Agriculture

Infographic: The Future of Food

Published

2 years ago

September 6, 2017

Jeff Desjardins

Infographic: The Future of Food

The Future of Food: How Tech Is Changing Our Food Systems

The urban population is exploding around the globe, and yesterday’s food systems will soon be sub-optimal for many of the megacities swelling with tens of millions of people.

Further, issues like wasted food, poor working conditions, polluted ecosystems, mistreated animals, and greenhouse gases are just some of the concerns that people have about our current supply chains.

Today’s infographic from Futurism shows how food systems are evolving – and that the future of food depends on technologies that enable us to get more food out of fewer resources.

The Next Gen of Food Systems

Here are four technologies that may have a profound effect on how we eat in the future:

1. Automated Vertical Farms
It’s already clear that vertical farming is incredibly effective. By stacking farms on top of another and using automation, vertical farms can produce 100x more effectively per acre than conventional agricultural techniques.

They grow crops at twice the speed as usual, while using 40% less power, having 80% less food waste, and using 99% less water than outdoor fields. However, the problem for vertical farms is still cost – and it is not clear when they will be viable on a commercial basis.

2. Aquaponics
Another technology that has promise for the future of food is a unique combination of fish farming (aquaculture) with hydroponics.

In short, fish convert their food into nutrients that plants can absorb, while the plants clean the water for the fish. Compared to conventional farming, this technology uses about half of the water, while increasing the yield of the crops grown. As a bonus, it also can raise a significant amount of fish.

3. In Vitro Meats
Meat is costly and extremely resource intensive to produce. As just one example, to produce one pound of beef, it takes 1,847 gallons of water.

In vitro meats are one way to solve this. These self-replicating muscle tissue cultures are grown and fed nutrients in a broth, and bypass the need for having living animals altogether. Interestingly enough, market demand seems to be there: one recent study found that 70.6% of consumers are interested in trying lab grown beef.

4. Artificial Animal Products
One other route to get artificial meat is to use machine learning to grasp the complex chemistry and textures behind these products, and to find ways to replicate them. This has already been done for mayonnaise – and it’s in the works for eggs, milk, and cheese as well.

Tasting the Future of Food

As these new technologies scale and hit markets, the future of food could change drastically. Many products will flop, but others will take a firm hold in our supply chains and become culturally acceptable and commercially viable. Certainly, food will be grown locally in massive skyscrapers, and there will be decent alternatives to be found for both meat or animal products in the market.

With the global population rising by more than a million people each week, finding and testing new solutions around food will be essential to make the most out of limited resources.

Related Topics:aquaponics food future of food in vitro meat tech technology vertical farming

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Agriculture

The Most Valuable Agricultural Commodity in Each State

Which agricultural commodity is the most important to each state’s economy? This infographic breaks it all down, based on data from the USDA.

Published

2 months ago

April 11, 2019

Jeff Desjardins

The Most Valuable Agricultural Commodity in Each State

The United States has an incredible amount of geographic diversity.

From the fertile farmland of the Great Plains to the volcanic islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, each state has been dealt a unique geographical hand.

Each geographical setting can be the source of economic opportunities, such as tourism or the development of natural resources. It also partially dictates what kind of agricultural choices are available for farmers and local economies.

A Higher Level Look

Today’s infographic comes to us from HowMuch.net, and it color codes each state based on the most valuable agricultural commodity it produces, based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At a big picture level, how does the country break down?

Most Valuable Agricultural Commodity	Number of States
Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	16
Poultry and eggs	9
Cattle and calves	7
Milk from cows	7
Nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and sod	4
Fruit, tree nuts, and berries	3
Vegetables, melons, potatoes and sweet potatoes	2
Aquaculture	1
Other crops and hay	1

Broadly speaking, the category of “Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas” is the most valuable agricultural commodity in 16 states, while aquaculture was the most important in only one state, which is Alaska.

It’s interesting that there are niches that end up deriving massive amounts of value in only a few states. For example, the category of “Fruit, tree nuts, and berries” is the biggest in just three states, but California makes $17.6 billion from it every year – more than the size of the entire agricultural sector of some states.

State by State Data

Finally, here’s a look at the data for each state in a sortable table:

Rank	State	Agricultural Commodity	Value
#1	California	Fruit, tree nuts, and berries	$17,638,972,000
#2	Iowa	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$17,146,679,000
#3	Illinois	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$13,589,230,000
#4	Texas	Cattle and calves	$13,013,127,000
#5	Minnesota	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$12,304,415,000
#6	Nebraska	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$10,698,861,000
#7	Kansas	Cattle and calves	$10,153,087,000
#8	North Dakota	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$8,813,348,000
#9	Indiana	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$7,217,854,000
#10	Ohio	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$5,834,600,000
#11	South Dakota	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$5,809,792,000
#12	Wisconsin	Milk from cows	$4,952,039,000
#13	North Carolina	Poultry and eggs	$4,837,026,000
#14	Georgia	Poultry and eggs	$4,773,837,000
#15	Colorado	Cattle and calves	$4,321,308,000
#16	Arkansas	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$4,214,355,000
#17	Missouri	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$3,922,873,000
#18	Alabama	Poultry and eggs	$3,624,852,000
#19	Michigan	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$3,613,250,000
#20	Oklahoma	Cattle and calves	$3,402,919,000
#21	Washington	Fruit, tree nuts, and berries	$2,931,370,000
#22	Mississippi	Poultry and eggs	$2,744,048,000
#23	New York	Milk from cows	$2,417,398,000
#24	Idaho	Milk from cows	$2,333,364,000
#25	Pennsylvania	Milk from cows	$1,966,892,000
#26	Florida	Fruit, tree nuts, and berries	$1,847,805,000
#27	Louisiana	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$1,832,208,000
#28	Montana	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$1,787,162,000
#29	Kentucky	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$1,656,983,000
#30	South Carolina	Poultry and eggs	$1,476,817,000
#31	Tennessee	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$1,301,303,000
#32	New Mexico	Milk from cows	$1,251,065,000
#33	Virginia	Poultry and eggs	$1,161,564,000
#34	Wyoming	Cattle and calves	$1,101,195,000
#35	Maryland	Poultry and eggs	$922,999,000
#36	Oregon	Cattle and calves	$894,485,000
#37	Delaware	Poultry and eggs	$811,301,000
#38	Arizona	Vegetables, melons, potatoes and sweet potatoes	$764,062,000
#39	Vermont	Milk from cows	$504,884,000
#40	New Jersey	Nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and sod	$405,247,000
#41	West Virginia	Poultry and eggs	$401,439,000
#42	Utah	Cattle and calves	$364,214,000
#43	Nevada	Other crops and hay	$280,554,000
#44	Connecticut	Nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and sod	$252,923,000
#45	Maine	Vegetables, melons, potatoes and sweet potatoes	$207,254,000
#46	Hawaii	Grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas	$152,930,000
#47	Massachusetts	Nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and sod	$144,188,000
#48	New Hampshire	Milk from cows	$54,798,000
#49	Rhode Island	Nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and sod	$32,831,000
#50	Alaska	Aquaculture	$29,774,000

As the legal cannabis industry continues to take off, it’ll be interesting to see if the USDA incorporates that crop into its rankings in future years.

Agriculture

Balancing the Environmental Costs of Cannabis

Legal cannabis cultivation emits as much CO2 as 92,660 cars annually. Growing cannabis sustainably can reduce this massive environmental footprint.

Published

6 months ago

December 20, 2018

Iman Ghosh

Balancing the Environmental Costs of Cannabis

Economic development comes with a massive environmental cost.

Since 1980, heavy industrial activity has caused the doubling of CO2 emissions. As scientists warn of the lasting negative impacts this will have on the planet, nearly every industry is committing to sustainable practices to try to counteract this effect.

Today’s infographic comes from The Green Organic Dutchman, and it demonstrates that while the business of cannabis isn’t always eco-friendly, there are several tried-and-tested ways to reduce its massive footprint.

A HEFTY PRICE TO PAY

Energy is the second-highest cost driver in cannabis cultivation after labor.

There are two main culprits – lighting and HVAC systems (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning). Combined, they make up a whopping 89% of energy use in cannabis cultivation operations.

Last year, legal cannabis cultivation was responsible for consuming 1.1 million MWh of electricity, and producing 472,000 tons of CO2 emissions. That’s enough to power 92,500 homes, and produce the same emissions as 92,660 cars per year. As legal cannabis production scales, this will only escalate.

Much of this data can be attributed to how the plant is grown.

Growing method	Power consumption (kWh/g)	Carbon intensity (lbs CO2e/g)
Indoor	1.27	1.24
Greenhouse	0.94	0.72
Outdoor	0.07	0.05

Indoor cultivation is roughly 18 times more energy-intensive than outdoor cultivation, and produces 25 times the carbon emissions. On the other hand, outdoor production produces lower overall yield per square foot. Since it’s difficult to control the environment, impurities can also end up in the final product.

That’s why many companies opt for a hybrid approach instead – balancing the benefits of precise control, with the use of natural light to lower production costs.

A GAME PLAN FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Many licensed producers are adopting a suite of strategies to relieve this environmental footprint.

Renewable energy
Diversifying the energy sources for cannabis cultivation can reduce carbon emissions. Solar and wind are top choices among cultivators.
LED lighting
LED light bulbs are more than 60% more efficient than other types. They also produce barely any heat, lowering ventilation requirements.
Water efficiency
A single cannabis plant can use up to 23 liters of water per day. Water can be recycled and re-used through innovative techniques such as reverse osmosis.
Packaging
The plastic packaging often associated with cannabis products is a considerable contributor of waste. There are several alternatives, such as paper, glass, and tin. Each of these have their own benefits and drawbacks, depending on what they are used for.

Maximizing energy-efficiency has a domino effect not only on the planet, but on reduced operating costs. These savings can then be passed on to the buyer, which could prove to be a strong competitive advantage as the cannabis industry matures.

Stay tuned for part 6 of this series, where we’ll delve into the scientific evidence for medical cannabis compounds.