WHAT IS VERTICAL FARMING?WHAT IS HYDROPONICS?WHAT ARE MICRO NUTRIENTS?ADVANTAGES OF VERTICAL FARMING? FOR PRELIMS AND MAINS GS PAP III | THE FORTUNE STROKE Ø Yes it's vertical because you are trying to grow more crops on a smaller land area and this usually means going upwards into buildings Ø It normally means that, instead of having a single layer of crops over a large land area, you have stacks of crops going upwards Ø It's also associated with city farming and urban farming Ø Who is "Dickson Despommier"? Ø Who is William Frederick Gericke? Ø Dickson Despommier, Columbia Microbiology Professor, is the Godfather of Vertical Farming Ø William Frederick Gericke, in the early 1930’s, pioneered hydroponics at the University of California at Berkley NB: Will read more about it WHY IS IT HAPPENING? Ø By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers Ø Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim Ø At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use No not at all..!!
New printer produces 3D objects on demand Imagine a machine which accepts CAD drawings, then produces a three dimensional prototype within a few hours for $100 - it now exists. The successful implementation of the technology points the way to this technology eventually finding its way into local bureau which produce while-you-wait samples as a service, and eventually to the home where designs could be downloaded from the internet and manifested at whim. View all Z Corporation now has several models of 3D printers that produce physical prototypes quickly, easily, and inexpensively from computer-aided design (CAD) and other digital data. In the same way that conventional desktop printers provide computer users with a paper output of their documents, 3D printers provide 3D CAD users a physical prototype of real world objects such as a mobile phone, an engine manifold, or a camera. The ZPrinter System completes the product line, which includes the Z406 Full Color 3D Printer and the Z810 Large Format 3D Printer.
Think global, eat local | Washington Business Journal Missy Frederick Reporter Email In this week's paper, we took a look at the National Restaurant Association's 2011 predicted trends for restaurants, how D.C. stacks up and what local chefs see coming up next year. "D.C. is definitely ahead of the curve on the local and sustainable trend," said Amanda McClements, author of the popular food blog Metrocurean. Some chefs have converted more to the local movement in recent years. "It just became really advantageous, both on the quality level and in terms of better pricing," said Gold. Customers have responded, selling out events such as Dino’s themed duck dinner, which featured ducks from Joe Jurgielewicz’s Pennsylvania Farm. Alexandria-based Neighborhood Restaurant Group took its commitment to local sourcing a step further this year, when President Michael Babin founded his nonprofit Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, which runs a farm that will supply products to his restaurants beginning next year.
Can Cities Feed Their Inhabitants? David Thorpe looks at the options A greenhouse developed by Priva, an international company that provides innovative solutions for the more efficient control of energy and water within indoor environments. There are three dominant trends to which cities and national governments must respond in order to secure food supplies for their people. First, between 1980 and 2011 the global population not dependent on agriculture doubled to 4.4 billion, and, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization this population is growing at a rate about five times that of the agriculturally dependent population. Second, the amount of agricultural land available for growing food is declining and will soon start to be adversely affected by climate change. Third, in 2011 agricultural subsidies in the world’s top 21 food-producing countries totalled an estimated US$486bn. The growing of food in cities won’t mean that conventional agriculture will disappear. His personal website is: www.davidthorpe.info
T-box concept to capture wind energy from trains The T-box concept would be installed between railway sleepers, and would harness the wind of passing trains to generate electricity (All images courtesy of Qian Jiang) Image Gallery (9 images) As anyone living near railway tracks will tell you, speeding trains generate quite a bit of wind as they whoosh past. Industrial designers Qian Jiang and Alessandro Leonetti Luparini have come up with a device that's installed between the sleepers on a track, and as the train passes overhead, the wind drives a turbine to generate electricity. The T-box devices could be placed along railway or subway lines, and make good use of an otherwise wasted resource. View all Unlike innovations such as the Solar Roadways project and Solar Wind concept, the T-box device wouldn't have to depend on a natural energy source, but instead one that is produced as a consequence of human activity. Of course, keeping these babies clean and safe could be a problem. Via Yanko About the Author Post a CommentRelated Articles
World Food Day: There is enough food grown in the world for everyone (Op-ed) “The problem of hunger and poverty in a climate-changing world will not be solved simply by throwing more money at fertilizer, higher-yielding seeds and big irrigation schemes.” Jeremy Hobbs Oxfam International Executive Director Published: 16 October 2009 There is enough food grown in the world for everyone. Next month at the UN World Food Summit in Rome they will talk about ending world hunger. To do so, leaders must concentrate on helping poor farmers who have been left to fend for themselves on the front-line of hunger, poverty and climate change. All countries must invest more in small-scale agriculture, particularly to women who play a vital role in food security, yet who have less access to land and services and tend to lack political voice. This year’s G8 summit pledged $20 billion over three years to poor farmers and consumers. Meanwhile, climate change is already causing massive shifts in seasonal growing patterns, especially in the tropics where most poor people live and farm.
FarmedHere Wysips technology can turn any surface into a PV power plant Wafer thin and flexible - Wysips film technology allows light to pass through a semi-cylindrical lens onto thin strips of photovoltaic cells below, while also allowing the surface underneath to show through Image Gallery (4 images) Mobile phones sporting photovoltaic panels are nothing new but thanks to some lens wizardry, a French company recently showed off a prototype phone where the touchscreen display itself housed the solar-soaking cells. Similar to the lenticular optics which sends slightly different images to each eye for glasses-free 3D viewing, Wysips technology allows light to pass through a semi-cylindrical lens onto thin strips of photovoltaic cells below, while also allowing the surface underneath to show through. The developers say that many surfaces could potentially become self-sufficient power producers. The idea for Wysips is said to have been inspired by the holographic process used on book covers, where the image changes depending on the viewing angle.
Snow lessons for supermarkets | Tim Lang Britain is having a prolonged and unusual period of bad weather. Suddenly even the oiled machines of the supermarket chains seem threatened, with reports that shoppers may soon face empty shelves. How has this happened? Why does a little snow – compared with what Norway or Canada routinely get – have this potential to disrupt modern lives and our insatiable desire to eat all the time? Though empty shelves are not a reality yet, it's obvious that if motorways are halted, the one in four vehicles on British roads that carry food are bound to be affected. The supermarket revolution was one of the much-hyped success stories of 20th-century consumer capitalism. But behind all this lies something that 21st-century managers, politicians and consumers will almost certainly have to change. Modern supermarkets work by precision timing. The supermarkets have applied just-in-time management and logistics systems, an approach perfected by Toyota for car assembly.
This Week in Virology - The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century Product Description "The vertical farm is a world-changing innovation whose time has come. Dickson Despommier's visionary book provides a blueprint for securing the world's food supply and at the same time solving one of the gravest environmental crises facing us today."--Sting Imagine a world where every town has their own local food source, grown in the safest way possible, where no drop of water or particle of light is wasted, and where a simple elevator ride can transport you to nature's grocery store - imagine the world of the vertical farm. When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. Despommier takes readers on an incredible journey inside the vertical farm, buildings filled with fruits and vegetables that will provide local food sources for entire cities. A Look Inside Vertical Farm (Click on Images to Enlarge) Review “A book you will read, and then you will read it again. And so on.
Fruit fibers used to create 'green' plastic for cars A research team from Brazil has developed a new form of plant fiber-based plastic that is claimed to be almost as stiff as Kevlar and stronger, lighter, and more eco-friendly than plastics currently in use (Image credit: Peter Bubenik) A research team from Brazil has developed a new form of plant fiber-based plastic that is claimed to be stronger, lighter, and more eco-friendly than plastics currently in use. Team leader Alcides Leão says that some of the so-called nano-cellulose fibers can be almost as stiff as Kevlar, but that the plastic differs from many in widespread use because the source material – such as pineapple and banana – is completely renewable. The researchers say that current production efforts are centered around the manufacture of automotive plastics, but future development could see steel and aluminum being replaced. Ordinary-sized cellulose particles extracted from wood and then ground up have been used for centuries in the manufacture of paper. About the Author
January Food Festivals