The Food Fix

Is it okay to give food to a food pantry that you wouldn’t eat yourself? Can you have another farmer sell your strawberries at the local farmer’s market?

When we think of “ethics,” we probably think of a rulebook that people like doctors follow, and people like politicians are supposed to follow but usually don’t. What do ethics have to do with your breakfast? Dr. Paul Thompson argues that ethics and food systems go hand in hand. It’s one thing to feed people; it’s another thing to feed them ethically.

Dr. Thompson is the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University. He is the author of over 13 books. His new book is called From Field to Fork, Food Ethics for Everyone.

Photo: Paul Thompson

In Malawi, better education for farmers could help them to grow more crops, earn more money, and improve their quality of life.

Government Extension Officers visit villages to educate farmers, but there are too few extension workers to meet the educational needs of a large rural community.

Can replacing extension workers with how-to videos solve this problem? Kirk Mason recently obtained his Undergraduate degree from the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. He received student internship funding from the Global Center for Food Systems Innovations at MSU to visit Malawi and produce participatory videos along with a team of researchers from the department.

Photo: Kirk Mason

More than a billion tons of food are wasted every year around the globe, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization. Fresh fruit is nutritious, but also prone to being wasted. In Africa once fruit goes bad it often ends up being fed to goats and cows. In countries where millions of people are hungry and malnourished, this is a waste of precious nutrients and vitamins.

How can we save fruit from such a sad fate? It can be challenging to make a fruit product that has great taste and texture AND can sit on a shelf outside the fridge for a long time.

While working on his Master's degree, Matt Gammans obtained a student innovation grant from the Global Center for Food Systems Innovations at MSU to work on making fruit products in Ghana that have a long shelf life.

Photo: Matt Gammans

By 2030, people will be eating a lot more meat and animal products. The World Health Organization predicts that the worldwide consumption of animal products will increase by 72% in the next 15 years. But most developing nations do not have the right climates or the proper infrastructure to produce so much meat, eggs, and dairy.

One way that farmers can get lots of bang for their buck in meat production is an AFO. AFO stands for Animal Feeding Operation. Farmers use AFOs to raise more animals in less time and for less money. They are facilities where animals are kept and raised in a confined place. An AFO deals with the animals and their food, manure, and urine all under one roof.

While AFO’s are very good at raising a lot of animals in a small space, they also have some problems. Having so many animals in a confined space raises a number of environmental, ethical, and health concerns.

The problem we’re going to focus on today is the large volume of animal waste produced by AFOs. Some of the technology that’s used to treat animal waste leaves a different mess behind: water filled with so many extra nutrients that it’s considered contaminated.

Patrick Sheridan, seen in this photo, is a graduate student in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Michigan State University. Patrick built something called a photobioreactor that uses algae to clean the contaminated water, and turn those extra nutrients back into animal feed.

As Earth’s temperature rises, areas of the Southern Hemisphere have seen decreased levels of rain. This trend has major consequences. Water will evaporate more in the coming years. Eventually this puts more water in the air and less water on the ground. That’s bad news for crops in the area, which rely on runoffs and soil moisture to grow and yield food.

Using computer-generated climate models, researchers can see what might happen to these regions.

Matthew Herman, seen in this photo, is looking at the southern part of East Africa to figure out which regions are expected to get more future rainfall and which are going to get less. He talked about his research, and how its impact can drive decision makers to reduce water problems in these areas.

The world population has already exceeded 7 billion. How can we find enough space to grow food for that many people? One possible solution is hydroponics. Hydroponics uses water with nutrients to grow plants, instead of soil.

Rachel Sparks wants to figure out how to produce enough crops to support a growing population when there’s not enough fertile land. She thinks hydroponics systems might be part of the answer.

Rachel is a graduate student in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. She received a student innovation grant from the Global Center for Food Systems Innovations to test the feasibility of a hydroponics system in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Photo: Rachel Sparks

Kenya is home to a pest called the tsetse fly. They can carry and transmit a disease called “sleeping sickness” through their bite. Figuring out the areas in which they live is crucial, especially for farmers who spend a lot of time outside.

But tsetse flies cannot swarm a new habitat like other insects do. When they find a suitable place to live, that population of flies is constrained to that area.

Mark Devisser is a PhD student in the Department of Geography at Michigan State University, and his research focuses on the livestock version of the disease, which impacts East Africa’s local beef production.

Photo: Mark Devisser

In last week's podcast, a food system was compared to a delicate web of complex sectors. Innovations that go into improving one aspect of agriculture can have a huge impact on another.

April Frake is a PhD student in the Department of Geography at Michigan State University. She is studying how the rate of malaria in Malawi may be increasing because local farmlands are becoming more irrigated.

Photo: April Frake

The food system deals with all aspects of food, from planting a seed to bringing the food home for consumption.

The people featured on this show study issues of food availability in developing parts of the world, or work with policy makers so that communities have access to safe and affordable foods.

Maria Rodriguez Murphy is the Assistant Director for Management at the Global Center for Food Systems Innovations at Michigan State University. She talked in detail about food systems research.

Photo: Maria Rodriguez Murphy

Transporting a crop to market can be incredibly challenging in Sub-Saharan Africa. Roads are poorly maintained. Access to a bike, cart, or motorcycle or truck is limited. That leaves the good old-fashioned option of carrying it. Not fun or easy.

Jeremy Robison is a master’s student in the school of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. He and a fellow student David Wilson are working in Cameroon on a project called the Practical Utility Platform Vehicle, or PUP, seen in this photo. They are also trying to understand how farmers will actually respond to this innovation once it is launched in the community.

Reporter Ali Hussain spoke with Jeremy for The Food Fix.

Photo: David Wilson and Jeremy Robison

Image updated: 4/1/2015