Bloomberg [no paywall]: “Banks, pension funds and insurers have been turning California’s scarce water into enormous profits, leaving people with less to drink…Some of the world’s largest investment banks, pension funds and insurers, including Manulife Financial Corp.’s John Hancock unit, TIAA and UBS, have been depleting California’s groundwater to grow high-value nuts, leaving less drinking… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Food and Nutrition
Stressed Plants ‘Cry’—and Some Animals Can Probably Hear Them
Scientific American – Microphones capture ultrasonic crackles from plants that are water-deprived or injured: “Plants do not suffer in silence. Instead, when thirsty or stressed, plants make “airborne sounds,” according to a study published today in Cell. Plants that need water or have recently had their stems cut produce up to roughly 35 sounds per hour,… Continue Reading
Alexander Skarsgård Explains the Answer to Everything
The New York Times – (It Involves Doing Some Math – Opinion / Video) “Partha Dasgupta is a Cambridge University economist who in 2021 prepared a more than 600-page report for the British government about the financial value of nature. Not your average bedtime reading. But believe us when we say his report, the culmination… Continue Reading
OpenAI is massively expanding ChatGPT’s capabilities to let it browse the web and more
The Verge: “OpenAI is adding support for plug-ins to ChatGPT — an upgrade that massively expands the chatbot’s capabilities and gives it access for the first time to live data from the web. Up until now, ChatGPT has been limited by the fact it can only pull information from its training data, which ends in… Continue Reading
AI isn’t yet going to take your job
Washington Post – “but you may have to work with it Artificial intelligence is increasingly making its way across industries, changing jobs from retail to medicine to marketing…Today, AI can power grocery store robots that change how stores get stocked, speed up vaccine production and generate creative ideas. But the latest advancements raise important questions… Continue Reading
Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce
Environmental Working Group – EWG’s 2023 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™: Nearly 75 percent of non-organic fresh produce sold in the U.S. contains residues of potentially harmful pesticides, EWG’s 2023 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ finds. In this year’s guide, blueberries and green beans join our Dirty Dozen™ list of the 12 fruits… Continue Reading
A growing plastic smog estimated to be over 170 trillion plastic particles afloat in the world’s oceans
Eriksen M, Cowger W, Erdle LM, Coffin S, Villarrubia-Gómez P, Moore CJ, et al. (2023) A growing plastic smog, now estimated to be over 170 trillion plastic particles afloat in the world’s oceans—Urgent solutions required. PLoS ONE 18(3): e0281596. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281596: “As global awareness, science, and policy interventions for plastic escalate, institutions around the world are… Continue Reading
Recipes by AI
“Let’s Foodie was created to help foodies across the globe get answers to some of the most common alongside some of the most obscure questions that get asked in the kitchen. Launched in 2021, Let’s Foodie is a constantly expanding platform providing information on a range of topics including how to freeze, reheat and microwave… Continue Reading
Wildlife warning: More than 330 species contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’
Environmental Working Group (EWG): “Polar bears have a PFAS problem: Pollution from the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS contaminates polar bears, tigers, monkeys, pandas, dolphins and fish and has been documented in more than 330 other species of wildlife around the world, some endangered or threatened. And hundreds of studies have found PFAS chemicals in… Continue Reading
PFAS Central
PFAS Central: “It’s impossible to completely avoid PFAS, a class of human-made chemicals that has been linked to a growing list of serious medical concerns. There are thousands of types of PFAS, and many are not well studied. Yet they’re in everything from stain-resistant rugs to dental floss, outdoor gear, food packaging and soil. “These… Continue Reading
Strengthening and Democratizing the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Innovation Ecosystem
Strengthening and Democratizing the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Innovation Ecosystem: An Implementation Plan for a National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource. National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force, January 2023. “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing our country and our world. From how citizens navigate their daily lives to how researchers drive discoveries in the lab to how… Continue Reading
The First Interactive Map with AI-Detected Fields and Crops
OneSoil:” Compare ratings for more than half the world. Get insights about local and global trends in crop production. For farmers, advisers, dealers, students and just curious people…First launched in 2018, the updated OneSoil Map allows you to explore fields and crops in more than half the world for 2020. Anyone can get global agricultural… Continue Reading
