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In fact, in some parts of the world, these solutions “low technology” (i.e., technologically simple) are often all that is needed to prevent waste, improve agricultural practices, and even boost the local economy.
That is to say that the low technologyWhile perhaps not as appealing as, say, using sensors to save bees, it plays a bigger role in advancing food than one might initially think. Its simplicity is effective, and often just as interesting, or at least exhilarating, as a high-tech alternative.
Now let’s think about fermentation
We must see this as a way to curb food waste. Rather than simply dumping food that is about to go bad (or selling it at a discount in a market), some countries resort to a kind of “controlled spoilage” through fermentation. This is not new. The idea of preservation through decomposition has been around for thousands of years. And around the world, it continues to be a food preservation practice.
Here’s a pretty good rundown of some of the delicacies you can find in Vietnam that exist due to food preservation through fermentation, including rsticky rice , which many Vietnamese believe kills parasites. There’s also fish sauce, the kind you’ll find on restaurant menus anywhere in the world, as well as kimchi, sauerkraut, and Filmjölk, to name a few.
Fermentation honestly seems like a kind of no-brainer in terms of how, for example, restaurants preserve food and reduce waste. It’s already a trend among foodies, which may make me wonder, if, as more and more people make efforts to curb waste, fermentation has a chance to move from “deli cuisine” to basic food.
Talking about food spoilage
In general, the closer we get to the equator, the faster the food decays, a matter of temperature …
So you have the sad feeling that in Kenya, fruit and vegetable sellers constantly lose money because their produce goes bad after just a couple of days. The same for many places of similar latitude where refrigeration is not always available.
A company called FreshBox came up with a fairly simple solution: a solar-powered refrigeration unit, the “box,” which looks like a keyless fridge, but reportedly costs much less to run. Each unit can hold 70 boxes of products. Sellers pay 70 Kenyan shillings ($ 0.068) per box per day.
Food waste is one of the main reasons why millions of people in Africa face hunger. According to the Rockefeller Foundation, 50 percent of all produce is lost in the post-harvest stage of production. FreshBox may not be able to solve such a massive problem overnight, but it’s proof that serious problems don’t always require a high-tech answer. Sometimes a cheap solar powered cold box will work.
Another pervasive problem facing the food industry is a shortage of arable land. One frequently cited figure is that by 2050 we will have to feed 2 billion more people around the world. But it was also generally agreed that farmers will have to produce more food on less land. Indoor farms growing plants without soil are a solution, but there is no evidence yet that these “modern” farming systems are enough.
And some have not yet abandoned traditional agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is a land management strategy that restores soil fertility and resilience, and in the process sequesters CO2 emissions to mitigate climate change. Like fermentation, practices in regenerative agriculture have been around almost since the dawn of agriculture itself. They include everything from crop rotation, minimum tillage, installing cover crops, planting borders for bee habitats, and composting, to name a few.
A particularly interesting aspect of regenerative agriculture
Here we are looking at the role that livestock can play, a definite counterpoint to the idea that livestock production is only harming the planet. Some farmers have adopted a practice called “rotational grazing”, in which livestock are strategically moved to graze, so that no part of the land is completely depleted.
Some farmers and ranchers are already exploring the possibilities of how this seemingly low-tech action could be integrated with various high-tech components to mitigate the burden of livestock production while helping the real soil. And more and more software is available when it comes to general land management, so it will be interesting to see if it can work in conjunction with these ancient farming methods.
Many of these “low-tech” innovations are happening in the developing world today, more as a necessity than a “cool” factor. At the risk of oversimplifying the matter, it would be worthwhile for food companies in more developed countries to explore these practices in more detail.
For example, would something like FreshBox be useful for farmers markets, or for street vendors of fruit and vegetables in New York? Could restaurants make more use of fermentation instead of dumping huge percentages of their inventory in the trash around the world?
Doing so would obviously require much more effort than simple interest or enthusiasm. Still, we’d like to step away from burger robots for a second and explore those possibilities.