Saturday, October 3, 2015
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Monday, May 11, 2015
Japan’s Answer to Radiation: Massive Natural Indoor Farms
Can earthquakes and tsunamis put the Japanese food producer down? Apparently not. Sanriku Fukko National Park now hosts the world’s largest indoor farm. It was built inside an old, 25,000-square-foot semiconductor factory and uses 100 times less water than an outdoor farm. What’s more, they claim that their produce contains 8 to 10 times more beta-carotene and twice the vitamin C, calcium and magnesium as its outdoor-grown counterparts.
The produce grown at this weather-resistant, climate controlled plant uses LED lights and can yield over 10,000 heads of lettuce per day! With examples like this it is easy to see why indoor gardening or urban green-housing is expected to grow from a $30 million to a $270 million industry by 2020. With solar power, the cost to produce organic, non-GMO foods could be lowered even more. This trend is also likely part of a new high-tech, non-GMO, organic farming model that is more sustainable, and can ensure food sustainability in even the most climate-challenged locales.
Another Japanese farm is located in the basement of a high-rise building in Tokyo. It uses hydroponics to grow a variety of flowers all year long.
The Japanese government plans to promote indoor gardening as a way to create jobs and aid in food security. Officials will offer incentives including low-interest financing and a capital investment tax credit. About 40 indoor growing facilities are already in operation nationwide.
More than 150 national disasters have struck Japan in the last 30 years, largely due to their position over tectonic plates. The Fukushima incident is just the latest, and most egregious tragedy. But other places in the world have witnessed challenging if not equally devastating occurrences that threaten their food supply.
California has experienced the worst single-year drought in all of history, affecting the production of fruits and vegetables not just within the state, but across the US. Colorado and Texas have faced similar droughts but they are not responsible for growing 68% or more of all produce for the entire country.
What’s more, Africa has seen no improvements in food shortages in the cultivation of GMOs, even with the promises of biotech.
India once cultivated farms that yielded incredible grains and legumes that were full of nutrients, but reports are that food shortages loom there as well.
Water conservation, lowered costs, immunity to weather patterns, and the ability to grow all manner of food from micro-greens to bananas without chemical pesticides and fertilizers are all boons to the growing indoor farming model.
This article was written by Christina Sarich
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Friday, February 6, 2015
Miniature Real Food Konapun
The word Konapun means (according to Google’s translator) “of this starch.” I assume that perhaps a better translation would be “made of starch” but I’m not quite sure. Here is the Japanese word Konapun: ăăȘă·ă.
The starch in this case is starch powder derived from seaweed. More specifically it is called alginic acid or alginate.
The kits come with multiple packets of starch that are all chemically different so that when you mix them with water and work them into the food item they are supposed to look like, they really take on that look amazingly well.
For the items that look like they are frying in oil, the “oil” includes citric acid which interacts with the alginate and forms tiny bubbles which simulate a frying effect.”
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Turning Plastic Bags into bricks
Turning old plastic bags into bricks
Wouldn’t it be great to take the plastic bags that fill refuse stations in India and convert them into bricks, strong enough to build houses fit for monsoon rains? Danish student Lise Fuglsang Vestergaard is well on her way to doing just that.
During her stay in India to develop a refuse collection system, master’s student Lise Fuglsang Vestergaard from Technical University of Denmark came up with the idea of converting soft plastic waste into bricks. (Photo: private.)
Vestergaard’s project has received a real boost after she won a student competition, the ‘Green Challenge’, at Technical University of Denmark (DTU), where she recently completed her Master of Science in Engineering degree. Providing a much-needed injection of capital, the victory also brought recognition of her idea.
“The ‘Green Challenge’ gave me the chance to present my project to a panel of critical judges. I have put my concept to the toughest test – and it came out on top. This has given me a firm belief that I’m on to something here,” Vestergaard says.
The idea for the project originally arose in 2013 when, as part of her studies in design and innovation, Vestergaard spent three months in India developing a refuse collection system for the extremely poor city of Joygopalpur. The Indian people are already committed to collecting refuse, as they can earn a few rupees by delivering it to recycling stations.
The colourful plastic bag bricks can withstand up to six tonnes of pressure. (Photo: Thorkild Amdi Christensen.)
However, they generally leave soft plastic waste behind, because it’s apparently difficult to find uses for it. As a result, this type of plastic is causing an increasingly significant refuse problem in India.
When Vestergaard noted how the clay-brick houses were almost washed away during the monsoon season, she quickly put two and two together. Would it be possible, she wondered, to use the plastic to make bricks – thus solving two problems simultaneously?
Withstanding six tons of pressure
On her return to Denmark, Vestergaard began experimenting and melting plastic into moulds in an ordinary oven. She has now developed a series of plastic brick prototypes. Subsequent testing at DTU has revealed that the bricks can withstand up to six tonnes of pressure.
Vestergaard has also succeeded in including foil-covered crisp bags in her brick concept. This is a major achievement, given that these packets make up a large proportion of the plastic refuse. The bricks can contain up to 60 per cent crisp bags without this compromising their strength.
Vestergaard’s success in the student competition has given her renewed energy to continue working on the concept. Instead of spending the months following graduation seeking employment, Vestergaard will now immerse herself full-time in her brick project. The next step will be to return to India.
Lise Fuglsang Vestergaard presenting her plastic bag bricks during an exhibition in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo: Thorkild Amdi Christensen.)
The challenge is to raise capital for the trip. Vestergaard aims to do so in partnership with the Danish NGOInnoAid, which identified the original refuse collection project in Joygopalpur.
Vestergaard hopes that her ‘Green Challenge’ victory can help open other avenues for financing the project. She has also started collecting funds on
her website.
her website.
To establish brick production in India, Vestergaard has to come up with a method for melting the plastic that does not involve electricity – because there is no access to mains electricity in Joygopalpur. The town’s only refrigerator is powered by a small, petrol-powered generator. Vestergaard is therefore keen to test a solar powered barbecue.
“I’ve just received a solar powered barbecue. It’s hard to test it in Denmark at the moment because the weather is cloudy here in autumn, but I hope to test it properly on my next trip to India.”
- Adapted from DTU News
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