The Springwise top 5: food innovations

To mark World Food Day, we delve into our library for the top innovations supporting food production while making it easier on the environment

What is World Food Day?

A little over a month after the end of the Second World War, at the grand Château Frontenac hotel in Quebec City, Canada, 34 governments signed the constitution of the Food and Agriculture Organization. The date of its foundation, October 16th, has been recognised since 1979 as World Food Day, which seeks to raise awareness about the issues of hunger and healthy diets.

What is this year’s theme?

The theme for World Food Day 2024 is the ‘right to food for a better life and a better future.’ Access to food is a fundamental right enshrined in international law, yet according to the FAO, 2.8 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. And the word ‘healthy’ in the preceding sentence is vital. The issue of food and nutrition is not simply about counting raw calories. Many people are consuming enough calories to stay alive but cannot access the nutrients and the diversity of food they need to truly thrive. Diversity is also important in the context of the natural world, and biodiversity, which is crucial to agriculture over the long term. But despite its reliance on a thriving natural environment, farming today is a major driver of biodiversity loss. Food waste too is a contributing factor to the inability of some to exercise their right to food.

How are innovators supporting the right to food?

Despite the complex and interrelated challenges that impact the global food system, innovators around the world are developing solutions that help to ensure people have access to food, while easing the impact of food production on the natural world.

Photo source © Yevhen Smyk from Getty Images via Canva.com

Protecting crops from disease with engineered bacteria

Between 20 and 40 per cent of crops are destroyed every year by disease and pests. Finding ways to combat this could have a huge impact on the health of our global agricultural systems and the availability of food.

Robigo is one company doing just that, using its team of expert biological engineers and data scientists to develop synthetic biology solutions that target plant diseases. Rather than introducing foreign chemicals like traditional pesticides, which often pollute surrounding ecosystems, Robigo looks to naturally-occurring microbes that already live in the soil or on plants.

These microbes are then biologically engineered so that they precisely target agricultural diseases once applied via crop spraying, without harming beneficial microorganisms and insects, human consumers, or the wider environment. Ordinary pesticides kill microorganisms indiscriminately, but Robigo’s solutions target specific pathogens, maintaining the health of the broader soil microbiome. Read more

Photo source Unibaio

How can fishing waste enable eco-friendlier farming?

As one of the world’s top producers of wild shrimp, Argentina contends with sizeable quantities of waste from industrial processing systems. Rather than let the chitosan in those shells go unused, Argentinian company Unibaio is turning it into a biologic agro-input that improves the efficiency and effectiveness of fertilisers and pesticides.

Unibaio creates custom, biodegradable nanocarriers for the active ingredients in agricultural pesticides, both synthetic and biological. The carriers allow for targeted delivery that helps reduce the volumes needed for each crop, thereby contributing to a sizeable reduction in the amount of harmful chemicals released into the environment. The carriers’ ability to progressively release ingredients over time also helps farmers save time and money by reducing the number of applications they must put on each field.

The company works with each grower to determine the best microparticle mix for the crops and geography of the farm, and continuously assesses the effectiveness of each mix. Unibaio’s formula can reduce a farmer’s need for chemicals by 80 per cent, and, in the long term, could help growers transition towards chemical-free agriculture. Read more

Photo source © PhotoMIX-Company from Pixabay via Canva.com

Could silk proteins help us to protect fresh food?

Acute food insecurity is rising globally, yet around one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted each year. One organisation helping to reduce that waste by keeping food fresher for longer is US-based foodtech company Mori.

The startup has created Mori Silk, an edible protective layer for food made from naturally derived silk protein. Inspired by the Bombyx mori silkworm, Mori Silk uses a patented process involving water, salt, and heat to extract proteins that form the basis of the protective layer. The food-protecting silk protein is water-based, making its application easy to incorporate into existing supply chain processes.

The silk layer works by keeping moisture in and air out, helping to slow down the processes of dehydration, oxidation, and microbial growth, while maintaining a product’s natural levels of vitamins and minerals. Because the layer is made from natural ingredients that make it edible, it is usable with a range of foodstuffs that include meat, seafood, fruit, and vegetables. Read more

Photo source SaliCrop/Guy Shery

Enhancing seeds for desert farming in a changing climate

Rising sea levels are affecting the quality of the water that is available to farmers, which, when combined with the stress of high heat, severely impacts crop yields. Heat and salty soil are two of the main stressors for a variety of plants, many of which are crucial parts of the global diet. Seeking ways to increase growing resilience without using toxins and chemical treatments, agritech startup SaliCrop has created a method that uses a seed’s natural response to stressors to make it possible to grow crops in arid, salty soil.

The company uses a combination of organic and physiological compounds to mimic environmental stressors. That then boosts a seed’s natural biochemical reactions and strengthens the plant’s ability to survive in more arid conditions. The treatments also increase the size of the fruits and vegetables grown and improve the plants’ resilience to pests.

SaliCrop is working with commercial growers of alfalfa, onion, and tomatoes, and their crop yields have increased between 16 and 40 per cent. In Europe, Africa, and India, the company is completing field trials with crops that include rice, wheat, corn, peppers, and broccoli and is seeing yields increase by between 7 and 15 per cent. Those results are particularly important in light of various climate projections that predict decreases in wheat yields of up to six per cent due to increased severity of weather events and overall conditions. Read more

Photo source Towing

Building healthy soils with biochar and microbes

Biochar is organic material that has been carbonised under high temperatures in the presence of little, or no, oxygen. This process (called ‘pyrolysis’) releases bio-oils and gases and leaves a solid residue, which is around 80 per cent elemental carbon. Not only does biochar make an excellent soil improver, but it also sequesters carbon.

Now, Japanese startup Towing has developed a high-performance biochar, called Sorotan, which makes it possible to form healthy soils in only about one month, instead of the three to five years it usually takes. The company, which was spun off from Nagoya University, developed Soratan by adding microorganisms and organic fertiliser to biochar.

The company’s proprietary process involves cultivating multiple bacteria at the same time inside the porous biochar. These microorganisms then allow the soil to decompose organic material much faster, building healthier soils. Read more

Compiled By: Matthew Hempstead