Food – Page 10 – Impact Lab

cutting edge, Farms, Food, Green Friendly

Milk without the Cow. Eggs without the Chicken

February 13, 2019

Yeast-derived “animal products” may soon be part of an environmentally balanced diet.

In 2008, the biotech industry had fallen on tough times: capital was drying up and businesses were struggling to survive. That’s when Ryan Bethencourt saw an opportunity. A biologist with an entrepreneurial streak, he and a couple of friends started buying equipment from bankrupt companies and setting up their own small labs. By 2013, he had co-founded Counter Culture Labs, a “biohacker” space in Oakland, California. There, DIY-biology enthusiasts are now working on, among other projects, making real cheese in a way that bypasses the cow.

Bethencourt is part of a growing group of scientists, entrepreneurs, and lab tinkerers who are forging a bold new food future—one without animals. But they’re not asking everyone to give up meat and dairy. Thanks to advances in synthetic biology, they’re developing ways to produce actual animal products—meat, milk, egg whites, collagen—in the lab. And in doing so, they are shrinking the carbon footprint and slashing the land and water requirements of these goods with the goal of meeting the world’s growing protein needs more sustainably.

Continue reading… “Milk without the Cow. Eggs without the Chicken”

Amazon.com, Food, Shopping

Most shoppers are still leery of buying their groceries online. But delivery in the US is set to ‘explode’

February 11, 2019

In the U.S., a mere 3 percent of grocery spending takes place online today.
A new study by Bain & Co. in collaboration with Google finds shoppers are still reluctant to try delivery services and often don’t stick with them.
But the firm predicts grocery delivery will ultimately take off as companies continue to invest in it.

Continue reading… “Most shoppers are still leery of buying their groceries online. But delivery in the US is set to ‘explode’”

Automation, Driverless vehicles, Food, Robots

Carlo Ratti designs driverless robotic bar called Guido

February 8, 2019

Italian architect Carlo Ratti has revealed his concept for an autonomous robotic cafe and bar that would make on-demand cocktails for city-dwellers wherever they are.

The driverless drinks cart, called Guido, has a unit with two mechanical arms – one for shaking and stirring and another for pouring and serving – that can accurately prepare and serve any drink within seconds, mounted onto a self-driving vehicle platform.

Continue reading… “Carlo Ratti designs driverless robotic bar called Guido”

Automation, Food, Shopping

Stop & Shop is testing self-driving mini grocery stores

February 8, 2019

Grocery store chain Stop & Shop announced today that it will begin testing driverless grocery vehicles in Boston starting this spring, combining the hype of autonomous delivery cars, cashier-less stores, and meal kits into one experimental pilot. The launch is part of a partnership with San Francisco-based startup Robomart, whose vehicles will cart around Stop & Shop items like produce, convenience items, and meal kits to customers’ doorsteps.

The electric vehicles will be temperature-controlled to keep produce fresh, and controlled remotely from a Robomart facility. Customers can hail the mini grocery stores via an app, on an interface which feels a lot like calling an Uber. Once the vehicle arrives, customers can unlock the doors, and the items they grab are tracked with RFID and computer vision technology. When they’re done shopping, they can send the vehicle on its way, and a receipt is emailed soon after. It’s like a much tinier Amazon Go store coming directly to your house.

Continue reading… “Stop & Shop is testing self-driving mini grocery stores”

Big Data, Food, mobile apps, Shopping

Microsoft and Kroger to create data-driven connected grocery stores

January 17, 2019

Microsoft and Kroger are taking a leaf out of Amazon’s book by building futuristic “connected” grocery stores.

As part of a pilot project, Kroger, the largest supermarket in the U.S. by revenue, and Microsoft have transformed two retail stores, one near each of their respective headquarters — in Monroe, Ohio and Redmond, Washington — using technology powered by connected sensors and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.

The first fruit of the partnership is a digital shelving system, which was actually announced last year and is in the process of rolling out to dozens of Kroger stores across the U.S. Called EDGE (Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment), it bypasses paper price tags for digital shelf displays that can be changed in real time from anywhere, and it also can display promotions, dietary information, and more.

But the test stores are where Kroger and Microsoft are taking things to the next level. In addition to EDGE shelving, the system will include a new guided shopping experience, personalized ads, and something the partners are calling “pick-to-light.”

Continue reading… “Microsoft and Kroger to create data-driven connected grocery stores”

Agriculture, cutting edge, Engineering, Farming, Food

Scientists engineer shortcut for photosynthetic glitch, boost crop growth by 40 percent

January 16, 2019

Aerial view of the 2017 field trials where scientists studied how well their plants modified to shortcut photorespiration performed beside unmodified plants in real-world conditions. They found that plants engineered with a synthetic shortcut are about 40 percent more productive. Credit: James Baltz/College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

Plants convert sunlight into energy through photosynthesis; however, most crops on the planet are plagued by a photosynthetic glitch, and to deal with it, evolved an energy-expensive process called photorespiration that drastically suppresses their yield potential. Researchers from the University of Illinois and U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service report in the journal Science that crops engineered with a photorespiratory shortcut are 40 percent more productive in real-world agronomic conditions.

“We could feed up to 200 million additional people with the calories lost to photorespiration in the Midwestern U.S. each year,” said principal investigator Donald Ort, the Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Science and Crop Sciences at Illinois’ Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. “Reclaiming even a portion of these calories across the world would go a long way to meeting the 21st Century’s rapidly expanding food demands—driven by population growth and more affluent high-calorie diets.”

Continue reading… “Scientists engineer shortcut for photosynthetic glitch, boost crop growth by 40 percent”

Analysis, Food, Health & Fitness

How data mining reveals the world’s healthiest cuisines

December 29, 2018

Algorithms are teasing apart the link between food and health to provide the first evidence that we really are what we eat.

Jean Brillat-Savarin was a 19th-century French lawyer famed for his writings on gastronomy. In his most famous work, he said: “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.” Or “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

This idea—that you are what you eat—has become increasingly popular. Since Brillat-Savarin’s time it has been used as the title of various cookbooks and health guides; for some it is a way of life.

Continue reading… “How data mining reveals the world’s healthiest cuisines”

Automation, Driverless vehicles, Food, Science & Technology News, Shopping

Kroger-owned grocery store begins fully driverless deliveries

December 27, 2018

Road-legal delivery vehicles don’t even have space for a human driver.

Nuro, a startup founded by two veterans of Google’s self-driving car project, has reached an important milestone: it has started making fully autonomous grocery deliveries on public streets.

Fry’s Food, a brand owned by grocery giant Kroger, launched a self-driving grocery delivery program back in August in partnership with Nuro. Fry’s has been using Nuro cars to deliver groceries to customers near one of its stores on East McDowell Road in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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Agriculture, China, Farming, Food, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Chinese PhDs and MBAs give up city life for farming, driven by desire to improve agriculture and livelihoods

December 22, 2018

Millions of educated Chinese have left cities to become farmers, inspired to change agriculture or disenchanted with the pressures of urban life
They practise organic farming and water conservation, hoping to set an example for fellow farmers, and revive traditional technique

Continue reading… “Chinese PhDs and MBAs give up city life for farming, driven by desire to improve agriculture and livelihoods”

Agriculture, Biotech, DNA, Farming, Food

With Personal Food Computers, nerd farmers are finding the best way to grow

November 28, 2018

I’m Caleb Harper, principal investigator and director of the Open Agriculture initiative at the MIT Media Lab. Kent Larson courtesy of MIT Media Lab

In his book Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, Barry Estabrook details how grocery store tomatoes are both less nutritious and delicious than those grown decades ago. Industrial farming now grows crops for yield, sacrificing taste and vitamins for an easy-to-harvest, shippable product. It’s why apples at your local supermarket are probably about a year old. Caleb Harper, a principal research scientist at MIT and director of the OpenAg Initiative, wants to use technology to grow food that’s healthier, tastier, and more sustainable.

“Growing for nutrition and growing for flavor, it’s not really something anyone does,” he told Digital Trends at the recent ReThink Food conference in Napa, California.

Continue reading… “With Personal Food Computers, nerd farmers are finding the best way to grow”

3D Printer, Agriculture, Food, Green Friendly, Science & Technology News

Novameat’s 3D-printed ‘steak’ looks gross, but could it save the planet?

November 27, 2018

Does your mouth water at the prospect of a nice juicy steak? How about a nice juicy 3D-printed steak, made using a paste composed of vegetable-based materials like rice, peas, and seaweed? That’s what a new Spanish startup, Novameat, is working hard to bring to market.

“I developed the first 3D-printed plant-based beefsteak while I was working as a postdoc researcher in tissue engineering, and assistant professor at the UPC university in Barcelona,” founder Giuseppe Scionti told Digital Trends. “I was lucky … because this city is a great hub for both 3D printing companies and world-renowned restaurants.”

Continue reading… “Novameat’s 3D-printed ‘steak’ looks gross, but could it save the planet?”

Agriculture, Animals, Farming, Food

Millennials are disrupting Thanksgiving with their tiny turkeys

November 20, 2018

Millennials kill again. The latest victim? Big Thanksgiving turkeys.

Tiny turkeys are gaining popularity.

Small birds are having a big moment. Tiny turkeys will increasingly grace Thanksgiving tables next week, thanks to the millennial generation’s ongoing campaign to remake American gastronomy. The holiday depicted by Norman Rockwell-Grandma showing off a cooked bird so plump it weighs down a banquet plate-is still common. But smaller families, growing guilt over wasteful leftovers and a preference for free-range fowl have all played roles in the emergence of petite poultry as a holiday dinner centerpiece.

“People are starting to understand it’s not natural to grow turkeys up to 30 pounds,” said Ariane Daguin, co-founder and owner of D’Artagnan, a wholesale and e-commerce food company in Union, New Jersey. “In general, that means they were penned up with no room to move around, and that’s why they’re fat like that.”

Continue reading… “Millennials are disrupting Thanksgiving with their tiny turkeys”