The longer term of technology: food

Food, all of us need it. That is what all of us care about. Entire cultures revolve around food and it defines their identity. What about modern food production and the way in which we feed billions of individuals day-after-day?

In this text I take a look at food technology and the way we use big data robots, clean air and electricity, and an entire range of petri dishes to secure our day by day food production and make it even tastier.

Challenges

In 2018, roughly 113 million people experienced severe food insecurity in 53 countries. Which means that these people have no idea where their next meal will come from. The surprising thing is that the world currently produces good enough food to feed everyone. Yes, everyone.

Although we as humans don’t suffer from food shortages, we’re losing biodiversity. Currently, just 12 crops account for 75% of all of the calories we devour. And if a pest comes along that targets any of them, or climate change destroys any of them, we’ve got an actual problem.

The world’s fresh water resources will not be unlimited. Furthermore, water demand is predicted to grow dramatically until a minimum of 2050. 70% of our current water resources are used for agriculture. This segment will grow by 69% by 2035 to support estimated global population growth. That is quite a lot of water.

Current technology

You need to start with technology in agriculture. Now let’s take Western Australia’s Wide Open Agriculture for example. They use hydroponics in addition to drip irrigation, which uses only 10% of the water used for traditional irrigation. They grow plants in a 5,400-square-meter room where the partitions and roof can open and shut mechanically to scale back water loss.

This sort of farming doesn’t require soil or natural sunlight. As an alternative, plants are grown in trays containing nutrient-rich water and encouraged to photosynthesize using low-energy LED lights.

Let’s discuss lab-grown food. An organization out of Helsinki, Finland creates food in a lab. Real edible food consisting only of bacteria and water. The corporate known as Solar Foods and currently produces flour. This flour could also be improved by a mad scientist within the near future. When the bacteria are modified, they are going to create specific proteins needed to provide meat, milk and eggs, and even fish grown within the laboratory.

The usage of cloud computing signifies that the big computations and algorithms needed to provide food and within the laboratory haven’t develop into an obstacle for solar-powered food. In reality, they claim to have created a revolutionary approach to produce natural protein, using renewable electricity, air and the cloud, after all.

Created by the Danish company Vestergaard Frandsen, LifeStraw is a particularly easy invention. A plastic tube with a hole fiber membrane filters the water because it flows through. LifeStraw removes bacteria and customarily 99.999% of waterborne parasites.

Technology also tackles food waste Dutch company NoFoodWasted is working with supermarkets to alert shoppers when soon-to-expire products are discounted. It is a win for shoppers who get cheaper products, and it is a win for stores which have reduced food waste by as much as 25%. Generally speaking, there are various apps that aim to seek out a mouth for unwanted food.

Technology of the longer term

That is why I need to begin with the cloud. Cloud computing provides everyone with access to the Web. This can be a approach to use huge computing resources. It’s widely accepted that big data can provide insight into every link in the provision chain from farm to fork. For instance, big data has already revealed that in developing economies, 32% of waste occurs in food production just because the technology is just not in place to make sure maximum efficiency. If we are able to cut that in half, just in half, the world will find a way to feed a billion, more people.

Using technology to enhance areas resembling climate forecasting, demand planning and end-of-life product management could bring enormous social, economic and environmental advantages.

Do you want the right burger? The longer term may belong to burger-flipping robots. Corresponding to Flippy. The Californian burger chain Cali burger uses the world’s first autonomous kitchen assistant. Flippy doesn’t burn the pate, doesn’t need breaks and allows employees to deal with serving customers. We’ll also see robotic baristas, a pizza delivery guy, robots, bartending robots, and customarily lots more artificial intelligence and robotic assistance in relation to food production and delivery.

One in all the stranger ideas in future food technology is printing our food. Yes, use a 3D printer to print sweets, print pizza, print steak! Hershey’s, the world’s second-largest chocolate maker, can also be considering printing its products. NASA is considering using 3D printed food during space travel.

Now Foodini is a 3D printer designed for the house kitchen. The user prepares the ingredients using a food processor and blender, and the 3D printer can print shapes from the mixture. Foodini has created food items resembling burgers, pizza, junk food typically…

Two Australian corporations, Heuros in Brisbane and Vow. VOW in Sydney, which goals to make lab-grown meat from animal STEM cells a business reality. A burger patty currently costs around $30-$40, which is absolutely not inexpensive. Nonetheless, each Bill Gates and Richard Branson have invested in corporations producing so-called clean meat. This could give some weight to the profitability of this sort of landless farming.

We face real challenges in addressing each food production and freshwater shortages. Technology is actually there to assist, however it’s only as useful because the individuals who operate it, making pizza within the lab, 3D printing lasagna, and improving soil fertility using IoT devices and massive data are only a number of the future ways .