Tofurkey Is Suing Missouri for the Right to Call Veggie Dogs “Meat”
A new state law prohibits labeling any product as ‘meat’ unless it comes from an animal. Continue reading Tofurkey Is Suing Missouri for the Right to Call Veggie Dogs “Meat”
Tag Archives: Agriculture
The Oldest Bread Ever Found Dates Back 14,400 Years and Predates Agriculture
The discovery suggests that Natufian hunter-gatherers baked bread from wild grains long before it was cultivated from crops. Continue reading The Oldest Bread Ever Found Dates Back 14,400 Years and Predates Agriculture
Agro-Espionage: How China Tried to Steal U.S. Rice Research
The case of two insiders with connections to China, accused agro-espionage, one within the USDA Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center and the other within Ventria Bioscience, has closed its final chapter with the April sentencing of Wieqiang Zhan… Continue reading Agro-Espionage: How China Tried to Steal U.S. Rice Research
MoAgriS: A Modular Agriculture System
Hackaday.io user [Prof. Fartsparkle] aims to impress us again with MoAgriS, a stripped-down rig for bringing crops indoors and providing them with all they need.
This project is an evolution of their submission to last year’s Hackaday Prize, MoRaLiS — a modular lighting system on rails — integrating modules for light, water, airflow, fertilizer and their appropriate sensors. With an emphasis on low-cost, a trio of metal bars serve as the structure, power and data transmission medium with SAM D11 chips shepherding each plant.
Reinforced, angled PCBs extend rails horizontally allowing the modules to be mounted at separate heights. Light …read more
A Proposed Database of Food Stamp Recipients Isn’t Only Cruel, It’s a Security Risk
The House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the 2018 Farm Bill last month and it includes plans to build a massive database in order to catch food stamp participants who register in more than one state. Continue reading A Proposed Database of Food Stamp Recipients Isn’t Only Cruel, It’s a Security Risk
Norman Borlaug Saves A Billion
Everyone loves a hero. Save someone from a burning building, and you’ll get your fifteen minutes of fame. That’s why I’m always surprised that more people don’t know Norman Borlaug, who would have celebrated his 104th birthday on Sunday. He won the Nobel prize in 1970 and there’s good reason to think that his hacking efforts saved about a billion people from starving to death. A billion people. That’s not just a hero, that’s a superhero.
To understand why that claim is made, you have to go back to the 1970s. The population was growing and was approaching an unprecedented …read more
The Weedinator Returns
We are delighted to see The Weedinator as an entry for the 2018 Hackaday Prize! Innovations in agriculture are great opportunities to build something to improve our world. [TegwynTwmffat]’s Weedinator is an autonomous, electric platform aimed at small farms to take care of cultivating, tilling, and weeding seedbeds. The cost of this kind of labor can push smaller farms out of sustainability if it has to be done by people.
Greater efficiency in agriculture is traditionally all about multiplying the work a single person can do, and usually takes the form or bigger and heavier equipment that can do more …read more
Chicken Might Be the First Lab-Grown Meat to Make It to Your Grocery Store
‘Clean Meat’ is a new book by Paul Shapiro about the past, present, and future of lab-grown meat. Continue reading Chicken Might Be the First Lab-Grown Meat to Make It to Your Grocery Store
Some Farmers Still Don’t Trust CRISPR, Thanks to GMOs
“I think there’s a lot of controversy over whether farmers are driving for these technologies or whether these technologies are manipulating farmers.” Continue reading Some Farmers Still Don’t Trust CRISPR, Thanks to GMOs
Prehistoric Women Were Probably Very Ripped
A new study of prehistoric bones reveals how much manual labor they did. Continue reading Prehistoric Women Were Probably Very Ripped