Live in SF or NY & Still Want Garden Fresh Veggies? The Foop is here!

f you've got a green thumb but no space to work your garden magic, a Japanese company might just have the thing to help quell your plant cultivation cravings.

Named the "Foop" (short for food and people) and developed by a company called C'estec, the smart device, roughly the size of a dual shelf toaster, lets you grow small crops of vegetables in your kitchen.

The product has come about to help those in Tokyo who want to grow plants and vegetables but, like may people living in large metropolitan cities, don't have sufficient garden space to do so.

The Foop houses a set of moisture-rich sponge pods, in which you'll plant your seeds. After that, you pair the device with your smartphone to monitor the growing conditions. You'll get a prediction of how long the plant will take to fully grow, as well as the ability to alter lighting, heat and humidity to ensure you get healthy and vibrant vegetables.

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Genetically Engineered AquAdvantage Salmon Approved by FDA for Sale, Consumers

A fast-growing salmon has become the first genetically engineered animal to be approved for human consumption in the United States.

The decision, issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on November 19, releases the salmon from two decades of regulatory limbo. The move was met with swift opposition from some environmental and food-safety groups.

But for advocates of the technology, the decision comes as a relief after a long and vexing wait. They say that it could spur the development of other genetically engineered animals. “It opens up the possibility of harnessing this technology,” says Alison Van Eenennaam, an animal geneticist at the University of California, Davis. “The regulatory roadblock had really been disincentivizing the world from using it.”

The genetically modified fish, called ‘AquAdvantage' salmon, were engineered by AquaBounty Technologies of Maynard, Massachusetts, to express higher levels of a growth hormone than wild salmon. The fish grow to full size in 18 months rather than 3 years.

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Wait! What?! A Dish to Celebrate the Victory Over Japan in China

A friend sent this to me.  Not sure what to think.

Tasting the Proto Pita Bread of the Pleistocene

A group of intrepid Israeli researchers recently went back to the dawn of the Stone Age to make lunch.

Using 12,500-year-old conical mortars carved into bedrock, they reconstructed how their ancient ancestors processed wild barley to produce groat meals, as well as a delicacy that might be termed "proto-pita" - small loaves of coal-baked, unleavened bread. In so doing, they re-enacted a critical moment in the rise of civilization: the emergence of wild-grain-based nutrition, some 2,000 to 3,000 years before our hunter-gatherer forebears would establish the sedentary farming communities which were the hallmark of the "Neolithic Revolution".

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Improving Photosynthesis Through Biotech for Food and Bio Fuels

Redesigning photosynthesis to sustainably meet global food and bioenergy demand

Authors:

Ort et al

Abstract:

The world’s crop productivity is stagnating whereas population growth, rising affluence, and mandates for biofuels put increasing demands on agriculture. Meanwhile, demand for increasing cropland competes with equally crucial global sustainability and environmental protection needs. Addressing this looming agricultural crisis will be one of our greatest scientific challenges in the coming decades, and success will require substantial improvements at many levels. We assert that increasing the efficiency and productivity of photosynthesis in crop plants will be essential if this grand challenge is to be met. Here, we explore an array of prospective redesigns of plant systems at various scales, all aimed at increasing crop yields through improved photosynthetic efficiency and performance. Prospects range from straightforward alterations, already supported by preliminary evidence of feasibility, to substantial redesigns that are currently only conceptual, but that may be enabled by new developments in synthetic biology. Although some proposed redesigns are certain to face obstacles that will require alternate routes, the efforts should lead to new discoveries and technical advances with important impacts on the global problem of crop productivity and bioenergy production.

Introducing the Shipping Container Gardens From Freight Farms and Cropbox

Ensuring that the food we eat is locally and sustainably grown is not always easy, especially in cities where crop-growing space is at a premium. Firms like Freight Farms and Cropbox, however, have a solution to this problem. They offer shipping containers that are kitted out as self-contained farms.

We've already seen the humble shipping container reappropriated for all sorts of different uses, including as part of an inner city farm concept. Freight Farms and Cropbox actually deliver that concept, albeit more practically and one container at a time.

The containers offered by both companies feature hydroponic technology, which employs a mineral-based solution in which to grow crops rather than soil. This means that the quality of the produce is not affected by prevailing weather conditions and that the conditions can be precisely tailored.

According to Cropbox, such systems use up to 90 percent less water than traditional growing methods. Both firms offer LED lighting in their containers too, which also compares favorably to other lighting methods. Overall, Freight Farms says each one of its containers takes 30,000 kWh of electricity annually to run.

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Reconstructing the Roman London's use of Exotic Plants for Culinary Purposes

Reconstructing the Roman London flavourscape: New insights into the exotic food plant trade using network and spatial analyses

Authors:

Livarda et al

Abstract:

Using archaeobotanical data and examining them with a novel combination of density interpolation surfaces and social and spatial network analyses, this study has brought together all exotic food plants in Roman London to outline the changing ‘face’ of its flavourscape, and contextualise it within the broader exotics commerce in Britannia. Consumption of a variety of exotics appeared to be widespread since the very first stages of London’s establishment and their presence was maintained throughout although later on, as life in the town developed and its character changed, the focus of their distribution also changed. The emphasis shifted from the core of the city in its early days towards its outer zones, such as the upper Walbrook valley and Southwark in the Middle Roman, and the western and eastern sectors in the Late Roman phase. These changes appeared to largely reflect the changes in the overall commerce network of exotics in Britannia. In this network London starts as a mainly consumption place in the Early Roman phase to become the main redistribution centre in the Middle Roman and the necessary intermediate node in the transport system that had been established by the Late Roman phase, connecting the south to the north.

Scientists Successfully 'Hack' Rubisco, "Improve" Photosynthesis

It is difficult to find fault with a process that can create food from sunlight, water and air, but for many plants, there is room for improvement. Researchers have taken an important step towards enhancing photosynthesis by engineering plants with enzymes from blue-green algae that speed up the process of converting carbon dioxide into sugars.

The results, published today in Nature, surmount a daunting hurdle on the path to boosting plant yields — a goal that is taking on increasing importance as the world’s population grows.

“With the limited ability to increase land use for agriculture, there’s a huge interest in trying to improve yield across all the major crops,” says Steven Gutteridge, a research fellow at chemical firm DuPont’s crop-protection division in Newark, Delaware.

Researchers have long wanted to increase yields by targeting Rubisco, the enzyme responsible for converting carbon dioxide into sugar. Rubisco is possibly the most abundant protein on Earth, and can account for up to half of all the soluble protein found in a leaf.

But one reason for its abundance is its inefficiency: plants produce so much Rubisco in part to compensate for its slow catalysis. Some have estimated that tinkering with Rubisco and ways to boost the concentration of carbon dioxide around it could generate up to a 60% increase in the yields of crops such as rice and wheat.

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Climate Change to Effect Food Crop Yields

The world faces a small but substantially increased risk over the next two decades of a major slowdown in the growth of global crop yields because of climate change, new research finds.

The authors, from Stanford University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), say the odds of a major production slowdown of wheat and corn even with a warming climate are not very high. But the risk is about 20 times more significant than it would be without global warming, and it may require planning by organizations that are affected by international food availability and price.

"Climate change has substantially increased the prospect that crop production will fail to keep up with rising demand in the next 20 years," said NCAR scientist Claudia Tebaldi, a co-author of the study.

Stanford professor David Lobell said he wanted to study the potential impact of climate change on agriculture in the next two decades because of questions he has received from stakeholders and decision makers in governments and the private sector.

"I'm often asked whether climate change will threaten food supply, as if it's a simple yes or no answer," Lobell said. "The truth is that over a 10- or 20-year period, it depends largely on how fast the Earth warms, and we can't predict the pace of warming very precisely. So the best we can do is try to determine the odds."

Lobell and Tebaldi used computer models of global climate, as well as data about weather and crops, to calculate the chances that climatic trends would have a negative effect of 10 percent on yields of corn and wheat in the next 20 years. This would have a major impact on food supply. Yields would continue to increase but the slowdown would effectively cut the projected rate of increase by about half at the same time that demand is projected to grow sharply.

They found that the likelihood of natural climate shifts causing such a slowdown over the next 20 years is only 1 in 200. But when the authors accounted for human-induced global warming, they found that the odds jumped to 1 in 10 for corn and 1 in 20 for wheat.

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Testing Scenarios for Archaeological Mussel Collection in South Africa

Stranded rocky shore mussels and their possible procurement during prehistory on the West Coast of South Africa

Author:

Jerardino

Abstract:

A number of competing or complementary approaches are often used to understand patterns in shellfish abundance in the archaeological record. The relative importance of environmental, behavioural or taphonomic factors lends support to these different models. In the context of South African West Coast shell middens, the procurement of washed-up (stranded) fauna (vertebrates and invertebrates) has been proposed as a possible subsistence adaptation since the Late Pleistocene. The collection of washed-up rocky shore mussels (Choromytilus meridionalis), particularly, has been suggested to account for shellfish species composition in West Coast sites. The objective of this paper is to test this scenario by means of field observations from natural assemblages (washed-up mussels and storm beach accumulations) and archaeological observations from ten late Holocene assemblages. Metrical observations of C. meridionalis shells are interpreted in terms of updated knowledge on the biology and ecology of this species and used to bring insight into the procurement of this species. This study shows that less than half of stranded mussels are edible, and that considerable search/handling costs are involved when procuring this source. Because of their low returns and unpredictability, mussels are much more likely to have been collected from exposed rocky reefs than from washed-up material.

EU Caps 7% of Transport Fuels can be Food-derived BioFuels

EU energy ministers agreed on Friday to limit production of biofuels made from food crops, responding to criticism they stoke inflation and do more environmental harm than good.

The ministers' endorsement of a compromise deal overcomes a stalemate hit late last year, when European Union governments failed to agree on a proposed 5 percent cap on the use of biofuels based on crops such as maize or rapeseed.

Friday's agreement would set a 7 percent limit on food-based biofuels in transport fuel.

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The Beloved Chile Pepper Domesticated in East-Central Mexico

Central-east Mexico gave birth to the domesticated chili pepper — now the world's most widely grown spice crop — reports an international team of researchers, led by a plant scientist at the University of California, Davis.

Results from the four-pronged investigation — based on linguistic and ecological evidence as well as the more traditional archaeological and genetic data — suggest a regional, rather than a geographically specific, birthplace for the domesticated chili pepper. That region, extending from southern Puebla and northern Oaxaca to southeastern Veracruz, is further south than was previously thought, the researchers found.

The region also is different from areas of origin that have been suggested for common bean and corn, which were presumably domesticated in Western Mexico.

The study findings will be published online April 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as part of a series of research papers on plant and animal domestication.

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The Race Between MilSpec Perpetual Pizza, the Singularity and Fusion is Coming to an End.

They call it the holy grail of ready-to-eat meals for soldiers: a pizza that can stay on the shelf for up to three years and still remain good to eat.

Soldiers have been asking for pizza since lightweight individual field rations — known as meals ready to eat, or MREs — replaced canned food in 1981 for soldiers in combat zones or areas where field kitchens cannot be set up.

Researchers at a U.S. military lab in Massachusetts are closing in on a recipe that doesn't require any refrigeration or freezing.

"You can basically take the pizza, leave it on the counter, packaged, for three years and it'd still be edible," said Michelle Richardson, a food scientist at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center.

Scientists at the Natick labs also are responsible for developing equipment and clothing that improves soldiers' combat effectiveness and their survival, but the quest for good pizza has become known as the holy grail there.

Pizza is one of the most requested items when soldiers are asked every year what they'd like to see in their rations, said Richardson, who has spent nearly two years developing the recipe in a large kitchen full of commercial equipment.

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Chinese Industrial Farming: Cloning 500 Pigs per Year

You hear the squeals of the pigs long before reaching a set of long buildings set in rolling hills in southern China.

Feeding time produces a frenzy as the animals strain against the railings around their pens. But this is no ordinary farm.

Run by a fast-growing company called BGI, this facility has become the world's largest centre for the cloning of pigs.

The technology involved is not particularly novel - but what is new is the application of mass production.

The first shed contains 90 animals in two long rows. They look perfectly normal, as one would expect, but each of them is carrying cloned embryos. Many are clones themselves.

This place produces an astonishing 500 cloned pigs a year: China is exploiting science on an industrial scale.

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New New Mexico Green Chile Variety Released

The new seeds are inconspicuous, filling a handful of 1.5-pound coffee bags and tucked at the bottom of a shelf in the Seed Vault.

The repository — kept between 34 degrees and 40 degrees Fahrenheit — holds decades of seeds grown and developed by New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute.

On that bottom shelf is the institute’s newest star: NuMex Sandia Select, a new variety, previously used as red chile, that can now be used as green chile.

“There’s been a lot of buzz about this, so I think it will be very popular,” said Danise Coon, an agricultural research scientist at the Chile Pepper Institute. “People have been wanting a new Sandia variety for a long time.”

Seed packets are now on sale for $5 at the Chile Pepper Institute. Proceeds benefit NMSU’s Endowed Chile Pepper Research Chair campaign.

Local company Biad Chili will also sell roasted NuMex Sandia Selects, maybe as early as this August, and seeds beginning in 2015 or 2016, co-owner Chris Biad said.

Word got out about the upcoming variety a few years back, and people have been calling about it, asking when the seed will be released, Coon said.

“I get excited about it because I think it’s an improvement,” Biad said.

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Culinary Archeaology: Mixe-Zoquean Cultures Used Spicy Peppers in Multiple Ways

Chili peppers may have been used to make spicy beverages thousands of years ago in Mexico, according to new research published November 13 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Terry Powis at Kennesaw State University and colleagues from other institutions.

Capsicum species are usually referred to as chili peppers, and their uses are well known in the history of Spain and Portugal. There are relatively few sites in Mesoamerica, Central America, and South America that contain remains of Capsicum, and therefore, we know little about how groups such as the Mayans and the Mixe-Zoquean, inhabitants of the site studied here, used chili peppers in those regions.

In this study, the authors used chemical extractions to reveal the presence of Capsicum residues in pottery samples from a site in southern Mexico. Some of these pottery vessels were over 2000 years old, dating from 400 BC to 300 AD.

They found Capsicum residue in multiple types of jars and vessels, which suggests that those cultures may have been using chili peppers for many different culinary purposes. For instance, Capsicum was found in a vessel called a sprouted jar, which is used for pouring a liquid into another container.

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Its CHILE damnit.

A Pie Only Its Creator Seems to Love

My kids and I have been going a bit nuts with making pies.  We have made two sets of pumpkin pies (one sugar pumpkin baked, makes three and we've done that twice).  We have made two apple pies and we are planning on another couple this weekend.  I even made a rhubarb pie: the kids didn't care for that though, but its an old family recipe.

However, I decided to take a crack at mince meat pie.  I used to make it from a jar when I was a teen and loved it.  My first wife's aunt used to make an incredible faux mince meat pie from green tomatoes.  Our first thanksgiving, I ate a pie and a half, stunning them.  It was really good! 

I hadn't made a mince meat from scratch, so I set out to do so.  I decided I wanted to try a hybrid of mock mince meat pie and mince meat: some meat, but not with all that gawdawful fat.  I was mildly surprised how difficult it was to find beef neck around here.  Then again, I am time pressed doing superdad duty, so I settled on oxtail. 

I boiled the oxtail for 8 hours to make extremely tender.  I separated the meat, shredded it and tossed the bones.  I mixed in sugar, dried cranberry, raisins, one green apple and some cranberry sauce.  I spiced it with cloves, cinnamon, and ginger.  I let the filling sit overnight.  It baked for an hour and came out quite well.

My kids hate it.

Ah well, mince meat was always a niche pie and I think my mother and I were the only ones to really like it back home.  And me more than her.

Next time I'll slice up the oxtail.  While its good, its a bit stringy as it is.  And I'll take a week to eat this at least.

Fresh Pies, Two Apples and a Rhubarb

Two apples and a rhubarb.  We ate one of the pumpkins and gave away one to the day job.

Red or Green? The Ultimate Question Makes it to CNN

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He needed to go south down I-25 to Hatch, for crying out loud...

First Octopus Farm Starting in the Yucatan, Mexico

Fish farms now produce million tons of fish each year around the globe. But octopuses have largely escaped this kind of confined aquaculturing, despite a growing global demand and overfishing. Why? That’s the million-ton question.

Based on their brief life cycles, prolific reproduction and efficient metabolisms, octopuses should be ideal candidates for aquaculture. They have short lives, many taking only a year or two to reach full maturity. Females lay thousands and thousands of eggs. And as poikilotherms, they are incredibly efficient at turning calories consumed into body mass.

Groups of scientists and entrepreneurs across the world—from Japan to Australia to Italy to Mexico—have been trying to find a way to rear these finicky creatures from egg to export. And most of them have struggled. But now, one farm has reported success, a move that could help wild populations and researchers alike.

On the Yucatan coast in Mexico, a small cooperative is finally rearing Octopus maya from eggs after a decade of research and unsuccessful attempts, according to news reports. Called Mayab Mollusks, it is still in its infancy, but the group is planning to gear up to larger commercial operations.

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