mega food parks

42 mega food parks to start operations by 2019: Harsimrat Kaur Badal 

The Mega Food Park Scheme, based on the cluster approach, is modelled on hub-and-spoke architecture, which follows principles from the spoke-hub distribution paradigm.

It aims at facilitating the establishment of a strong food processing industry backed by an efficient supply chain, which includes collection centres, a central processing centre (CPC) and cold chain infrastructure. 

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food inventions

7 food magicians who'll melt your mind

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Personal Food Computer

The personal food computer looks like a fish tank. It’s the right shape and size, but there’s no water. Inside the two-foot-long box, under glowing purple LED lights, lettuces and legumes sprout up, their roots, free of dirt, misted by digitally-controlled sprayers. It’s a tiny, low-water, climate-controlled agriculture system, designed for growing food in cramped city quarters. The machine is plugged into a network, so all the environmental information runs into a database, where other farmers can see how much water and light the plants are getting, and use that data to tweak the way they grow their own crops.

Call it open-source farming or data-driven agriculture. Either way, it’s a way to program how we grow what we eat. Caleb Harper, an engineer with a background in architecture and design, developed the personal food computer. He also runs the City Farm group, which looks at innovative ways to grow food in urban areas, at MIT’s Media Lab. He thinks his contraption is the future of food.

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alcoholic architecture

An installation called “Alcoholic Architecture,” coming soon to London’s Borough Market, dispenses booze in the form of a “walk-in cloud of breathable cocktail.” It’s the creation of Bompas & Parr, a whimsical food art studio known for its bespoke jellies and fruit-flavored fireworks.

The so-called “alcoholic weather system” is a thick mist, one part spirits to three parts mixer. Guests enter the chamber wearing protective ponchos and take in alcohol through their lungs and eyeballs. Inside, the humidity is so high that you can’t see farther than one meter around. According to a press release, Bompas & Parr worked with respiratory scientists to arrive at the optimal dwell time—50 minutes, or the equivalent of about one liquid drink.

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chopstick 3D printing

With the use of chopsticks as ‘lumber,’ the researchers state that this material is prime for creating a porous structure with its aggregate construction. Using two different methods, jammed aggregation and stratified aggregation, the team has been able to come up with a clear and innovative method for elevating 3D printed architecture to the larger scale. Both methods, conceptualized through research and testing, employ the use of rows and rows of chopsticks which are accompanied by glue, and dispensed by an equally innovative device.

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St. Louis Rooftop Garden

Mary Ostafi, an architect who founded the nonprofit Urban Harvest STL in 2011, has led an effort to dump some 40 tons of dirt on the building’s 9,000-square-foot roof and grow organic vegetables in a venture called the Food Roof Farm.

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compost bowls

The FOODSCAPES project tackles the problem of food waste in a completely different way. Rather than expending efforts to decrease food waste, they are utilizing food waste to be a functional piece of tableware.

FOODSCAPES is created by WHOMADE.IT and Michela Milani. It uses edible leftover materials and reconstructs a seed-shaped bowl that can hold dry foods. It is free of any additives, preservatives, colorants, thickeners, correctors, and artificial agents. Once you’re done with it, it can be dissolved in water and act as soil fertilizer.

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