Lifeboat Foundation

Freedom of Information Act requests are rarely speedy, but when a group of scientists asked the federal government to share the data it relied upon in licensing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, the response went beyond typical bureaucratic foot-dragging.

55 years and longer.

That’s how long the Food & Drug Administration in court papers this week proposes it should be given to review and release the trove of vaccine-related documents responsive to the request. If a federal judge in Texas agrees, plaintiffs Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency can expect to see the full record in 2076.

A new European satellite will use machine learning to provide rapid, low-cost information on soil conditions to enable smarter agriculture. The project is a model for what novel sensors and artificial intelligence technology can do in a vehicle no bigger than a shoebox.

Edge computing is a fashionable buzz-phrase for the technique of shifting the processing power away from the server farms of the internet and out to where the data is being collected. According to some, edge computing is the next great tech revolution, and in the case of satellites, where communications bandwidth is severely limited, it could be transformational.

The Intuition-1 satellite program will provide soil data to drive European precision agriculture projects, which involve applying fertilizer only when and where needed rather than treating an entire field. Precision agriculture is both more economical and easier on the environment — the catch is that it requires detailed information about soil conditions on a small scale. At present, establishing levels of soil nutrients in sufficient detail involves taking samples from multiple locations and sending them to a laboratory for analysis. This typically takes about three weeks.

The newly passed infrastructure bill could lead to a boom in solar production requiring a lot more land, including farmland. But research is showing solar panels might actually help grow some crops.

*Food Out Of Thin Air. Just Might Work: Revolutionary protein production from renewable electricity and air.*

Solar Foods was chosen as one of the international winners of @NASA ‘s and @csa_asc ‘s @DeepSpaceFood Challenge Nov 15, 2021!

Continue reading “The secret lab making the most sustainable food in the world | Just Might Work by Freethink” »

The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN’s food assistance arm, outlined how $6.6 billion in investments might prevent 42 million people in 43 countries from becoming hungry. In a tweet outlining the plan, WFP President David Beasley singled out Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual by far.

This solar farm in Colorado thinks so.

The farming industry is using way too much energy both for its own and the Earth’s sake. To put it in numbers, agriculture uses approximately 21 percent of food production energy, which equals 2.2 quadrillions of kilojoules of energy each year. What’s more, about 60 percent of the energy used in agriculture goes toward gasoline, diesel, electricity, and natural gas.

That’s where agrivoltaics come in. A system where solar panels are in… See more.

Robots eliminate weeds with lasers to solve one of the farming industries’ biggest challenges.

Food inflation could hit 6 per cent in the coming months. After that, it’s anyone’s guess.

Imagine a world in which smart packaging for supermarket-ready meals updates you in real-time to tell you about carbon footprints, gives live warnings on product recalls and instant safety alerts because allergens were detected unexpectedly in the factory.

But how much extra energy would be used powering such a system? And what if an accidental alert meant you were told to throw away your food for no reason?

These are some of the questions asked by team of researchers, including a Lancaster University Lecturer in Design Policy and Futures Thinking, who—by creating objects from a “smart” imaginary new world—are looking at the ethical implications of using artificial intelligence in the food sector.