Miscellaneous
These Startups Want To Bring Surplus Food To Those In Need
"We sell ugly fruit and vegetables," says Ben Simon, CEO of Imperfect Produce. "Or as we like to call it, cosmetically challenged." Semantics aside, mountains of food go to waste each year because it's a bit lumpy or misshapen. Meanwhile, public health officials have found that more than 14% of Read More...
Food surpluses are inevitable in our consumer-led society. Food waste isn’t
If they think about it at all, most people think of food waste, or surplus, as the “reduced to clear” section in the supermarket. But that is just a tiny fraction of what exists. The truth is that most food surpluses in the supply chain never even reach our supermarket shelves. Let me Read More...
A Bitcoin-Style Currency for Central Banks
The Bank of England asked researchers to invent a digital currency with a more centralized design. by Tom Simonite March 10, 2016 Sponsored by The digital currency Bitcoin was designed to be independent of any government—a feature that also limits its mainstream appeal. Now researchers have Read More...
You’ll eat bugs. These investors are betting millions on it
Greg Sewitz and Gabi Lewis are used to people laughing at them. Three years ago the two college roommates ordered two boxes of live crickets off the Internet, the sort you might feed your pet iguana. They promptly shoved the two shoebox-sized containers of insects into the freezer. Later, they Read More...
The kickstarter kings who taught the world to crowdfund
One cold February night in 2013, Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost ducked into a Brooklyn bar for a drink and some R&D. The two friends and designers, co-owners of a firm called Studio Neat, had both gotten into mixology recently. They were wondering what their in-home bars might be missing. Like so Read More...
There is a 'game changer' technology on Wall Street and people keep confusing it with bitcoin
Goldman Sachs says the technology "has the potential to redefine transactions" and can change "everything." JPMorgan last month announced it was launching a trial project with the blockchain startup led by its former executive, Blythe Masters. Her company, Digital Asset Read More...
The supermarket selling food near its use-by date in Denmark is proving a massive hit
Denmark's first food waste supermarket has proved a huge success – with shoppers stripping the store's shelves of cut-price surplus produce. WeFood opened in the Scandinavian country’s capital Copenhagen last Monday, selling produce past its sell-by-date but Read More...
Blockchain-based microgrid gives power to consumers in New York
Something odd is happening on President Street in Brooklyn. While solar panels on the roofs of terraced houses soak up sun, a pair of computers connected to the panels quietly crunch numbers. First, they count how many electrons are being generated. Then, they write that number to a blockchain. Read More...
Is crowdfunding the future of horticulture?
Just before Christmas I tentatively embarked on something that looks set to change the course of my life. I had returned from South Africa a few months earlier with seed of many threatened members of the protea family and I was forced to make some decisions. I had to set up a nursery to study the Read More...
Growing food… without soil
According to a 2010 report from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, the UAE is dependent on imports for 85-90 percent of its food needs. Azzato said that the company's fully computerized system, which makes use of a high-tech greenhouse, enables them to grow salads year-round, thereby lessening Read More...