Now, we're able to extract contaminants from the wastewater--for example salt, which can then be used for road salt here in the Northeast.
Today, we want the natural gas because it meets the needs of global climate change, but it taints our water supply.
I've seen that in the food and beverage industry. Folks like Coca-cola, Pepsico, Inbev, Nestle, Heineken.
But they're also folks like GE. We've set a goal of 25 percent reduction across our company.
The food and beverage industry is very proactive, and I spend time with my counterparts, chief sustainability officers at other companies,
They decided to test the canola plants in the Warehouse Foods ditch for proteins that would tell them
so it can be used for cooking oil and in animal feed. However, when the GM CROPS persist in the wild
With more than 50 percent of the earth used for growing crops for food or forage,
Study authors Jody Banks and David Salt in a statement: Potentially you could take these genes
In fact, the botanists speculate that one possible explanation for the fern's arsenic storage ability is to discourage animals from dining on fern salad.
Barcodes are on everything from drug vials to hamburger packages. Actually, there's dozens of different types of barcodes.
a cafe and a large event hall the designers have dubbed Town hall, not to mention sweeping views of London.
The Allotments (for staffers to grow food) on the 9th floor of the building are made of little timber tubs.
the lucky gardeners get to spend some off-time working with herbs and veggies and work together in a non-work way.
The Gardens connect to Google's cafe, and Google Park, which is a big garden.
The cafe was designed with a retro-feel and has a view over the city. The Google Green looks out across this area
linking together the cafe, Gardens and the Town hall, and features couches for Town hall overflow or informal meetings.
tapioca and wheat, says algae-based plastic could replace up to 50 percent of petroleum content found in traditional plastic resin.
If a big company like Conagra were to make the switch, the impact would be felt across the economy.
--which hopefully is at a cost that is competitive with traditional materials--you might find your beverages delivered in green,
This program brings food to Philadelphia's under-served population by way of a partnership between the city prison system and dozens of local community gardens.
the fresh produce is delivered to one of the city's food cupboards, where needy residents not only get seasonal vegetables,
but also cooking demonstrations and tastings to help them prepare the food. Since its launch in 2006, the program has delivered more than 55
Speaking on a panel, H. E. Fahad bin Mohammed Al Attiya, the chairman of the Qatar National Food Program, offered a stark assessment:
We import 90 percent of our food, and 100 percent of our water is desalinated. We still have a sharp growth trajectory.
We look at solar to solve our water and food security issues...We have no water reserve to speak of--two to four days at most.
The water demands of food production are also undergoing close scrutiny, with specific crops being selected
Hydroponic food production is also being tried, to avoid the evaporation losses of watering open soil.
It would have a restaurant shop, and educational area on the ground floor and the farm above.
Growers, grocers satisfy ripening taste for organic in Mexicomexico CITY Organic products are muscling their way onto grocery shelves in Mexico,
Black beans and pinto beans, rice and amaranth, soups and dressings, milk, yogurt, cheese and coffee, sweets and jams:
It also sells to the increasing number of independently owned groceries dedicated to organic and natural foods that have sprouted up in major urban areas.
The company's growth trajectory recently attracted the interest of Monterrey, Mexico-based Herdez, a maker of salsas, canned goods and juices.
Half of all food wasteddare to eat'em. Crooked carrots are good, and good for you. The world throws away up to half of its food according to an alarming report that blames consumers'fussy preference for cosmetically appealing produce,
supermarket promotions that encourage overbuying, and deficient storage, transportation and agricultural practices. Between 1. 2 billion and 2 billion metric tons of food-out of the 4 billion produced annually-never reaches a human stomach,
the UK's Institution of Mechanical engineers says in  Waste Not Want Not-Global Food waste:
Feeding the 9 billion. The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering,
says Tim Fox, IME's head of energy and environment. This is food that could be used to feed the world's growing population-as well as those in hunger today.
It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.
The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs
and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one-free offers. The annual water wastage from growing discarded crops totals about 550 billion cubic meters
engineers have a crucial role to play in preventing food loss and waste by developing more efficient ways of growing, transporting
and storing foods, Fox says. Consider IME's report as food for thought the next time you reject a crooked carrot or a lumpy apple.
Carleton Garden Blogspot A few food courses on Smartplanet: Rooftop farms budding in Beijing, Hong kong How to solve a universally irritating problem The simple plan that saved a supermarket chain millions The Morning Briefing:
The state of food in 2012 China mulls vegetables on Mars $282 million of turkey trashed during U s. Thanksgiving Your next refrigerator could be a magnet Fenugreen's Freshpaper lets produce keep for longer
because more Indians feel the need to eat healthy food, especially as cancer and other chronic illnesses are being linked the huge quantities of pesticides used in agricultural production.
pomegranates, lemons and herbs and says she has switched completely her family s diet to organic food.
But at least we can control it in our food, she said. While there are no specific numbers on urban residents doing organic farming,
A local organic store in Gurgaon Brands like Eco Farms, Conscious Foods, Morarka Foundation and Organic India have opened up stores in the major cities.
But food activists like Mathur say that farmers don't get paid enough by retailers even though higher costs are involved in organic farming
which affects the liver, in spinach and bitter gourd. In May, the Delhi High court ordered the government to conduct surprise checks to test vegetables
pesticides are being linked to cancer especially in the state of Punjab, the bread basket of India,
Nowhere is the cost of trucking more evident to consumers than at the grocery store. Fresh produce and other perishables must be shipped promptly no matter
Local drivers for repair services, florists, cleaning services, pizza shops, mobile food businesses, and so on are feeling the pinch even more.
an estimated 7 to 10 calories of fossil fuel are embedded in every calorie of food that arrives on American tables,
if the farmers who grow that food are committed to using permaculture practices like cultivation instead of spraying herbicides to control weeds.
higher food prices should encourage more local food production and ultimately lead to the relocalization of American farming.
we cannot continue having our food shipped an average 1, 500 miles from the farm to our tables.
Honeybee decline spells trouble for our food supplybillions of honeybees have died worldwide since 2006. Coined the colony collapse disorder (CCD),
bee colonies are important to our food supply. Honeybees pollinate close to 90 crops such as avocados, cucumbers, sprouts, apples, onions, broccoli, coffee and tomatoes.
Around 90 agricultural crops-representing one third of global food production volume-are dependent to some extent on animal pollination.
Foods and beverages produced with the help of animal pollinators include almonds, apples, blueberries, coffee, melons and soybeans.
Einstein was right-honey bee collapse threaten global food security The Telegraph Photo: Â cygnus921/flickr Related on Smartplanet:
Hong kong cracks down on trade in baby formulamilk formula is sold alongside Chinese herbs. HONG KONG--Hong kong parents have been contending with a frustrating shortage of infant milk formula.
each pulling large packages filled with mostly health and food products, like diapers and bottled drinks.
Traders buy these so-called gray-goods  in large quantities at tax-free prices in Hong kong, and then they move the items to the mainland where they are sold at a mark up.
But the real root of the problem is found in China s food safety problem, one that will take years to tackle.
but most of the city s meat, vegetables and seafood are imported from Mainland china. Overall, the agriculture industry in Hong kong has gone into decline over the past few decades.
and plant our own food, 22-year-old Wing said. And it s healthier. Each small section of this part of the farm is rented out for US$20 per month It s just human nature,
said To, who is semiretired and still managing an undergarments business part-time. I ran my own business for 15 years,
E-Farm has started recently teaching a course on aquaponics a sustainable farming method it uses
In the past, there have been cooking classes using the farm s crops, which include papayas, corn, bananas, ginger, sugar cane, lettuce and tomatoes.
and tap water is avoided best. But the capital's newest watering hole takes its water very seriously
and purports to offer the purest drink around. Owner Bosco Quinzanos envisions the Casa del Agua as an answer,
The rainwater filters through a teak patio and garden of cherry, orange and lime trees and carpets of lavender, mint and thyme into storage tanks.
Advocates have promised next-gen biofuels will reduce greenhouse emissions and end the use of food crops for fuel.
and converting it into fermentable sugars so it can be refined into fuel is too expensive to be commercially viable.
and the need to use more farmland to produce feedstocks like switchgrass and corn stovers.
The NRC warned the increased production of advanced biofuels could inadvertently push up food prices by competing with food crops for land.
For over decade, beverage maker Snapple has been printing Real Facts on the undersides of their bottle caps.
Flamingoes really do turn pink from eating shrimp(#11. Human brains do in fact weigh about three pounds(#55.
or the first food eaten in space, it s that the Internet's not inherently a place for lies any more than a bottle cap is a place for truth.
They ve also incorporated sustainability into every aspect of people's lives, down to chickens and beehives in people's backyards.
What food is grown locally there? When people think of Maine, they think of blueberries and lobster, which are our signature foods,
but there s really a wide variety of foods that are grown in the region here. You get everything from kale and melon to eggs and dairy.
We just have a short growing season. We have farmers markets that are now open year round.
Can shoppers use food stamps at the farmers market? Yep. Speaking of lobster, how s your water quality?
We happen to have some of the cleanest drinking water in the country. One of the things the city is doing is combined CSO sewer overflow separation.
We have a sewer system that was installed just after the Civil war and needs massive updates. The old system puts the sewage and storm water in the same pipes,
the crops aren't used for human (food) consumption. Instead the city sells the crops to biofuel makers.
a talk with NASA's space food managerwhile it's not exactly five-star cuisine,
astronauts survive on more than the freeze-dried space food found in museum gift shops. To get a look inside NASA's kitchen,
I spoke last week with Michele Perchonok, Shuttle Food System manager at Johnson Space center. How has evolved astronaut food over the years?
In the beginning, we didn't even know if people could swallow in microgravity. We didn't know how much was due to the muscles contracting
and digest their food in microgravity. Early astronaut food was basically tubes and cubes: pureed applesauce in a toothpaste tube or compressed cubes of sandwiches or breads or desserts.
The astronauts said it tasted OK, but it just wasn't satisfying because it wasn't close to
what they were used to. We started developing some products or taking commercial products that were appropriate
We had freeze-dried items, like shrimp cocktail which has been with us for many years. About the year 2000 when we were starting to be on International Space station up to six months,
Half the food on International Space station is U s. food and half is Russian food. We're now up to a 16-day menu cycle.
We've been able to increase our offerings and the Russians have gone also to that 16-day menu cycle.
Eight days of food is U s. food or other international partners, such as the Europeans or Japanese,
and the Russians have half the food. What are some of the challenges you face
when producing food for space? All of our food has to be shelf stable, meaning is has to be safe to eat
when stored at room temperature. In addition, it's very difficult to transfer food from Point A to Point B. The astronauts eat their food within the food package most of the time.
They will use tortillas like a wrap or a sandwich. We want the astronauts to be able to eat out of the food package with utensils.
There is a property called'surface tension'meaning if the food is wet enough, but not too wet, it will stick to a surface such as the food package or the utensil.
We have to make sure that our food is not too runny and we have to make sure the food has a sauce.
Because crumbs will float around--they can get everywhere from in your eye to into equipment--there are fans
and filters to circulate the air and get any foreign matter caught. But you don't want to be changing the filters all the time.
That's one reason we don't bring up a lot of bread or cookies because they create crumbs.
We do bring up some crackers, but first we did an assessment to find the cracker that won't break too easily.
If they're on International Space station there's a little suction where the garbage goes. The astronauts can sit over that,
so the crumbs will go right into the suction. All of our beverages are formulated pre. If you drink your coffee with cream and sugar,
we have to add the cream and sugar to the package before we send it up.
If they think they like black coffee and they get up there and say,'I really want it with cream,
'unless they beg, borrow or steal, they don't have that option. We've gotten a lot of anecdotal reports that the food just doesn't taste the same on orbit.
In most cases the comments are that the food has lost flavor. That's probably a combination of phenomena.
In microgravity, more fluid is in the upper part of the body, including the head and they can't smell as easily.
About 85 to 90 percent of what you taste is really what you smell. In addition, in microgravity hot air doesn't rise,
so the aromas could be going to your feet. We don't heat our food up piping hot because of power limitations,
so there may not be as many aromas coming out of the food. The last piece is psychological.
While they're away from home --even though it's a wonderful and exciting opportunity--astronauts are separated from family and friends.
You may crave comfort foods you grew up with, whether it's macaroni and cheese or meatloaf or mashed potatoes.
Some of the other items may not taste as good as they would have if you were at home.
Do astronauts determine their own menus? We have approximately 180 items on our food list.
We just had a food session for a potential launch at the end of June. The crew tasted about 60 of the 180 items
and rated them 1 to 9. Anything rated 6 or higher is fair game. We could put that on their menu.
'which are items they like on the official food list or they're fresh food items such as meats and candies.
Many crews will host a special meal with the International Space station crew. For example, the crew that's hopefully going up in the beginning of December is hosting a meal
which has spreads, cheeses, meats, a few entrees and cookies for dessert. What are some of the most popular food items for astronauts?
Shrimp cocktail is very popular. Some of our meat items, like barbecue brisket or meatloaf, can be popular.
Tortillas are extremely popular. It depends on their own personal tastes. You mentioned fresh food options. Does this mean fruits and vegetables?
Fresh foods are defined as foods that aren't on our official list. They can bring up items like apples or oranges.
Carrot sticks and celery will last a little while. Some will bring up more delicate items, such as tomatoes or kiwi or avocado.
But if there's any delay or they forget to transfer it over for International Space station,
it could get soft before it's ready. Some of them, instead of using the peanut butter in a pouch that we provide to them,
will ask to bring up their favorite commercial item in a jar. Or maybe they ask for special candies or chocolates or a beef jerky of their preference or hot sauce.
A lot of the ways they get around the flavor loss issue is by adding condiments --whether it's mustard and ketchup or hot sauce, soy sauce, horseradish.
How do you maintain the nutritional value of foods when they require a shelf life of several years?
That is a huge, huge challenge and we're still not there. We are analyzing somewhere between 15 and 30 items a year for nutritional content.
Then, we store them at room temperature for one year and then for three years and do the nutritional analysis again.
Some of the vitamins are lost significantly. Once we have collected all the data, we'll have a better idea of
what we need to work on. But we do know the methods we're using to preserve the foods are part of the culprit for losing the nutrition.
And of course, nutrition gets lost over time. There are two new emerging technologies related to this problem.
One is pressure-assisted thermal sterilization, or high-pressure processing, where you heat the food and then hit it with high pressure.
That kills the cell walls of the microorganisms and maintains the quality and nutrition of the food at a higher level.
The other process is microwave sterilization--killing the microorganisms in the microwave. That also is providing a higher quality product.
and vegetables or process wheat flour and make pasta or breads or make a pasta sauce. We're looking at
what kinds of recipes we would use and how much time they would take. As we go from simply hydrating
or heating the foods to preparing a meal, that will provide some fresher foods and therefore foods that are higher in nutrition.
How else are you preparing for the possibility of a Mars mission? We've worked for several years trying to find a high-barrier packaging material that does not contain foil.
If we go to high-pressure processing or microwave sterilization, we can't use the foil pouch we're using
if we store the food at a higher temperature or if we adjust the formula a little bit,
We're starting to look at how we can possibly use probiotics in our foods. We know probiotics are good for the digestive system
We're looking at how food accessibility affects crew members'moods. For example, is it worthwhile to celebrate a birthday or a holiday,
which may require some extra food items? Gut feeling says yes, but we need to get that answer.
I got into food science due to a summer job. I was a chemistry major in college
and got a job at Dunkin'Donuts in their research and development lab. The entire summer, the director of the lab was trying to persuade me to go into food science.
I gave chemistry a try the following summer and decided I wanted food science. I love it.
It's an applied science and it's multidisciplinary. My goal had been to work for a food company
and develop food products for them, which is did what I for about 16 years. I got a job here about 10 years ago.
It's certainly the most exciting job a food scientist could ever have. It's constantly changing
I have to know what's going on in all the areas --whether it's packaging or chemistry or biology or micro-engineering.
I'm developing food for Mars. It makes the job very special. Image, top: As seen in artist's rendering,
These crops will provide the crew with added nutrition and variety.//Courtesy of NASA Image, bottom:
It holds onto nutrients, water, microorganisms. It improves crop yield. Because it's made from decomposing waste that would
as they convert ordinary backyards into lush food garden
How wireless networks could keep cows from burping methanehere s a novel way to combat global warming:
and to alter their diets accordingly. New Scientist describes the wirelessly connected device: Coated with a special membrane that helps it survive the harsh conditions inside,
A pair of wings pops out after it enters the stomach and stops it from moving beyond the rumen-the chamber in a cow
scientists hope to alter the cows diets to produce Šlow methane  animals. CSIRO is also researching exactly how diet
Ten thousand of these suckers could fit on the cross-section of a human hair. The scientists took more than one million nanotrees to form a square centimeter-sized photoelectrochemical cell.
A dozen garden boxes brimming with 20 heirloom tomato varieties, peppers, squash and eggplant are begging for her attention outside in the Northern California sunshine.
Then you can choose to let it look like a mess until harvest. It was always nice after a hard day
if she was given enough time to clean up the organizational mess she inherited at Yahoo! She answers without hesitation:
she talked her way into a job as a miniskirt-wearing cocktail waitress, opting out of the night computer operator position that was her other option
--even though she didn't know a whiskey-and-seven from a vodka tonic. Man, was I in over my head,
In Beijing, turning Kung Pao Chicken into organic fertilizerbeijing--For a place which deals with tons of rotting garbage each day,
Beijing s Gaoancun food waste processing plant smells surprisingly pleasant. Every evening trucks carrying half-eaten cabbage, decomposing Kung Pao Chicken,
and other food discarded in restaurants and canteens across Beijing make their way to the plant,
built on a converted garbage dump in a western corner of the city. Abandoned chopsticks are shaken out of the garbage at Goldenway's Gaoancun plant.
After rouge chopsticks and other nonorganic waste are filtered out, the remaining waste is poured into vats heated at 80 degrees Celsius,
Food waste accounts for more than half of the nearly 20,000 tons of garbage Beijing generates daily, most
Beijinger s penchant for fried food means that the city s waste is surrounded by a layer of cooking oil,
which locks out oxygen required for the food to biodegrade properly. Food waste s high water content makes it tough to burn
raising the costs of incineration. For companies like Goldenway Biotech, who built the Gaoancun plant,
Beijing's food waste mountain is a business opportunity. The company sells its waste generated fertilizer to organic farms,
Goldenway says it can produce 0. 6 tons of organic fertilizer from a single ton of food waste,
But difficulties  encouraging  resturants to donate their waste food mean that it currently produces less than half that.
so we're dependent on them for food deliveries, Yi said. Despite the plant s apparent environmental benefits, Beijingers remain suspicious.
calling on the local government to cancel the construction of one of the firm's waste food processing plants in their neighborhood,
whether Chinese city dwellers can be persuaded to  associate food waste processing with the fragrance of freshly picked strawberries, rather than rotting meat.
and Matã Â as Carrizo's involved a late-night dinner and a napkin doodle.
A couple of times a week from spring through fall, Moran and a Danish colleague, Thomas Paulsen, forage for ants for Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant where they work (often named the world's top table by food critics
and Restaurant magazine's World's 50 Best list. At first they had no idea what they were doing,
Over the past year or so, Noma's chef and co-owner, Renã Â Redzepi, has become a leading proponent of insects as food.
In 2008 he co-founded the Nordic Food Lab, a nonprofit foundation for culinary research.
Nobody knows exactly how many people around the planet think of bugs as lunch. Some estimates say that 70 percent of the world's cultures have a tradition of eating insects
from Cambodia to Nigeria to Mexico--practically everywhere outside the modern West. One reason for this cultural disparity is that insects are larger,
especially since he restricts his cuisine to indigenous products in a place where variety is hard to come by.
when he launched an annual culinary symposium called Mad (Danish for food), the Brazilian chef Alex Atala showed up with Amazonian ants to try.
while foraging for herbs, Moran met a Danish schoolteacher who had been serving local ants to his students,
this is a restaurant where a table of two can easily part with $1, 000 and the waiting list often runs to more than a thousand names.
Now you're going to taste my pork. Now it's my pork. Here's my beef, you'll taste my beef.
Then chicken. I don't want to feel closed in, or just accept that this is the way it is.
Once in a while we find new flavors that help push our restaurant forward. Right now, these three ants we've found are making our food better.
And ants are only the beginning--the earth hosts at least 1 900 species of edible bugs just waiting for a creative hand in the kitchen.
Every morning before work, Redzepi stops in at the Nordic Food Lab, a roomy houseboat docked in the harbor steps from Noma.
He conceived the foundation, sits on its board, and shares some of his kitchen staff, but makes clear the lab is a completely independent entity from the restaurant.
Its purpose is to expand upon food knowledge with long-term research projects, and disseminate its findings at conferences and via its website (www. nordicfoodlab. org).
The day before my ant-foraging expedition, I visited the boat and met the staff. The director, Michael Bom Frã ¸st, teaches sensory science at the University of Copenhagen.
or how impressive their food conversion rate--if they don't taste good, nobody will want to eat them.
and I could easily imagine going through a bowl or two at happy hour. Larvae is a byproduct of beekeeping,
The Food Lab receives the bugs in different stages of development: older pupae with the beginnings of a differentiated thorax and abdomen,
and creamy larvae blobs, sweet and mild with flavors reminiscent of egg and warm honeydew. The lab have used them to make mayonnaise and a particularly tasty high-protein granola.
Reade explained that bee larvae were an excellent gateway insect for breaking down the mental barriers people have to ingesting bugs.
One of the experts with whom the Food Lab collaborates is Paul Rozin, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in food choices and disgust.
Rozin calls learning to like things that originally turn us off (such as cigarettes) hedonic reversals,
The staff at the Nordic Food Lab say there are many reasons for convincing Westerners to add insects to their diet.
Cows and chickens still have an important role to play in a healthy biosystem. Even so, conventional livestock uses 70 percent of the world's agricultural land.
grasshoppers, for example, provide the same protein content as beef with less fat. They have a high food conversion rate--according to the U n. Food and agriculture organization,
crickets need six times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein. With these facts in mind, the European union is investing some 4 million euros in a feasibility study of insects as protein in animal feed.
An important aspect of any such study is pathology: knowing which insects are safe to eat and
which might make us sick. At the Food Lab, the staff use cultural practices as a starting point.
If a certain insect is part of a human diet somewhere in the world, it is more likely to be pathogen-free.
They read any books and papers they can find on the subject, and consult a professor of entomological parasitology.
the same fungus used in sake and soy sauce. The fungus produces enzymes that break down the starches
and salt water (the salt keeps the pathogenic microorganisms at bay as well as enabling the enzymes, some beneficial bacteria and various strains of yeast to flourish).
After a few minutes he had a thick greenish concoction that resembled pea soup. Then he took a bag of raw,
Reade whizzed the mixture together until it turned the color of chocolate mousse with little brown specks.
and a liquid the Food Lab would use to flavor their staff meals. We can't hope to make other people incorporate these foods into their diet
if we don't said, Evans. Not every experiment is a success. Reade recalls trying to make bagoong, a fermented prawn condiment, with langoustine heads.
I tried to use the math, to work out the dry weight and the wet weight,
how much salt was needed. He knew he had gotten something wrong when he opened the box in which it was fermenting
The fermented cricket paste was the first of the Food Lab's insect-based creations to make it onto the menu at Noma.
I went to the test kitchen above the restaurant, where Redzepi served me a sorrel leaf folded around a bit of cricket miso, beet reduction and lacto-fermented red currants.
He does not consider them a main dish but rather a new toolbox of flavors,
like a spice or a condiment. They offer him one more way to connect with the land
The ants have become an ingredient in two new dishes at Noma, ground into paste with a bit of thyme oil as a binder (and less recognizable than when served alive).
One dish I tasted consisted of a fresh milk curd covered with wild blueberries mixed with ant paste.
The insects added a bright citrus note, followed by an aftertaste of something wild and alien--an almost aggressive flavor
Nordic Food Lab
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