Vertical farming is a growing part of urban farming, a way to produce food in cities. The idea is to integrate the food production into the architecture like skyscrapers, closing the cycles (fresh/sewage water, soil and fertilizer etc.) as best as possible.
While demand for fish is rising, the wild fish production in the oceans is dropping - the solution is Aquaculture. This allows to do what we've done with all land-living species we use or eat in the past few thousand years: intensive breeding.
In our modern world, it's possible to take shortcuts in breeding. Aquaculture in closed perimeters allow the use of genetic modifications without necessarily influencing or endangering the wildlife - the idea behind AquAdvantage salmon.
Aquaculture still has a little problem: most delicious tasting fish, like salmon, need to be fed with other fish, which in turn has been produced in the wild, just like ever before. On the other side, insects are very nutrious, they can be produced in basically unlimited quantities on an industrial scale - but most people don't like the taste and rather prefer fish or beef. So, now the idea is to use Insect farming on a large scale to feed the fish in aquacultures, thus dramatically reducing the amount of fish needed to be taken from the oceans.
Of course, insects also would make an excellent protein source if people wouldn't mind their taste or look. Incidentally, in the past few years, 3D Food Printing has become a major research topic. Here, different ingredients are used as "printer paint", creating new textures and tastes that don't resemble the source at all - ideal for our new potential main protein source! Considering the growing number of vegetarians who would prefer not eating meat from animals that feel pain, there's a vast market opening.
All these scientific/industrial innovations are accompanied with a raising consciousness about conventional food production and economical dependencies, political implications, thus Organic farming and Fair trade is becoming more and more popular. This trend includes Vegetarianism/veganism.
In a twisted sense, the internet doesn't just allow easy global communication - thus raising awareness about complex distributed environmental effects - but it also helps organizing Local food production and distribution.
There's a lot going on.
Vertical farming is a growing part of urban farming, a way to produce food in cities. The idea is to integrate the food production into the architecture like skyscrapers, closing the cycles (fresh/sewage water, soil and fertilizer etc.) as best as possible.
While demand for fish is rising, the wild fish production in the oceans is dropping - the solution is Aquaculture. This allows to do what we've done with all land-living species we use or eat in the past few thousand years: intensive breeding.
In our modern world, it's possible to take shortcuts in breeding. Aquaculture in closed perimeters allow the use of genetic modifications without necessarily influencing or endangering the wildlife - the idea behind AquAdvantage salmon.
Aquaculture still has a little problem: most delicious tasting fish, like salmon, need to be fed with other fish, which in turn has been produced in the wild, just like ever before. On the other side, insects are very nutrious, they can be produced in basically unlimited quantities on an industrial scale - but most people don't like the taste and rather prefer fish or beef. So, now the idea is to use Insect farming on a large scale to feed the fish in aquacultures, thus dramatically reducing the amount of fish needed to be taken from the oceans.
Of course, insects also would make an excellent protein source if people wouldn't mind their taste or look. Incidentally, in the past few years, 3D Food Printing has become a major research topic. Here, different ingredients are used as "printer paint", creating new textures and tastes that don't resemble the source at all - ideal for our new potential main protein source! Considering the growing number of vegetarians who would prefer not eating meat from animals that feel pain, there's a vast market opening.
All these scientific/industrial innovations are accompanied with a raising consciousness about conventional food production and economical dependencies, political implications, thus Organic farming and Fair trade is becoming more and more popular. This trend includes Vegetarianism/veganism.
In a twisted sense, the internet doesn't just allow easy global communication - thus raising awareness about complex distributed environmental effects - but it also helps organizing Local food production and distribution.