Our 2015 Photo Story

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Let’s do this story!

We’ve come to the end of another year! This time around we had some ups and downs. And we think it best to give you the highlights of our blog, our web series and our colleagues, as we wish you and yours all the best for the season and happy and prosperous New year!

Do ensure this photo story!

We started the year with our usual tech topics such as robotic farming, renewable energies and bringing old techniques back into modern production. It truly is astonishing what exists out there in the world both simple and complex technologies and sciences which make agriculture interesting to us youth. But behind all of this are people…young people!

Growing out TFF community – Photo courtesy Thought for Food

In came the Thought for Food Challenge and summit where we met some of the greatest and most enthusiastic young minds in food and agriculture today. The event was truly motivating having been introduced and are still in contact with finalist teams and other participants.

Tech4agri: the podcast that failed…but it will return!

Then came a bright shining light and complete failure….well it depends on how you look at it. Tech4agri launched its very own podcast. We got some great feedback from you, our followers but reality hit, in that we just could not keep it up. When delivering our stories we want great quality and interesting content. While the podcast was great we found it difficult to find the type of content we needed while simultaneously handling our other projects. It lasted three episodes but it’s not dead it will return!

Tech4agri Team

As an entrepreneur, failure is ever present. So Tech4agri regrouped and focused on what was needed to get its long planned web series off the ground! We finally got our team together! Meet our team again!

Agri journalists of Tech4agri

We started our work in  agri journalism and got great feedback with our mini documentary Agripeople! #Motivation

LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 25: The 2015 Online News Association Conference at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel on September 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Daniel Petty/for ONA)

Again we were #winners having earned a fellowship to the Online News Association conference for 2015 held in Los Angeles. We were humbled to be selected as one of the best early career young digital journalists for the event. #mindblown at all the tech we learned of that can be used for journalism!

Agripeople: A mini documentary

What’s your first thought when you hear the word Agriculture? Is it Food? Thinking of a Farmer? Well there is a whole lot more to Agriculture than farmers. We are Agripeople. People just like you and me striving for an honest living in so many ways. And even if we were all farmers you should still respect us..simple because we feed you.

Introducing our first mini documentary made using Mobile Journalism! What do you think? The documentary acts as a precursor to our web series which is in production.

Pure Ingenuity

One of my favorite words in the world is ingenuity. It’s my go to definition for people in agriculture who not only solve their problems but do so with a curiousity and a flair that most people do not have.This attitude could be compared to that of an architect or an inventor who takes functionality, visual impact, sustainability and usuability, merging them all into one.

Using future technologies or even creating unique methods and techniques is now a common trend. Not only do the ingenious people of agriculture create or produce great products for consumption but their work also inspires others of all ages to create  as well. We all need some inspiration sometimes, you just have to know where to look.

Furniture Farming

This BBC Report introduces us to Gavin Munroe, “the man who grows fields full of tables and chairs”. Taking his experiences as a child of having to straighten his spine and the odd growth of a bonsai tree, along with his exceptionally high level of patience (granted his designs take six years to grow), Gavin transformed this combination of factors into something that is creative, fufilling and profitable.

Phot Credit: Creator’s project of Vice News

Instead of growing trees to the best production size, choping them down, cutting them into smaller pieces and then putting it back together, Gavin grows the trees directly into the shape that is needed: It’s wood making redefined.

Underwater Gardening

Nemo’s Garden is an ongoing project of the group, Ocean Reef, who have for quite sometime been growing crops underwater! They have developed an underwater greenhouse which have grown crops such as basil, lettuce, strawberries and beans. President of Ocean Reef, Sergio Gamberini recognized that the ocean provides the perfect environment for plants to grow as they need constant temperature, water, light, protection from parasites, pests and changing weather patterns.

Hey Readers!

A lot has been going on with Tech4agri.  As you may remember late last year we did a survey for our upcoming projects which you responded to and give great positive feedback. So we are working hard on getting these projects together!

Fortunately we were able to launch Tech4agri: the Podcast last February but we unfortunately did not get another episode out..until now! Introducing out first episode: Thought4Food!

Firstly, apologies in advance for the poor audio in some parts. We’re new to podcasting and just jumped right in so we are learning by doing.

This episode focuses on the threat of world hunger which many are unaware of. Our population will become significantly larger than it is now in just a few years.

A Stunning Alternative!

Pressures on the world’s meat production system is mounting. Issues such as chemical additives, threats to human health, poor food safety and handling, the stress production causes on the environment, the prevalence of ‘factory made meats’ and inhumane treatment of animals as well as a disregard for animal health are all hot topics of today’s world.

Livestock production despite being a major source of livelihood for millions of small farmers has a poor view in the eyes of the world’s watchdogs simply due to the irresponsible action of a few thousand large scale producers. As a result an alternative is now coming to life: Bug meat!

Entomophagy

What! Eating insects? Yes this is a thing or rather a re-surging way to be fed. Entomophagy is the practice of eating insects  – including arachnids (tarantulas) and myriapods (centipedes). This is an age old human practice from civilizations of the past.

Nothing but inspiration: #tffsummit

#TFFSummit Top Left: The women that change the world, Top Right: Winners Team Innovision, Bottom Left: Runner up Team FoPo, Bottom Right: winners of the special prize and runner up, Team Aahaar. Photos Courtesy Thought for Food

And the winners are…

Team Innovision! You can see the shock and amazement on their faces having won the 2014 Thought for Food Challenge. Surprise was in store as there was not one, but two runner ups each winning a prize, Team FoPo and Team Aahar. The latter team took home an extra prize provided by The Kirchner Group Food Fellows making them double winners! Congratulations all around! During the event Tech4agri live tweeted and by the end of the finalists’ pitches, no one know who would be the winner. The judges needed extra time in fact to give an answer. Only then do you see how they came to their decision. Each team winning had a direct and immediate impact in reducing food waste by the billions of dollars in addition to measured social impact

Humble thoughts on winning strategies

Team Innovision developed a solar-powered micro-climate chamber for small scale farmers that increases shelf life of fruits and vegetables using an evaporation cooling system. What clearly stood out was the invention’s low cost as an affordable substitute for refrigeration to reduce food loss in developing countries, the overall contribution to food security and its potential to remove the use of a poisonous fruit and vegetable preservative used in their home country.