Archive for the 'Food' Category
DJI Launches Crop-Spraying Drone
November 27th, 201515 grand today. $499 in… three years? Via: BBC: Billion-dollar drone company DJI is expanding from consumer and camera drones into the agriculture industry. The Chinese firm’s latest model is a crop-spraying drone, which it claims is “40 times more efficient” than manual spraying, despite having just 12 minutes of flight time. It will be […]
China Opening “The World’s Biggest Animal Cloning Factory”
November 24th, 2015Via: Telegraph: The world’s biggest animal “cloning factory” is due to open in China, producing one million calves a year, sniffer dogs and even genetic copies of the family pet. … The factory, which will include a 15,000 square metre laboratory, an animal centre, a gene bank and an exhibition hall, is currently being built […]
Australia Just Stopped China Buying a Farm the Size of Kentucky
November 19th, 2015Via: Fortune: You can have too much foreign investment, it seems. The Australian government Thursday blocked the sale of a portfolio of farmland the size of Kentucky to Chinese investors on national interest grounds. Four separate groups linked to Chinese-based investors had been dominating the bidding for properties amounting to 2.5% of Australia’s farming land […]
Genetically Engineered Salmon Approved for Consumption
November 19th, 2015Via: New York Times: Federal regulators on Thursday approved a genetically engineered salmon as fit for consumption, clearing the way for the first genetically altered animal to reach American supermarkets and dinner tables. The approval, by the Food and Drug Administration, comes more than five years after agency reviewers made their initial determination that the […]
GreenWave Ocean Farming Model
November 14th, 2015Via: Guardian: A commercial fisherman who admitted to once pillaging the oceans has won the 2015 Fuller Challenge, one of the most important prizes in sustainability. Bren Smith, executive director of nonprofit GreenWave, took home $100,000 for his 3D ocean farming model, designed to address overfishing, mitigate climate change, restore marine ecosystems and provide jobs […]
How the Western Diet Has Derailed Our Evolution
November 14th, 2015Via: Nautilus: Many who study the microbiome suspect that we are experiencing an extinction spasm within that parallels the extinction crisis gripping the planet. Numerous factors are implicated in these disappearances. Antibiotics, available after World War II, can work like napalm, indiscriminately flattening our internal ecosystems. Modern sanitary amenities, which began in the late 19th […]
More Americans Than Ever Use Prescription Drugs
November 4th, 2015Via: NBC: More Americans than ever are taking prescription drugs — close to 60 percent of U.S. adults, according to new research. And most seem to be related to obesity, with cholesterol and blood pressure drugs leading the pack, researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The single most popular drug is […]
EU Countries Won’t Be Able to Opt Out of Genetically-Modified Food
October 28th, 2015Wow. Via: The Journal: EU LAWMAKERS HAVE rejected a hard-won compromise which would have allowed member states to decide whether or not to import Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for use in food and animal feed. The European Parliament voted 557 to 75 against on a law which took the European Commission years to negotiate amid […]
California 1st State to Pass Bill Banning Indiscriminate Antibiotic Use in Livestock
October 27th, 2015Via: Natural Society: Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed a bill that will effectively ban the routine use of the drugs in the animals. [1] “California is a big agricultural state, and it often is a bellwether for the nation. We often see the FDA following suit or other states following suit,” said Elisa Odabashian of […]
In Nigeria, Solar-Powered Fridges at Outdoor Markets Save Food From Spoiling
October 20th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Gizmodo: In developing countries, an unbelievable 45% of food goes bad because of a lack of cold storage. It’s an especially big problem during transportation from farms to outdoor markets, where food sits in the scorching sun for hours on end. But one startup […]
