food

Starship Technologies launches robot delivery service at Dallas university

January 25, 2022 by Editor Leave a Comment

Starship Technologies has rolled out its robot food delivery service at SMU, a Dallas-based private university.

Starship’s fleet of 16 autonomous, on-demand robots will deliver from 10 campus eateries.

The University’s students, faculty and staff can now use the Starship Food Delivery app (iOS and Android) to order food and drinks from Cinco Taco, Einstein Bros Bagels, Lawyers Inn, Mac’s Place, Panera Bread, Rollin’ & Bowlin’ Acai Bowls, Starbucks, Sushic, and The Market to be delivered anywhere on campus, within minutes. [Read more…] about Starship Technologies launches robot delivery service at Dallas university

NASA at your table: Where food meets methane

August 16, 2021 by Editor

Today, human sources are responsible for 60% of global methane emissions, coming primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, decomposition in landfills and the agriculture sector.

Nearly a quarter of methane emissions can be attributed to agriculture, much of which is from raising livestock. Rice cultivation and food waste are also important sources of agricultural methane, as nearly a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted.

At NASA, scientists study the global methane budget to better understand the primary sources of methane emissions and how they contribute to climate change. In addition to the human sources, methane is also produced in natural settings. The greatest natural source of methane is wetlands, which contribute 30% of global methane emissions. Other natural sources of methane emissions include the oceans, termites, permafrost, vegetation and wildfires. [Read more…] about NASA at your table: Where food meets methane

Aquatic ecosystems source of half of global methane emissions
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Direct human alterations to natural aquatic ecosystems can increase methane emissions, a new study has found. Atmospheric methane has tripled since pre-industrial times. It traps heat far more effectively than carbon dioxide and accounts for 25% of atmospheric warming to date. And much of that methane is coming from aquatic…
Tags: methane, emissions, news
A tangled food web: Maximizing production with efficient inputs
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Born in food web ecology, the concept of trophic levels – the hierarchy of who eats who in the natural world – is an elegant way to understand how biomass and energy move through a natural system. It's only natural that the idea found its way into the realm of…
Tags: food, news
NASA to announce new space tech public-private partnerships
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will give a keynote address at the virtual fall Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium meeting at 11:45 am EDT Wednesday, October 14. The event, co-hosted by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and Arizona State University, will stream live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.…
Tags: nasa, news, universe
NASA’s James Webb Telescope all set to see universe’s very first galaxies and distant worlds
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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launched recently on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America. A joint effort with ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency, the Webb observatory is NASA’s revolutionary flagship mission to seek the light from the first galaxies in…
Tags: nasa, universe, news

Major revamp of SNAP could eliminate food insecurity in the US

July 23, 2021 by Editor

Food insecurity is a major problem in the U.S., and it worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides some relief, but millions of Americans still lack adequate access to healthy food. A new study from the University of Illinois proposes a potential solution.

“Restructuring SNAP as a Universal Basic Income (UBI) program or modified UBI is a straightforward way to eliminate food insecurity in United States. It’s expensive but it is not difficult,” says Craig Gundersen, distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at U of I. Gundersen authored the study, published in Food Policy.

While the existing SNAP program effectively reduces food insecurity, it has some limitations. For some SNAP recipients, the amount of aid they receive is insufficient. Some people who are food insecure and eligible for SNAP do not participate. And finally, more than half of those who are food insecure are not eligible for SNAP, Gundersen explains. [Read more…] about Major revamp of SNAP could eliminate food insecurity in the US

College students are less food insecure than non-students
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College students are significantly less likely to be food insecure than non-students in the same age group, according to a new study from the University of Illinois. "College hunger" has been widely reported in the media, and several studies found very high food insecurity rates among college students, sometimes up…
Tags: food, insecurity, gundersen, news, life

Food home delivery companies need up to 8,000 daily services to be profitable in a big city

June 21, 2021 by Editor

Various platforms which offer food home delivery services through courier services, such as riders or other types of distributors, have proliferated very quickly in recent years, especially in big cities.

Due to this boom in last-mile delivery or logistics, UOC experts have studied the operation of the main food home delivery platforms, such as Just Eat, Glovo and Deliveroo, which work in the city of Barcelona, to analyse the profitability of these business models and estimate the number of orders needed to achieve this profitability.

“It’s very difficult for these business models to be profitable by themselves”, said Eduard J. Álvarez Palau, a researcher from the SUMA research group of the UOC’s Faculty of Economics and Business, the main author of this work together with Ángel A. Juan, principal investigator of the ICSO research group of the UOC’s IN3. [Read more…] about Food home delivery companies need up to 8,000 daily services to be profitable in a big city

UMass Amherst food scientists aim to make plant-based protein tastier and healthier

June 14, 2021 by Editor

As meat-eating continues to increase around the world, food scientists are focusing on ways to create healthier, better-tasting and more sustainable plant-based protein products that mimic meat, fish, milk, cheese and eggs.

It’s no simple task, says renowned food scientist David Julian McClements, University of Massachusetts Amherst Distinguished Professor and lead author of a paper in the new Nature journal, Science of Food, that explores the topic.

“With Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods and other products coming on the market, there’s a huge interest in plant-based foods for improved sustainability, health and ethical reasons,” says McClements, a leading expert in food design and nanotechnology, and author of Future Foods: How Modern Science Is Transforming the Way We Eat. [Read more…] about UMass Amherst food scientists aim to make plant-based protein tastier and healthier

How an elephant’s trunk manipulates air to eat and drink

June 2, 2021 by Editor

New research from the Georgia Institute of Technology finds that elephants dilate their nostrils in order to create more space in their trunks, allowing them to store up to nine liters of water.

They can also suck up three liters per second – a speed 50 times faster than a human sneeze (150 meters per second/330 mph).

The Georgia Tech College of Engineering study sought to better understand the physics of how elephants use their trunks to move and manipulate air, water, food and other objects. They also sought to learn if the mechanics could inspire the creation of more efficient robots that use air motion to hold and move things. [Read more…] about How an elephant’s trunk manipulates air to eat and drink

Animal production responsible for vast majority of air quality-related health impacts from US food

May 14, 2021 by Editor

Poor air quality caused by food production in the United States is estimated to result in 16,000 deaths annually, 80 percent of which are related to animal production, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota.

The research also found there are measures farmers and consumers alike can take to reduce the air quality-related health impacts of the food we eat.

In a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers measured how the production of various foods affects air quality, discovering that animal production is overwhelmingly responsible for agriculture’s air quality-related health impacts. [Read more…] about Animal production responsible for vast majority of air quality-related health impacts from US food

Researchers develop roadside barrier design to mitigate air pollution
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A unique curved barrier has been designed by researchers at Imperial College London, who publish new findings in the peer-reviewed journal Cities & Health on how the structure can protect people from the damaging effects of air pollution. With air pollution becoming an increasingly dangerous global health challenge, researchers are constantly working…
Tags: air, pollution, quality, health, environment

Following nature’s cue, researchers build successful, sustainable industrial networks

April 28, 2021 by Editor

By translating the pattern of interconnections between nature’s food chains to industrial networks, researchers at Texas A&M University have delineated guidelines for setting up successful industrial communities.

The researchers said this guidance can facilitate economic growth, lower emissions and reduce waste while simultaneously ensure that partnering industries can recover from unexpected disturbances.

“Industries can often partner up to exchange byproducts and over time these industries might form bigger communities. While these networks sound quite beneficial to all industry partners within the community, they are not always successful,” said Dr. Astrid Layton, assistant professor in the J. Mike Walker’ 66 Department of Mechanical Engineering. [Read more…] about Following nature’s cue, researchers build successful, sustainable industrial networks

Consumers are willing to pay for ecosystem services

April 16, 2021 by Editor

Many consumers are willing to pay for improved environmental quality and thus non-market values of impacts of food production on, for example, water quality, C sequestration, biodiversity, pollution, erosion or GHG emissions may even be comparable to the market value of agricultural production.

Diverfarming project elucidated how consumers value agro-ecosystem services enabled by diversification and provided consumer perspectives for developing future agricultural and food policies to better support cropping diversification.

The researchers quantified consumers’ willingness to pay for the benefits of increased farm and regional scale diversity of cultivation practices and crop rotations. [Read more…] about Consumers are willing to pay for ecosystem services