capacity in large and small reservoirs, using water more efficiently in agriculture and switching to different crops or different sowing dates. Such measures can help reduce the pressure on meltwater and groundwater resources. The researchers will continue their calculations to determine the best combination of measures.

The study was conducted by the scientists of the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Utrecht University and Wageningen University & Research.

According to Arun Shrestha, a senior climate specialist at ICIMOD, the researchers used “a unique cryosphere–hydrology–crop model that projects how sources of water supply such as meltwater and groundwater will shift in the future in the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra basins”.
Read more here: https://janataweekly.org/melting-himal ... uth-asia/
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Research Indicates That a Fifth of Global Rood-related Emissions Are Due to Transport
June 20, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) In 2007, ‘locavore’ – a person who only eats food grown or produced within a 100-mile (161km) radius – was the Oxford Word of the Year. Now, 15 years later, University of Sydney researchers urge it to trend once more. They have found that 19 percent of global food system greenhouse gas emissions are caused by transportation.

This is up to seven times higher than previously estimated, and far exceeds the transport emissions of other commodities. For example, transport accounts for only seven percent of industry and utilities emissions.

The researchers say that especially among affluent countries, the biggest food transport emitters per capita, eating locally grown and produced food should be a priority.

Dr Mengyu Li from the University of Sydney School of Physics is the lead author of the study, to be published in Nature Food. She said: “Our study estimates global food systems, due to transport, production, and land use change, contribute about 30 percent of total human-produced greenhouse gas emissions. So, food transport – at around six percent – is a sizeable proportion of overall emissions.

“Food transport emissions add up to nearly half of direct emissions from road vehicles.”
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/956328
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Rutgers & Harvard Scientists Have Develop an Antimicrobial, Plant-based Food Wrap Designed to Replace Plastic
June 20, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Aiming to produce environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic food wrap and containers, a Rutgers scientist has developed a biodegradable, plant-based coating that can be sprayed on foods, guarding against pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms and transportation damage.

The scalable process could potentially reduce the adverse environmental impact of plastic food packaging as well as protect human health.

“We knew we needed to get rid of the petroleum-based food packaging that is out there and replace it with something more sustainable, biodegradable and nontoxic,” said Philip Demokritou, director of the Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Research Center, and the Henry Rutgers Chair in Nanoscience and Environmental Bioengineering at the Rutgers School of Public Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. “And we asked ourselves at the same time, ‘Can we design food packaging with a functionality to extend shelf life and reduce food waste while enhancing food safety?’’’

Demokritou added, “And what we have come up with is a scalable technology, which enables us to turn biopolymers, which can be derived as part of a circular economy from food waste, into smart fibers that can wrap food directly. This is part of new generation, ‘smart’ and ‘green’ food packaging.”

The research was conducted in concert with scientists at Harvard University and funded by the Harvard-Nanyang Technological University/Singapore Sustainable Nanotechnology Initiative.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/956024
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Emissions from Agriculture Affect Health and Climate
by Mike Williams Rice
June 21, 2022

Introduction:
(Futurity) A new study analyzes the cost of reactive nitrogen emissions from fertilized agriculture and their risks to populations and climate.
The study quantifies emissions of nitrogen oxides, ammonia, and nitrous oxide from fertilized soils over three years (2011, 2012, and 2017) and compares their impacts by region on air quality, health, and climate.

While seasonal and regional impacts differ across types of emission, the study found total annual damages from ammonia were much larger overall—at $72 billion—than those from nitrogen oxides ($12 billion) and nitrous oxide ($13 billion).

Air pollution damages are measured by increased mortality and morbidity and the value of statistical life, while monetized damages from climate change include the threats to crops, property, ecosystem services, and human health.

On that basis, the researchers found the health impact of air pollution from ammonia and nitrogen oxides, which react to form particulate matter and ozone, substantially outweighed climate impact from nitrous oxide in all regions and years.

The highest social costs arose from agriculture-heavy regions of California, Florida, and the Midwest, where ammonia and nitrogen oxides form air pollution upwind of population centers. For both pollutants, emissions peak in the spring after fertilizers are applied.
Read more here: https://www.futurity.org/agriculture-e ... 56532-2/
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Climate Change May Impact Supply of Ketchup Tomatoes
by Anton Caputo
June 16, 2022

Introduction:
(Futurity) Rising temperatures are projected to lower yields around the world for “processing tomatoes,” those used in ketchup, pasta sauce, and other tomato products, new research shows.

By 2050, the global supply of processing tomatoes is expected to decrease by 6% compared to the study’s baseline of 1990-2009, with Italy’s crop being among the hardest hit.

“The processing tomatoes are grown in the open fields, which means that we cannot control the environment in which they grow,” says lead author Davide Cammarano, a professor at Aarhus University. “This makes the production vulnerable to climate change.”

While the climate’s impact on the food supply is widely researched, most of the focus has been on staples such as wheat and rice. The current study in Nature Food (https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00521-y) is among the first to take a global look at climate change’s impact on tomatoes, says coauthor Dev Niyogi, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences and Cockrell School of Engineering.

“We know very little about how climate change will affect specialty crops, like the processing tomato, which has an incredible global food footprint, along with being an important source of nutrients and an ingredient in cuisines around the world,” Niyogi says. “This study is one of the first such global studies and this makes it unique.
Read more here: https://www.futurity.org/climate-chang ... -2755192/

From the Nature Food article abstract:
The predicted reduction in processing tomato production is due to a projected increase in air temperature. Under an ensemble of projected climate scenarios, California and Italy might not be able to sustain current levels of processing tomato production due to water resource constraints. Cooler producing regions, such as China and the northern parts of California, stand to improve their competitive advantage. The projected environmental changes indicate that the main growing regions of processing tomatoes might change in the coming decades.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00521-y
Last edited by caltrek on Sun Jun 26, 2022 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Artificial photosynthesis can produce food without sunshine
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-artificia ... shine.html
by Holly Ober, University of California - Riverside
Photosynthesis has evolved in plants for millions of years to turn water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat. This process, however, is very inefficient, with only about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant. Scientists at UC Riverside and the University of Delaware have found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis.

The research, published in Nature Food, uses a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate, the form of the main component of vinegar. Food-producing organisms then consume acetate in the dark to grow. Combined with solar panels to generate the electricity to power the electrocatalysis, this hybrid organic-inorganic system could increase the conversion efficiency of sunlight into food, up to 18 times more efficient for some foods.

"With our approach we sought to identify a new way of producing food that could break through the limits normally imposed by biological photosynthesis," said corresponding author Robert Jinkerson, a UC Riverside assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering.
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