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Food News

Appetite for indoor urban farms growing in Calgary as way to produce fresh food year-round

Toronto Star | Posted on February 27, 2019

Two indoor farms finding commercial success in Calgary are NuLeaf Farms, which produces greens and herbs, and Deepwater Farms. Deepwater’s system, which currently occupies a 10,000-square-foot building in Calgary, combines both hydroponics and aquaculture to grow not just produce, but fish. The solid waste from the water the fish swim in is turned into a kind of liquid compost, which, in turn, nourishes the plants.“How amazing is it to say that you’re serving a fish that is produced a kilometre away from your restaurant? It doesn’t get any more local than that,” said MacLean. “It’s been on our menu since they brought the product out.” MacLean is an advocate for sustainable and restorative food practices, sourcing as many of his ingredients as possible from local producers.


Made-in-Canada lab-grown meat a possibility

National Post | Posted on February 27, 2019

A group of Toronto scientists will soon attempt to develop a less-expensive way to grow lab-made meat after securing a grant from an American non-profit aiming to boost advances in cultured protein. Cellular agriculture has been touted as the future of food thanks to its smaller environmental footprint and consideration for animal welfare, but until recently much of the research has been done south of the border.Cultured food uses cell cultures to grow animal products like beef, eggs or milk in a laboratory without the need for livestock. Some companies have already made these kinds of products, but it’s an expensive undertaking and no such items are readily available on store shelves yet.


IDF publication confirms milk pasteurization health benefits

Feedstuffs | Posted on February 27, 2019

The International Dairy Federation (IDF) has released a new Bulletin that provides an overview of some key technological, microbiological and nutritional aspects of milk pasteurization and reaffirms that the process does not significantly impact the nutritional properties of milk. From an evaluation of the best available science, it concludes that drinking pasteurized milk is still the best way to obtain milk’s many health benefits.“This bulletin clearly confirms the public health advantages of milk pasteurization from a microbiological perspective and the scientific basis demonstrating that it does not affect the nutritional value of milk,” lead author Kieran Jordan said. “It is an important review that furthers our knowledge of food safety and quality.”

 


Plant-based, animal protein demand shows no sign of letting up

Agri-Pulse | Posted on February 27, 2019

Farmers, ranchers, fisherman and the rest of agribusiness will try to satisfy dietary protein demands as the global population soars in number toward the nine billion the United Nations projects by 2040. With that steady increase comes rising incomes and, especially in developing countries, demand for more and more protein-laden foods. How to meet the demand? Boundless possibilities emerge, butting up against the array of challenges of bringing protein foods to market — the shrinking bases of arable land base and fresh water, for example, plus climate change, concern about animal agriculture’s environment impacts, animal rights issues, and more.


Lean fish have advantages over meat and poultry for cell-cultured protein production, claims nonprofit

Food Navigator | Posted on February 27, 2019

Lean fish has significant advantages over other aquatic or terrestrial species for cell-cultured protein production, according to the founders of Clean Research, a new open science initiative created to accelerate the research and development of cell-cultured fish.


'Ugly produce’ trend may have limits, as grocers end tests

AP | Posted on February 26, 2019

Is the "ugly produce'" trend already reaching the end of its shelf life in supermarkets?Walmart and Whole Foods in recent years tried selling some blemished fruits and vegetables at a discount, produce they said might otherwise be trashed because it's not quite the right size, shape or color. But the two chains and others quietly ended their tests, suggesting dented apples and undersized potatoes may not be all that appealing in stores where better looking fruits and vegetables are on display."Customers didn't accept it as much as we had hoped," said Mona Golub of Price Chopper, a grocery chain in the Northeast that also discontinued its offering of ugly produce.


Salmon in tanks, lettuce under glass disrupt the food chain

Madison.com | Posted on February 26, 2019

 Salmon aren’t supposed to be swimming here. The lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens also are out of place.A 3-acre greenhouse, nearly twice the length of a football field, glows purple from its more than 1,100 LED grow lights — a sight that turns the heads of passing motorists on Interstate 94 at night. The lights, with cloud-based software, help mimic California’s Salinas Valley.Next door, the North Atlantic Ocean is replicated in a one-acre fish house. Thousands of Atlantic salmon, some newly hatched from eggs sourced in Iceland, others nearly 10 pounds after two years, are raised in 22,000-gallon tanks filled with fresh water drawn from a 180-foot-deep well.About 95 percent of the Atlantic salmon consumed in the U.S. is imported, primarily from Norway and Chile, while about 90 percent of the lettuce grown in the U.S. comes from traditional farm fields, mainly in California and Arizona.But just up the hill from an abandoned schoolhouse in the rolling hills of west central Wisconsin about 33 miles southeast of Eau Claire, 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of salmon are harvested each week and 1.5 million pounds of leafy greens each year. And it’s all being sold to grocers, restaurants and wholesalers within a 400-mile radius of Jackson County.


Plant-based, animal protein demand shows no sign of letting up

Agri-Pulse | Posted on February 25, 2019

Farmers, ranchers, fisherman and the rest of agribusiness will try to satisfy dietary protein demands as the global population soars in number toward the nine billion the United Nations projects by 2040. With that steady increase comes rising incomes and, especially in developing countries, demand for more and more protein-laden foods. How to meet the demand? Boundless possibilities emerge, butting up against the array of challenges of bringing protein foods to market — the shrinking bases of arable land base and fresh water, for example, plus climate change, concern about animal agriculture’s environment impacts, animal rights issues, and more. Meat and dairy substitutes are already landing on our dietary shores with a thump.Rabobank estimated retail sales of plant-based meat alternatives had risen by almost one-quarter to an estimated $770 million in the twelve months up to August 2018,” and “the wider range of plant-based alternatives to conventional animal foods (including milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.) ... up 17 percent in the past twelve months. Equally impressive are the number of new entrants and players in the “new protein landscape.”


Defenders of raw milk focusing on liberty more than health

Edairy News | Posted on February 21, 2019

The Tennessee Senate Commerce and Labor Committee has yet to schedule a hearing on the Briggs bill, but what lawmakers are hearing is that Senate Bill (SB) 15 pits community health against civil liberties.Briggs, is a Republican, a cardiac surgeon and a retired U.S. Army Colonel. He represents Knoxville in the Tennessee Senate, told Ohio television station WTOL Channel 11 that the controversy his bill has caused is like “kicking a hornet’s nest.” Raw milk dairy farmers are fighting for their loophole, saying civil liberties are at stake for both producers and consumers of raw milk. They are calling opposition to the Briggs bill “a liberty issue.” Briggs decided to take on the cow-share loophole after an E. coli outbreak this past summer in Knox County sickened 10 children, some severely. Raw milk produced by French Broad Farm was the likely cause of the outbreak, according to investigators. The dairy ended its cow-share program in response to the event.


Examining Food Loss and Food Waste in the United States

Choices Magazine | Posted on February 21, 2019

Food that is lost before it reaches the consumer, and food that is wasted by consumers, has been estimated to account for as much as 40% of the total food produced in the United States (Buzby, Wells, and Hyman, 2014; Hall et al., 2009). This represents losses of important resources—including water, chemical inputs, and labor—as well as unused nutrients for consumers. Stakeholders along the supply chain are increasingly interested in developing improved approaches to measuring food waste, understanding its determinants, and devising strategies to ultimately reduce it. To date, a majority of food waste studies have focused on household-level waste; fewer studies have examined waste in food distribution and retail settings, and very little work has been conducted to understand the economic causes and consequences of food loss at the farm level. This Choices theme presents a collection of articles that explore food loss and food waste in the context of the U.S. food supply chain. The behavior and incentives of a variety of food system stakeholders including producers, market intermediaries (including retailers), and consumers are considered. The articles are organized along the supply chain, beginning with upstream issues of food loss proceeding through downstream topics such as household decisions concerning when to discard food. Taken together, this collection offers intriguing insights into current frontiers of the myriad private and public efforts to better characterize, quantify, and reduce food waste.


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