food insecurity

Does vertically-grown food taste different?

January 2, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Vertical farming is a method of producing crops in vertically stacked layers or surfaces typically in a skyscraper, used warehouse, or shipping container. Modern vertical farming uses indoor farming techniques and controlled-environment agriculture technology.

Vertical farming has the potential to be one of the solutions to food insecurity in parts of the world where crop production is limited by climate change or other environmental factors. Vertical farming reduces water and land use, reduces nutrient emissions, and could eliminate the need for pesticides. It also allows more food to be grown locally and with higher yields.

But some critics of vertically-grown veggies say they look pale, artificial, and taste bland. In the first study of its kind, a research team led by scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark sought to investigate whether these consumer prejudices hold true.

The research team asked 190 participants to blind taste test arugula, baby spinach, pea shoots, basil, and parsley grown in vertical farming and compare the taste and appearance to those same leafy greens grown organically in soil.

Overall, the organic greens grown traditionally narrowly beat out the vertically-grown ones in the study, but it was very close. For example, when asked to rate arugula on a scale of 1-9 with 9 being best, the participants gave both types a 6.6. There was no clear winner between basil, baby spinach, and pea shoots. The only clear winner was organically-grown parsley.

The study debunks some myths about vertically-grown food and should help pave the way for more widespread adoption of this efficient method to grow tasty and nutritious food.

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A delicious surprise: Vertically farmed greens taste as good as organic ones

Photo, posted May 11, 2009, courtesy of Cliff Johnson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Building Resilient Food Systems | Earth Wise

August 12, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to the United Nations and The World Bank, global hunger levels in 2021 surpassed the previous record set in 2020. The organizations also found that acute food insecurity – defined as when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger – could continue to worsen this year in many countries around the world.

According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, increased demand for water will be the biggest threat to food security during the next 20 years, followed closely by heat waves, droughts, income inequality, and political instability.

The report, which was recently published in the journal One Earth, calls for increased collaboration to build a more resilient global food supply. The impacts of conflict and climate change are already measured and studied around the world. While these pressing threats are not new, the researchers found that better collaboration between these areas of research could fortify and strengthen global food security.

In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers surveyed 69 experts in various fields related to food security. They found that many effects of climate change – such as unpredictable weather changes – could have the greatest negative impacts on food security. The researchers also found that threats to food security from income inequality, global price shocks, and political instability and migration are highly likely during the next two decades. More than half of the world’s food insecure populations also live in conflict-prone regions.

According to the research team, food security has never been a problem of production. It’s a problem of distribution, access, and poverty, and can be exacerbated by conflict.

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Amid climate change and conflict, more resilient food systems a must, report shows

Photo, posted July 19, 2009, courtesy of Danumurthi Mahendra via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

RNA Modification For Plants | Earth Wise

September 8, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

We have heard a lot about RNA this past year as messenger RNA vaccine technology has been used for the first time to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Now RNA-based technology has shown promise to make major contributions to agriculture.

A group of researchers at the University of Chicago and two Chinese universities have announced that manipulating RNA can allow plants to yield dramatically more crops as well as have better drought resistance.

Adding gene encoding for a protein called FTO to both rice and potato plants increased their yield by 50% in initial field tests. The plants were larger, produced longer root systems, and could better tolerate drought conditions. Further analysis showed that the plants had increased their rate of photosynthesis.

FTO protein erases chemical marks on RNA. Specifically, it controls a process known as m6A, which is a key modification of RNA. The FTO erases m6A to reduce some of the signals that tell plants to slow down and reduce growth. Plants modified with the addition of FTO produced significantly more RNA than control plants.

Experiments with both rice plants and potato plants – which are completely unrelated – demonstrated the same results, indicating that the technique could be broadly applicable. (The genetic modification is rather simple to make and has worked with every type of plant the researchers have tried it with so far).

These results are just the beginning but demonstrate the potential of a technology that could help address problems of poverty and food insecurity at a global scale as well as responding to climate change. The world depends on plants for everything from wood, food, and medicine, to flowers and oils. This technique has the potential to dramatically increase the stock material we can get from most plants.

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RNA breakthrough creates crops that can grow 50% more potatoes, rice

Photo, posted September 22, 2014, courtesy of Toshiyuki Imai via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

American Households and Food Waste | Earth Wise

February 12, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Food waste is a big problem. According to the United Nations, approximately one-third of the food produced globally – more than 1.4 billion tons – goes to waste. If food waste was a country adding carbon to the atmosphere, it would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases – behind only the U.S. and China. All of this food waste takes place in a world where 815 million people – more than 10% of the people on the planet – are chronically undernourished.

A new study recently published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics has analyzed the level of food waste for individual American households. It found that American households waste, on average, nearly one-third of all the food they acquire. This wasted food has an estimated aggregate value of $240 billion annually. Divided by the number of U.S. households, this food waste could be costing the average household about $1,866 per year.

According to researchers, the households with higher household incomes generate more food waste. Those with healthier diets, which include more perishable fruits and vegetables, also waste more food.

Meanwhile, households with greater food insecurity, especially those that participate in the federal SNAP food assistance program, as well as those households with a larger number of members, were associated with less food waste. Households that use shopping lists and those that travel further to reach the grocery store were also associated with lower levels of food waste.

When food is wasted, the resources used to produce food, including land, energy, water and labor, are wasted as well. We have to do better.

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