Researchers Produce High-tech Clear Banana Juice Commercialization

Vermont's passage of a law requiring food that is genetically modified to be labeled spurred action at the national level to create one standard, rather than a patchwork of state laws, that offers food companies several ways to label foods with GMOs. The national bill did eventually pass, but as this piece illustrates, no one seems very happy about it. Environmentalists feel it leaves large loopholes and while the food industry likes one standard, it does not like the stigma the GMO label confers.

For many food banks, the majority of the donations they receive are non-perishable goods, cans of food and other leftovers. Earth's Table grows produce for food banks in Boulder Colorado on privately-owned land that's been donated for the cause.

Production agriculture has put many small town, local farmers out of business, changing the landscape of the communities they've been pushed out of. One town in Missouri is fighting against this by joining together to preserve the importance of local control by nurturing a tradition of canning tomatoes.

Many sustainable farming practices originate from African roots, yet the industry in the United States is largely dominated by people who are white. Leah Penniman, an African American farmer based in a food desert in New York, saw the need to change this and began teaching her neighbors growing techniques and management practices, while also addressing social issues such as racism and food access.

Green gram farming has lead to some promising results for communities in Eastern Kenya. Allowing for more crop diversity, this breakthrough has proved to be both a cash crop and a food crop, which provides economic stability and food security to the farmers in this region.

The Women’s Collective is a nonprofit that works with more than 10,000 subsistence farmers in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to promote food security using millets, a crop resilient to drought and climate change. For Pavitra, one of those farmers, she began cultivating the ancient grains in 2015 and now has more than enough food to feed her family year-round. However, there’s a lack of public investment in millet production and machinery. And there’s no unified effort to create demand for millets: Some state governments lead the charge and in other states, it’s led by grassroots organizations.

The Hannaford supermarket chain has achieved their goal of creating zero food waste. Over the past year, they diverted 65 million pounds of unsellable products to food banks, de-packing facilities, and anaerobic digestion facilities where it’s converted to energy. The grocery store is also making adjustments to how it purchases and sources food and how it’s displayed with the hopes of extending the food’s shelf life.

Off the coast of Australia, the energy company Chevron is experimenting with new quarantine management techniques to ensure that any plants and pests don’t hitchhike to new places, which can devastate the global food economy. They’ve redesigned shipping containers to make it harder for insects to tag along and they’ve created a video game to train workers on how to be better at finding these pests in their inspections. Some creatures and plants can slip through the process, but these tools have been successful and could be used in other ways.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated hunger and malnutrition of vulnerable children by crippling livelihoods and orphaning children. Two communities have responded by donating land solely devoted to growing crops to tackle hunger and malnutrition in orphans and vulnerable children. Aside from giving crops directly to families to feed children, the volunteers who work the land also sell part of each harvest to raise money for other nutritious food for the children. Part of the crops are also used to make a nutrition powder that helps ensure children are receiving the nutrients they need.

Biztrack is a mobile financial management application that helps farmers keep track of their business information and finances with ease. It records information on deals, sales, and general performance and has since been downloaded by more than 47 area farmers. The app also allows farmers to store the data in a safe, easily accessible place, as opposed to traditional bookkeeping.