Page 248 – Green Prophet

Will COP 21 finally deal with climate change ?

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December 3, 2015

Will COP 21 finally deal with climate change ?

This year’s Conference of the Parties, known as COP21, may turn out to be the one that finally addresses the ravages of human caused climate change. Or will it? COP21 comes on the heels of some of the worst climate issues that humankind has experienced in recent years; including intense typhoons and hurricanes; and crazy Middle East “heat domes” that may make parts of the ME uninhabitable by year 2100. Also included are worsening droughts in many locations, including India, Africa, and the United States.

Fossil fuels, especially heavily polluting ones like coal and petroleum are still being extensively used in most industrialized countries; especially so in China. These fuels could derail the global warming degree target of 2 degrees Celsius; the warming temperature increase limit to be agreed upon in this year’s conference. Even this amount, if possible to attain, would still result in significant damage to the global environment, especially to agriculture in developing countries.

This years conference In Paris France is being attended by many of the world’s top leaders, including US President Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping. XI’s
participation comes at a time when some of the worst air pollution levels ever recorded are choking cities like Beijing. Much more than speeches and photo ops are needed, however, to slow down the increasing effects of global warming and climate change; that many climatists are now attributing to be largely caused by over use of fossil fuels.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said: ” A climate change treaty is in our shared interest.There is a good mood among countries to fight climate change. We need a legally binding treaty for all countries to adhere to; especially the large industrialized countries”. Ms. Figueres added that green technology projects must be accelerated; particularly those involving solar and wind energy.

Despite all the good intentions being expressed by the various high profile delegates attending this year’s conference, will an agreed upon climate change treaty be a situation
of “too little, too late” to deal with what is beginning to look like an irreversable reality? China, one of the worst pollutors on the planet, already has air pollution levels so high in Beijing that they are considered to be “extremely hazardous”.

Even in the USA, severe dust storms, normally attributed to other parts of world like the Middle East, are already occurring in states like Arizona as shown in this video

Reaching the agreed annual world temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius is still not a very desirable level, taking the aforementioned “heat dome” phenomenom into account.
Large areas of countries like India, Kuwait and Iraq are already unlivable during the summer months. Weaning large industrial countries off dependence on fossel fuels will take years; and require heavy investments in infrastructure changes to renewable energy. Taking the example of the Arab Gulf region into account, do we have the time to reverse the ravages of climate change? Or is it already too late to do so?

MENA must push – NOW! – for 100% renewable energy

Faisal O'Keefe

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December 3, 2015

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MENA must push – NOW! – for 100% renewable energy

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) must keep pace with the rest of the world and push for a future fully powered by renewable energy, says IndyACT, the leading Arab non-governmental organization working on climate change policy.

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Israeli lab aims to hatch chicken from stem cells!

Green Prophet Guest

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November 30, 2015

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Israeli lab aims to hatch chicken from stem cells!

Israeli non-profit Modern Agriculture Foundation (MAF) is developing lab-grown chicken meat that doesn’t require the rearing and slaughtering of birds. Since 2014, they’ve been researching mass production of cultured chicken meat from a single bird cell. If they succeed, we could soon be asking, Which came first, the chicken…or the chicken?

Chicken is the world’s second favorite meat product after pork, with an estimated 23 million chickens killed daily just to feed Americans. The United Nations estimates that by 2050 world population will exceed 9.6 billion. That’s two billion more mouths to feed, and increasingly, they’ll be meat-eaters. How is the food industry gearing up for demand?

In 2013, Green Prophet reported on the first lab-grown beef, an experiment undertaken by Maastricht University which culminated in a hamburger patty that cost roughly $325,000 to create. We questioned the viability of “victimless meat“: will consumer commitment to food with a lower carbon footprint overcome the “ick” factor of meat born in a petri dish? Considerable investment will be needed to scale up to commercial manufacture, so for now production of synthetic meat (or shmeat, or tubesteak) is now limited to research labs.

Did you know that ranching and livestock rearing now take up 30% of earth’s surface? Meat production causes negative environmental impacts ranging from soil erosion to deforestation with significant losses in biodiversity.

A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization found that current levels of meat production contributes up to 22 percent of the 36 billion tons of “CO2-equivalent” greenhouse gases (GHG) generated globally every year. Scientific American put that into perspective, calculating that producing half a pound of hamburger releases as much GHG into the atmosphere as driving a 3,000-pound car nearly 10 miles. The industry is also a voracious consumer of water (4,325 liters of water is required to produce 1 kg of chicken meat, according to the British Institute of Mechanical Engineers ).

“Earth cannot take it. It’s not a prediction or speculation. It’s truth. There’s not enough land on the planet to raise the animals. We are raising 70 billion land animals at the moment. We won’t have space for another 70 billion,” MAF cofounder and biologist Shir Friedman told Mirror Online.

Cultivated meat sidesteps animal cruelty and flock-shared disease such as Avian and Swine flu.

Chickens bred for meat are typically raised in highly efficient (and controversially cruel) intensive factory farms which accelerate the birds’ growth to market weight in six to seven weeks, a rate three times faster than in the mid-1900’s.

Use of growth hormones in poultry is illegal in the US and many other countries, but the animals are fed high calorie feeds to quicken weight gain, which cause all manner of medical problems to the birds including immobility. Proponents of cultivated meat will point out that the fried thigh you are about to tuck into may have been pressed to a feces-packed floor for the few months of its owner’s life, featherless and covered with sores.

Cultured meat is made from stem cells harvested from live animals. The cells are fed with a nutrient cocktail that enables them to grow into muscle tissue, which must be mechanically stimulated in order to develop properly. It is 100% meat, and involves no genetic engineering.

Tissue specialist Amit Gefen (pictured below) from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering is heading up the MAF study which aims to have devise a lab-cultured chicken meat recipe by January 2016, identifying all associated technologies, resources, and costs. The goal is to one day produce in factories on a commercial scale, which would require between seven and 45 percent less energy, 90% less fresh water and 99% less land, and would result in 80 to 90% less GHG emissions than the traditional chicken meat industry.

“If 2.5 billion people join us in eating only cultured meat by 2050, we get all those resources back. It’s truly a magic solution,” says Friedman.

Hebrew University Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, says that if the process becomes economically feasible, “the ecological and ethical considerations would make cultured meat irresistible. Cultured meat is one of the most important revolutions in the history of food and in the history of humankind itself.”

MAF is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization founded in March last year. The project is privately funded.

Lead image of a chicken from Shutterstock, all others from MAF Facebook page.

Climate change has its soundtrack! Concrete organ makes music from rising seas

Design

Faisal O'Keefe

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November 29, 2015

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Climate change has its soundtrack! Concrete organ makes music from rising seas

Croatian architect Nicola Bašić added a sensual dimension to a waterfront promenade in Zadar, Croatia by using wave energy to create sound. His concrete “sea organ” harnesses kinetic energy from the Adriatic sea to create random – but soothing – harmonized notes. It’s a bit of a riff off Nero fiddling while Rome burns; as the “music” increases as waves intensify, this could be the soundtrack to climate change.

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Climate change disasters doubled – eating up world’s food security

Cities

Karin Kloosterman

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November 26, 2015

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Climate change disasters doubled – eating up world’s food security

Droughts, floods, storms and other disasters triggered by climate change have risen in frequency and severity over the last three decades, increasing the damage caused to the agricultural sectors of many developing countries and putting them at risk of growing food insecurity, the UN’s FAO warned in a new report released today ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris next month.

Worldwide, between 2003 and 2013 – the period analyzed in the study – the average annual number of disasters caused by all types of natural hazards, including climate-related events, almost doubled since the 1980s.

The total economic damage caused is estimated at $1.5 trillion.

Focusing specifically on the impact of climate-related disasters in developing countries, some 25 percent of the negative economic impacts were borne by the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors alone.

In the case of drought, over 80 percent of the damage and losses affected the agriculture sector, especially livestock and crop production.

The FAO report is based on a review of 78 on the ground post disaster needs-assessments conducted in developing countries coupled with statistical analyses of production losses, changes in trade flows and agriculture sector growth associated with 140 medium and large scale disasters – defined as those affecting at least 250,000 people.

The report clearly demonstrates that natural hazards – particularly extreme weather events – regularly impact heavily on agriculture and hamper the eradication of hunger, poverty and the achievement of sustainable development.

The situation is likely to worsen unless measures are taken to strengthen the resilience of the agriculture sector and increase investments to boost food security and productivity and also curb the harmful effects of climate change.

Small farmers’ livelihoods erased

“This year alone, small-scale farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists and foresters – from Myanmar to Guatemala and from Vanuatu to Malawi – have seen their livelihoods eroded or erased by cyclones, droughts, floods and earthquakes,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

“National strategies for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation that support resilience must address the types of disasters with the greatest impact on the agriculture sector, the FAO Director-General said.

Drought has an especially detrimental impact – around 90 percent of production losses – on agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa where the sector on average contributes to a quarter of GDP, rising to a half when agribusiness is included.

At a conservative estimate, total crop and livestock production losses after major droughts were equivalent to more than $30 billion between 1991 and 2013 in the region.

Drought often has a major cascading effect on national economies as shown in Kenya where between 2008 and 2011 it caused significant losses in the food processing industry, particularly grain milling and coffee and tea processing.

Many Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to the impact of floods and storms. For example, crop production losses caused by the 2010 floods in Pakistan directly affected cotton ginning, rice processing and flour and sugar milling, while cotton and rice imports surged. In this case, some 50 percent of the $10 billion in total damages and losses fell on the agriculture sector.

Understanding the impact of different types of disasters is crucial to ensure that the most appropriate policies and practices are implemented.

Floods cause more than half of the total damage and loss to crops which are also very vulnerable to storms and drought. Around 85 percent of the damage caused to livestock is due to drought, while fisheries are overwhelmingly affected by tsunamis and storms such as hurricanes and cyclones. Most of the negative economic impact to forestry is caused by storms and floods.

Beyond production losses, the study shows how disasters can cause unemployment and erode incomes especially for small scale family farmers, thus threatening rural livelihoods. For instance, the 2010 floods in Pakistan affected 4.5 million workers, two-thirds of whom were employed in agriculture and over 70 percent of farmers lost more than half of their expected income.

Worldwide, the livelihoods of 2.5 billion people depend on agriculture, yet only 4.2 percent of total official development assistance was spent on agriculture between 2003 and 2012 – less than half the United Nations target of 10 percent. Investment in disaster risk reduction is extremely low: only around 0.4 percent of official development aid in 2010 and 2011.

FAO stresses that aid should better reflect the impact of disasters on the agriculture sector.

Investments into disaster response and recovery should also build resilience to future shocks through risk reduction and management measures, particularly in countries facing recurrent disasters and where agriculture is a critical source of livelihoods, food and nutrition security, as well as a key driver of the economy.

This is high times for hydroponics to step into the picture.

Cool innovation shocks salt from sea water

Tech

Maurice Picow

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November 25, 2015

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Cool innovation shocks salt from sea water

$MIT-fracking-pond_0$

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink!

Desalinating sea water is a costly and energy consuming way of providing fresh water in many parts of world. Though methods such as Graphene-Nanotechnology makes desalination more efficient, the end result is still problematic due to clogging of separation filters.

Returning heavily saline brine residue back to the sea makes seawater even more saline.

Rich countries and states like California, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and even Israel don’t care about cost of desalination to the national energy bill or to greenhouse gas emissions. We have said before and we will say again, desalination is not efficient and should only be used in a last-case scenario.

New research promises a more energy way to desalinate?

A much more efficient way of separating salt from sea or brackish water by literally shocking the salt from the water is being developed by a research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Invented by an MIT research team, the system uses an electrically driven shockwave within a stream of flowing water that literally pushes salty water to one side of the flow and fresh water to the other.

This allows easy separation of the two streams without needing a filtration membrane. The team leader, Professor Martin Bazant, a professor of chemical engineering and mathematics, says that the electrolysis process is a “fundamentally new and different separation system that forms a membrane-less separation of ions and particles.”

The new electrical shocking system works without using a traditional desalination system of reverse osmosis or conventional electrodialysis, “This process looks similar to electrodialysis, but it’s fundamentally different,” says Bazant.

Besides the high costs involved, one of the biggest problems of conventional desalination is the clogging or fouling — a buildup of filtered material; or to degradation due to water pressure.

This often occurs with conventional membrane-based desalination, including conventional electrodialysis: “With our system, the charged salt particles, or ions, “just move to one side,” says Bazant.

One of the more promising uses of the electrical shocking system is removing salt and other impurities from brackish water; including cleaning of large amounts of wastewater generated by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Since the electro shocking process does not require the large infrastructure needed by conventional desalination, it can be used to clean saline waste water extracted by oil and gas wells: “The electric fields created by this process are pretty high, so we may be able to kill the bacteria in the water,” says Sven Schlumpberger, a graduate student also working on the project.

The electro shocking process being worked on by Professor Bazant and his colleagues is still in the developmental process; so it may be a while until it is actually put into use on a commercial scale. As a viable alternative to conventional desalination methods, it does appear to be promising.

What to do with the salt that “moves off to one side” willstill be an issue that will have to be dealt with, however.

Dive into our resources on desalination:

Graphene nanotechnology makes desalination 100 times more efficient
Cyprus gets new desalination plant with Mekorot Israel’s know-how
Going Green ends with Water from the Sea

Photo of fracking water pool, by MIT News:

Real life virtual reality download of how Syrian refugees live

Tech

Brian Nitz

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November 25, 2015

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Real life virtual reality download of how Syrian refugees live

Each day, something terrible happens somewhere in this world. Families and communities are torn apart and thrown together in unfamiliar ways. Strangers who had found one another just barely tolerable become fellow humans, grieving needing and helping one another to survive.

“My name is Sidra. I am 12 years old… I have lived here in the Zaatari camp in Jordan for the last year and a half.”

Filmmaker Chris Milk took his empathy machine and virtual reality concept to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. This is where a majority of Syrian refugees have fled to, and a couple of Green Prophet writers have been leading projects to mitigate the suffering. His new virtual reality film can help us imagine standing in their shoes and see and feel more about the lives of these vulnerable people.

Milk is using Virtual Reality (VR) technology to increase our emotional bandwidth beyond what was possible in movies. VR technology has been with us for decades but it has been refined and its cost has dropped dramatically.

Occulus Rift, Google Cardboard and other VR devices will be hot sellers in the coming year. But Chris Milk didn’t wait. He shot “Clouds over Sidra” at Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFnhMX6oR1Q[/youtube]

This was the first Virtual reality film ever made for the United Nations. Chris explains that unlike film where the viewer is looking through a window frame, this technology takes the viewer through the frame so that they experience what it is like to be in the room with Sidra or sitting next to her in her classroom.

The project was presented to UN dignitaries in Geneva, Switzerland and it did seem to make a difference in their perceptions. Maybe it will for each of us.

Try it yourself by downloading Google Play, VRSE and viewing “Clouds over Sidra” on VRSE, Google Cardboard or other virtual reality devices. If you watch this film on non-VR devices you’ll see it as a distorted 360 degree movie.

The mechanical details of each tragedy are broadcast to the world via live satellite. While survivors are still struggling to breath, observers are consumed with the statistics of disaster.

A category 5 hurricane, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake, the killers were quiet men who kept to themselves. The death toll was 404.

These facts spark our most primitive emotions first because these require the fewest bits of information. We fear that this tragedy might happen to us or we grow angry and seek to punish the real or imagined cause. Our despair grows as these darker motions consume us.

Empathy is a more complex, less primitive and more uniquely human emotion. According to a Princeton and Duke University study entitled, “Brain’s Social Network Implicated in Dehumanizing Others,” by Rick Nauert, MRI scans show that there is a part of the human brain associated with empathy.

But prejudice, racism and socioeconomic status can turn off this empathic part of a person’s brain and enable one associated with disgust. Might this empathy gap explain why people tend to shun war refugees at the same time as they spend millions of dollars per day on wars?

Empathy seems to require more communication bandwidth. Sometimes it requires direct contact with loved-ones in the faraway land or a memories of a time when we ourselves also lived through such a tragedy. Music, photography and visual arts can also trigger empathy. Functional MRI studies have found that literature literally helps us get inside the minds of others by activating the same regions in our brain that tell us the story of who we are.

Whatever the cause for the connection, some people are able to feel deeply for the victims of disaster. Their empathy expands to the scale of the disaster. The may lose sleep, grow physically sick or fall into a depression. Or they might feel compelled to do something, anything to try to fix whatever it is that is broken with the world, with the focus on the needs of the victims rather than the punishment of the cause.

The late film critic Roger Ebert considered empathy to be the most essential quality of a civilization, “We all are born with a certain package. We are who we are: where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised.

“We’re kind of stuck inside that person, and the purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.”

Photos from Chris Milk’s “Clouds over Sidra” at VRSE.
Photo of Migrant mother (1936) by Dorthy Lange.
Photo of Syrian refugee woman(2015) by Washington Post

Thanks also to my Lebanese-American cousin Mud for her thoughtful piece on emotional responses to disasters, Laurie Balbo who works with Studio Syria and Collateral Repair; Gael at Dar al Yasmin for giving my family some non-virtual reality experience with Syrian refugees to help us imagine them not as anonymous faraway strangers, but as human beings.

Time to settle the debate? Oldest ful and hummus beans found in Israel

Cities

Karin Kloosterman

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November 23, 2015

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Prehistoric cave men are thought of as club-wielding brutes who roast animals on logs, but the latest findings about pre-historic man suggests that he loved beans, fava beans in particular. Does this mean the world’s oldest ful and hummous actually comes from modern-day Israel?

Jokes aside, the findings are significant because they give us a better understanding of how the agriculture revolution, which started in the Near East region of Israel, Jordan and Egypt, came about and spread to the rest of the world.

Fava beans, or ful in Arabic and Hebrew are a much loved part of the hummous breakfast eaten in the Middle East, but people thousands of years ago loved them too!

The joint study by researchers of the Weizmann Institute and the Israel Antiquities Authority, examined the fava seeds exposed in archaeological excavations in recent years at Neolithic caves and sites in the Galilee region of Israel.

A plate of hummous with ful

Ancient man loved hummous too the researchers showed: Seeds found at the prehistoric sites show that the inhabitants’ diet at that time consisted mainly of fava beans, lentils, peas and chickpeas. Not meat or bread.

The multitude of fava seeds (pictured above in rock) found at the Neolithic sites excavated in the Galilee during the past few years indicates the preference placed on growing fava beans. The dating of the seeds, which was done at the Kimmel Center in the Weizmann Institute, indicated a range of dates between 9,890 to 10,160 years ago.

These well-preserved seeds were found in excavations, inside storage pits (granaries) after they had been husked. The seeds’ dimensions are a uniform size–a datum showing they were methodically cultivated, and were harvested at the same period of time, when the legumes had ripened.

According to the researchers, keeping the seeds in storage pits is also reflective of long-term agricultural planning, whereby the stored seeds were intended not only for food, but also to ensure future crops in the coming years.

The researchers added, “The identification of the places where plant species that are today an integral part of our diet were first domesticated is of great significance to research. Despite the importance of cereals in nutrition that continues to this day, it seems that in the region we examined (west of the Jordan River), it was the legumes, full of flavor and protein, which were actually the first species to be domesticated.

“A phenomenon known as the agricultural revolution took place throughout the region at this time: different species of animals and plants were domesticated across the Levant, and it is now clear that the area that is today the Galilee was the main producer of legumes in prehistoric times.

“This is a process that lasted thousands of years, during which certain characteristics of wild species changed, and domesticated plant species were created. To this day, most of the chickpeas grown in the country are cultivated in the Galilee region.”

These are chickpeas that Israelis enjoy, mainly as a hummous dip, spread or as a bowl they dig into for breakfast.

Electronic skin helps sensors heal themselves

Cities

Karin Kloosterman

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November 22, 2015

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Scientists at the Technion in Israel have used a new kind of synthetic polymer to develop a self-healing, flexible sensor that mimics the self-healing properties of human skin.

Future applications could include the creation of self-healing ‘electronic skin’ and prosthetic limbs that allow wearers to ‘feel’ changes in their environments.

Flexible sensors have been developed for use in consumer electronics, robotics, health care, and space flight. Future possible applications could include the creation of ‘electronic skin’ and prosthetic limbs that allow wearers to ‘feel’ changes in their environments.

One problem with current flexible sensors, however, is that they can be easily scratched and otherwise damaged, potentially destroying their functionality. Researchers in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa (Israel), who were inspired by the healing properties in human skin, have developed materials that can be integrated into flexible devices to “heal” incidental scratches or damaging cuts that might compromise device functionality.

The advancement, using a new kind of synthetic polymer (a polymer is a large molecule composed of many repeated smaller molecules) has self-healing properties that mimic human skin, which means that e-skin “wounds” can quickly “heal” themselves in remarkably short time – less than a day.

A paper outlining the characteristics and applications of the unique, self-healing sensor has been published in the current issue of Advanced Materials.

“The vulnerability of flexible sensors used in real-world applications calls for the development of self-healing properties similar to how human skins heals,” said self-healing sensor co-developer Prof. Hossam Haick. “Accordingly, we have developed a complete, self-healing device in the form of a bendable and stretchable chemiresistor where every part – no matter where the device is cut or scratched – is self-healing.”

The new sensor is comprised of a self-healing substrate, high conductivity electrodes, and molecularly modified gold nanoparticles. “The gold particles on top of the substrate and between the self-healing electrodes are able to “heal” cracks that could completely disconnect electrical connectivity,” said Prof. Haick.

Once healed, the polymer substrate of the self-healing sensor demonstrates sensitivity to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with detection capability down to tens of parts per billion. It also demonstrates superior healability at the extreme temperatures of -20 degrees C to 40 degrees C. This property, said the researchers, can extend applications of the self-healing sensor to areas of the world with extreme climates. From sub-freezing cold to equatorial heat, the self-healing sensor is environment-stable.

The healing polymer works quickest, said the researchers, when the temperature is between 0 degrees C and 10 degrees C, when moisture condenses and is then absorbed by the substrate. Condensation makes the substrate swell, allowing the polymer chains to begin to flow freely and, in effect, begin “healing.” Once healed, the nonbiological, chemiresistor still has high sensitivity to touch, pressure and strain, which the researchers tested in demanding stretching and bending tests.

Another unique feature is that the electrode resistance increases after healing and can survive 20 times or more cutting/healing cycles than prior to healing. Essentially, healing makes the self-healing sensor even stronger. The researchers noted in their paper that “the healing efficiency of this chemiresistor is so high that the sensor survived several cuttings at random positions.”

The researchers are currently experimenting with carbon-based self-healing composites and self-healing transistors.

“The self-healing sensor raises expectations that flexible devices might someday be self-administered, which increases their reliability,” explained co-developer Dr. Tan-Phat Huynh, also of the Technion, whose work focuses on the development of self-healing electronic skin. “One day, the self-healing sensor could serve as a platform for biosensors that monitor human health using electronic skin.”

Image of biosurface from Shutterstock

Brooklyn’s Gotham Greens builds world’s largest urban rooftop farm

Cities

Karin Kloosterman

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November 22, 2015

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Brooklyn’s Gotham Greens builds world’s largest urban rooftop farm

Growing green roofs is now mandatory for new buildings being built in Canada and France. Middle Eastern countries facing dire food and water insecurity know that farming close to home can cut down greenhouse emissions and if farmed hydroponically can drastically cut the water bill –– in some cases by 90%! Puttings its money where American mouths are this super cool company from Brooklyn called Gotham Greens has just built the world’s largest rooftop farm -– in Chicago.

The pioneers behind America’s first commercial urban hydroponic greenhouses are now builders of the world’s largest. Today, Gotham Greens announced their biggest and most ambitious expansion to date with a brand new facility, located in the historic Pullman area on Chicago’s South Side.

Gotham Greens’ fourth greenhouse facility represents a massive expansion for the company, and its first outside of New York. The state of the art, 75,000 sq ft Chicago greenhouse, located on the rooftop of Method Products manufacturing facility, is powered by 100% renewable energy, employs over 50 workers, many from the Pullman community, will produce nearly 10 million annual crops of local, premium-quality, pesticide-free, leafy greens and herbs.

“With more than $1 billion in venture capital invested in the city in 2014, Chicago continues to emerge as the country’s newest hot spot for innovation and growing companies,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“Gotham Greens’ expansion means even more jobs and investment in the Pullman neighborhood; and through cutting-edge agricultural innovation they will provide fresh, healthy and locally-grown foods to residents across Chicago.”

Gotham Greens’ local produce will be available in select national and local retailers across the Chicagoland area including Whole Foods Market, Peapod, Treasure Island, Sunset Foods, Plum Market, Target, and others.

In addition, the company has partnered on programs with various Chicago institutions including the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Greater Roseland West Pullman Food Network, Pilot Light, Chicago Botanical Garden’s Windy City Harvest and more.

“We’re proud to expand our footprint and bring Gotham Greens’ award-winning local produce into a new market, particularly Chicago, which is not only where I spent my early childhood, but also currently, perhaps, the most exciting city for culinary innovation, green development and urban farming,” said Gotham Greens co-founder and CEO Viraj Puri. “We’re especially proud to bring so many new jobs to the Pullman area, while also helping to make the local food system healthier and more ecologically sustainable.”

Through their unique brand of urban agriculture, now spanning two major cities, Gotham Greens’ expert growers are able to produce the highest quality vegetables all year round—including in the dead of winter. Sophisticated computer control systems continually adjust the greenhouse environment to ensure optimal growing conditions all year round. For Chicagoans, this means premium-quality, hyper-local produce that often hits store shelves and restaurant plates the very same day it’s harvested, 365 days a year.

“Above all else we are focused on growing the freshest, best tasting produce available,” said Gotham Greens’ Chief Agriculture Officer,Jennifer Nelkin Frymark. “Our commitment to quality and growing excellence is best illustrated by Gotham Greens’ new and long standing relationships with the nation’s best retailers and Michelin rated restaurants committed to providing their customers with the freshest and finest ingredients possible.”

Gotham Greens’ proprietary growing methods yield up to 30 times more crop per acre than field production, enabling the Pullman greenhouse to produce yields equivalent to over 50 acres of conventional field production.

Because Gotham Greens recycles 100% of its irrigation water, it also uses 10 times less water than conventional agriculture (while also eliminating all agricultural runoff – one of the leading causes of global water pollution).By growingly locally, Gotham Greens eliminates the food waste and environmental footprint linked to shipping produce long distances.

Gotham Greens, based in Brooklyn, NY, has over 115 full-time team members and is growing rapidly, with projects under development in cities across the U.S. “We’ve raised over $30 million since launching in 2009,” said Gotham Greens co-founder and CFO, Eric Haley. “We now have four operational greenhouse facilities across two cities totaling 170,000 sq ft. This makes us the largest and most commercially successful urban agriculture company in the world.”

Protein powder? Plague of locusts could be breeding near you

Lifestyle

Karin Kloosterman

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November 16, 2015

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Protein powder? Plague of locusts could be breeding near you

Watch out world, and those in North Africa and Middle East areas: A swarm of locusts of Biblical proportions could be heading near you. While bugs can form a significant amount of healthy human protein (that’s not kosher), locusts are particularly damaging as they ravage crops in their wake.

After becoming airborne, swarms of tens of millions of locusts can fly up to 100 miles a day with the wind. Female locusts can lay 300 eggs within their lifetime while a Desert Locust adult can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day — about two grams every day. A very small swarm eats the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people.

Unusually heavy and widespread rains that fell recently in northwest Africa, the Horn of Africa and Yemen could favour Desert Locust breeding, the leading agriculture organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned today. Governments be on high alert: close monitoring is needed over the next six months to prevent the insects from forming destructive swarms.

The locust situation in countries normally affected by Desert Locust remained mostly calm in October with only small-scale breeding activity detected, FAO experts said. They noted however, that this could change, in part due to the impact of El Nino in Africa and the tropical cyclones Chapala and Megh in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.

“Extreme weather events, including torrential downpours, have the potential to trigger a massive surge in locust numbers. Rain provides moist soil for the insects to lay their eggs, which in turn need to absorb water, while rains also allow vegetation to grow which locusts need for food and shelter,” said Keith Cressman, FAO Senior Locust Forecasting Officer.

“The effects of a locust plague can be devastating on crops and pastures and thus threaten food security and rural livelihoods,” he added.

The impact of El Nino and tropical cyclones Chapala and Megh

FAO has been monitoring the situation in northwest Africa where unusually heavy rains fell in late October over a widespread area of northern Mauritania, the adjacent areas of Western Sahara, southern Morocco and western Algeria and southwest Libya.

In the Horn of Africa, above-average rains associated with a very strong El Nino are predicted over northern Somalia during this winter and next spring. If so, ecological conditions will become favourable for breeding on the northwest coast and the Somali plateau.

Heavy rains associated with tropical cyclone Chapala fell in southern coastal and interior areas of Yemen in early November, followed one week later by tropical cyclone Megh that also affected northeastern Somalia. The torrential rains which far exceeded the annual average rainfall for the entire year caused flooding and damage.

In the winter breeding areas along both sides of the Red Sea, seasonal rains began in early October, which is slightly earlier than normal. If the rains continue, there would be sufficient time for two generations of breeding to occur this year in the coastal areas of Sudan, northern Eritrea, southeast Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen

Climate change and locust prevention and control

Prevention, mainly through early warning and early reaction, is the key in reducing the extent to which Desert Locust can affect agricultural areas. After unusually heavy rainfall, it is imperative that countries mount the necessary field surveys and maintain them on a regular basis for routine monitoring of breeding conditions and locust infestations. The finding of significant infestations requires control operations to avoid a further escalation in locust numbers. It is critical that the results of survey and control operations are reported quickly and accurately so that swift decisions can be taken to prevent the spread of locusts to other countries.

While these measures are believed to have played an important role in the decline in the frequency and duration of plagues since the 1960s, today climate change is leading to more frequent, unpredictable and extreme weather and poses fresh challenges on how to monitor locust activity.

Whereas locust numbers decrease during droughts, locust outbreaks often follow floods and cyclones. If not controlled, these outbreaks can lead to plagues. Temperature on the other hand governs the speed of locust development and warmer conditions could possibly shorten the incubation and maturation periods and lead to a rise in the number of locust generations in a year.

Invest in ancient fig cultivars in Morocco, invest in the future

Health

Green Prophet Guest

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November 10, 2015

2

Invest in ancient fig cultivars in Morocco, invest in the future

Moroccan fig trees are a part of Ahmed Hakam. Until he was nine years old, Ahmed never ventured outside of his birth village near the northern city of Ouezzane. He vividly remembers the local fig harvest, when, every year, he, his mother and scores of women and their children from nearby villages would gather to dry figs on palm shrub leaves. While women worked, children were socialized among fig plantations.

“As children, we spent a lot of time playing, eating, singing in fig trees,” said Ahmed.

This experience, he says, greatly affected his life path. As a Ministry of Agriculture and Maritime Fisheries official, he has spent the greater part of his 32 year-long career on rehabilitating and securing value-added processing for Moroccan crops.

He places special emphasis on figs due to their rich biological heritage: here, farmers have been cultivating figs by breeding wild and domestic species for thousands of years, a practice that has allowed myriad types to evolve and thrive throughout the country.

RELATED: A recipe for fresh, baked figs

According to Yossef Ben-Meir, president of the Moroccan-American nonprofit High Atlas Foundation, however, this biodiversity is threatened by a lack of investment in community-managed tree nurseries, inefficient water use, and little value-accessed processing and sale. The Moroccan government indicates that farmers, unable to utilize value-added opportunities for figs, are relegating them to mountain slopes and other areas difficult to reach for transportation.

More accessible land, meanwhile, is used for resource-intensive crops like wheat, apples and pears. In some areas of Morocco, over 50 percent of fig cultivars have therefore disappeared, and figs decay, unharvested, on the tree branch. Ancient fig cultivars are being destroyed.

This decline in production, however, has led to increased domestic demand: fresh fig prices, says Ahmed, are now higher than those per kilo for bananas and apples.

Related: We travel to the High Atlas Mountains

Demand is certainly high internationally (in 2014, global fig demand reached 448 million U.S. dollars and grew 8 percent from 2007 to 2014, according to marketing firm Index Box), representing significant opportunity for Moroccan farmers and investors.

To access this market, Yossef says that farmers must first access the financial and knowledge-based resources to increase production and ensure consistent quality.

The Moroccan government has decided to invest in fig production in partnership with the High Atlas Foundation, which is already active in organic almond and walnut production. Together, these institutions plan to build a nursery near Ouezzane, due to the region’s tradition of fig production and the threats regional fig plantations face from the neglect that has already extinguished indigenous plum varieties.

The partnership will support 10 varieties of threatened local figs and distribute saplings for free to farmers. The involved institutions will train farmers in organic-certified production and value-added processing, and spark a farmer’s coop to share knowledge and explore additional value-added opportunities. The partnership will also create a scientific teaching garden featuring all regional varieties.

This pilot program aims to benefit 35,000 rural Moroccans by extending fig crops by 1,000 hectares. Through it, the Moroccan government and HAF will support the government’s goal of increasing national fig production by 126 percent within the next five years.

Knowledge is deeply needed at a fig plantation near Ouezzane, where farmers lose out on economic opportunities due to lack of infrastructure and knowledge. There, farmers dry only their second crop, making it more valuable, and must sell their first, early-summer crop fresh, as its high water content counters effective drying. Due to a lack of cold storage, to generate the most profit from this delicate crop, farmers must harvest early in the morning and arrange transportation for figs to local souks by the afternoon.

While dried figs sell for the equivalent $1.80 to $2 per kilogram locally, fresh figs, at $0.80 to $1, present a roughly 50% loss.

At the farmers’ plantation, Hakam points to a large tree surrounded by many offshoots. Farmers tell him that this tree produces 300 kilograms of fruit per year. With some pruning, he says, it could yield twice that amount.

When asked what the farming community would do with extra revenue from increased structural support and efficiency, farmer Fatima Khaima, who left school at age 15, emphasizes children’s education. There is a well-attended primary school a kilometer and a half away, she says. Past age 12, however, roughly 30 percent of children drop out because they do not have the money for $1.20 worth of travel and food at the secondary school, 9 kilometers away.

Another problem, says Fatima, is road quality. The fig plantation is surrounded by steep dirt roads that are washed away in the winter.

“[Increased revenue from figs] will help us for our future,” said Fatima.

One person already benefiting from fig crops is Jamal Belkadi, a farmer in the nearby village of Asjen. Jamal began his fig plantation in 2000 with two trees, and, through traditional grafting of tree branches, grew his crop to 170. Starting “without a single dirham a day,” he now makes a $4,000 profit every year to support his wife and two young daughters.

Jamal says these fig trees mean the world to him. They are also significant for his community, where he creates seasonal agricultural jobs and to which he has dedicated three trees’ worth of fruit annually.

“I feel happy,” said Jamal. “My love are these trees. I work with them. I sweat over them… People come and eat, and say, ‘God bless your parents.’ I’m better with God.”

By investing in fig farming communities, the Moroccan government and High Atlas Foundation can spread Jamal’s expertise and make dreams come true for Fatima’s and Ahmed’s communities.

Ida Sophie Winter is a student at the Missouri School of Journalism and project manager with the High Atlas Foundation. She spent 2014-2015 in Morocco as a Critical Languages and Boren scholar.

Image of figs in Fez, from Shutterstock

Agratech from Dubai will grow 5 acres of space lettuce in Portugal

Food

Karin Kloosterman

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November 8, 2015

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hydroponics

Fresh greens and fresh anything are usually impossible to find in desert locations. But a new way of growing food on water, called hydroponics, is shaping up to be one of the latest exports from a Middle East country that has had to deal with lack of water. Hydroponics is working in Jordan thanks to the US Government and USAID.

Hydroponics, despite using only water and no soil can actually be extremely water efficient and productive. So much so, that the Dubai-based company Agratech which builds such farms, is now importing its technology to Portugal where it will build a 5 acre covered greenhouse.

Known as distributed agriculture, or controlled environment agriculture, hydroponics may very well be the only way that we can ensure a steady supply of fresh food in the future. Soil-based farming is extremely resource intensive, with only a fraction of the fertilizers used actually making it to the roots of the plants.

Hydroponics, on the other hand, bathes the roots in needed minerals so the plant gets exactly what it wants without having to search for food. This way the plant spends more energy growing fruit and less on root.

Portugal, like all the Mediterranean countries and States like California, is seeing a dire shortage of water.

According to press annual Agratech aims to be one of the largest operators of hydroponic farming facilities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Europe from their strategic base in the United Arab Emirates.

Striving to improve the world’s food security imbalances with their technologically advanced farming techniques coupled with clean and ethical farming practices that produce fresh, healthy fruit and vegetables.

With the vision to educate, teach and develop the next generation throughout the globe with relevant farming and agricultural knowledge. They also continue their local-to-local philosophy to ensure job creation and economic safety throughout the region.

Dedicated to balance being a successful business as well as a socially responsible one, they aim to construct over 100 hectares of hydroponic farm land by 2020, but also to donate produce to the United Nations and World Health Organization.

Dubai’s Museum of the Future is short on sustainability

Architecture

Faisal O'Keefe

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November 8, 2015

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Construction has begun in Dubai on the $136-million Museum of the Future. Tucked between skyscrapers in Dubai’s financial district, just a seven-minute drive from the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, it will be more than an exhibition hall, cafe and gift shop.

Special “innovation labs” will be included where researchers and designers will work towards its official motto, “See the Future, Create the Future”. But will that future be sustainable?

UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum said the museum will be “a destination for the best and brightest inventors and entrepreneurs.”

His government has proclaimed 2015 the “Year of Innovation,” investing aggressively in technology, and the private sector is jumping aboard with UAE telecommunications company Du recently partnering with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Senseable City Lab to explore how technology can enhance the cities of the future.

The Sheikh explained, “The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it, and execute it. Here in the UAE we think differently. While others try to predict the future, we create it.”

The Museum of the Future will open in 2017. Update 2020: Here is the website. Initial press releases were image-heavy, with glossy artist renderings of an elliptical doughnut, standing on edge. The structure’s center will hold a holographic billboard which will broadcast news on museum exhibits which will include robots, holograms, and laser technology – at least according to those press photos.

Fully sheathed in silvery metal, lines of poetry penned by the Sheikh repeats in patterns across its exterior, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Daylight enters the building through that punctured facade. And while increased interior daylighting in a cornerstone of sustainable design, seems you could fry falafel on those sun-heated steel surfaces. And how will the shiny exterior deflect sun rays? It could make London’s car-melting “Walkie Talkie” … Take this inside, how have the engineers handled the resulting heat load to museum interiors? A month after groundbreaking – there is no publicly available information on how the building will perform environmentally.

The history of Dubai

Dubai is a part of the seven Emirates that make up United Arab Emirates or (UAE). Dubai was built from a small fishing village on the Persian Gulf. The small Kingdom had discovered oil. Since then the village has became one of the most important cities in the Middle East and well known around the world.

The Royal family who rule over Dubai knew they had to act fast to find another way to make revenue for Dubai. The ruler of Dubai made the city a household name by making it into the city built on investments from all over the Middle East and around the world. These new investments in the city helped make Dubai what it is today, and what it will become in the future.

In just a short amount of time Dubai has grown rapidly and new buildings are being planned and built. When beachfront land was needed the investors came up with an idea to build islands to make more building space.

It can be said that Dubai is at a time in its life where it is having a very big building boom buildings are popping up all over the city. Some of the buildings have been designed in a more modern look and others have been designed in a traditional way. As Dubai continues its building boom it has begun to focus on constructing buildings that can be more sustainable.

As an example, sustainable construction saves more water in a place like Dubai where water is precious. Using the sun to help make energy for the buildings would ensure the city does not have to burn more fuel that causes air pollution but use clean way to provide energy.

The questions that may be asked is can a city like Dubai become more sustainable? The answer is yes it can. Dubai has goal of becoming one of the top ten sustainable cities in the world by 2020.

In 2010 the goal came alive and started with government buildings, all 40 of which were abiding by the new law by the time it was rolled out across the country at the start of 2014.

Having new rules and regulations in building standards help to make sure the city is built in a more sustainable way. These codes of building have been proven to help create a city that has less of an impact on the environment by causing less of a carbon footprint.

The motto for the building is “See the future, create the future.” It strives to unite inventors, designers, and researchers for collaboration on technologies, including automobiles, robotics, genetics, and more.

The Museum of the Future is the latest in a burst of superlative projects from the UAE capital, which range from plans to erect the world’s tallest twin towers to designs for an Aladdin-inspired city in the oldest section of Dubai to the world’s largest shopping mall slated to debut at Expo 2020. The museum will stand adjacent to the Emirates Towers on Sheikh Zayed Road. The architect has not yet been announced.

The WSJ notes that Dubai is funneling increasing amounts of money into technology innovation, including funding competitions such as “Drones for Good” — a $1 million prize to find humanitarian uses for drones that was won by a collision-proof search-and-rescue model from Switzerland.

a few of these drones bumping around the interior of the Museum of the Future wouldn’t go amiss, but Dubai will need to showcase more than just foreign technology to live up to its grand claims.

Experience the (new, artificial, and made-in-America) Middle East! Coming to Dubai in 2018

Cities

Faisal O'Keefe

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November 8, 2015

1

Experience the (new, artificial, and made-in-America) Middle East! Coming to Dubai in 2018

American media giant 20th Century Fox has teamed up with United Arab Emirates Al Ahli Holding Group to build a theme park in Dubai, set to open in 2018, that will feature attractions based on blockbuster movies such as “Aliens,” “Titanic,” “Ice Age” and “Planet of the Apes.”

So the UAE builds another resource-guzzling folly for audiences with high disposable income, hungry for US-themed fun. How long can this roller coaster ride last?

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