U of A Students Take on Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion

Guest Post by Leah English

The Thought For Food Challenge calls on students from all around the globe to develop breakthrough solutions for tackling the greatest challenge facing our collective future: How to feed 9 billion people by the year 2050.

Three teams of students from the U of A are answering this call to action by developing bold, out-of-the-box innovations that may play a role in solving this impending problem.  The teams, Blume Microfarms, Cook and Connect, and MyCycle, are comprised of students from a variety of majors including Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Biology, Chemical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Electrical Engineering, Food Science, Education Policy, and International Rural Development.

The Blume Microfarms team is developing an automated hydroponic greenhouse that can be monitored and controlled via smartphone app. Their goal is to allow anyone to easily grow food anywhere in the world, regardless of space or available resources.

Team Cook and Connect is working on creating an app to help users find others around them who want to cook healthy meals, but are unable to do so because of any combination of economic and lifestyle factors. By providing everyone an economical and easy way shift their diet to a more sustainable one, they hope to make a substantial contribution to improving the current food production system.

Team MyCycle hopes to develop a cheap and easy way to supplement the diets of those in need by designing a mini-hoop house to be used for turning waste into mushrooms.

The teams will compete against students from over 40 different countries to become one of 10 finalist teams selected to pitch their idea at the Thought For Food Global Summit to be held on April 1-2, 2016, in Zurich, Zwitzerland. One Grand Prize winning team will receive a $10,000 grant to be put toward implementing their idea. One Runner Up team will receive a $5,000 grant for their project and one finalist will also be eligible to receive the $5,000 Kirchner Food Fellows Prize.

To learn more about the Thought For Food Challenge go to www.tffchallenge.com. You can follow the progress of all teams competing in the challenge on “Teams” page. To help support your U of A teams be sure to like and share their team Facebook pages:

• Blume Microfarms: https://www.facebook.com/blumemicrofarms/
• Cook and Connect: https://www.facebook.com/TeamCookandConnect/
• MyCycle: https://www.facebook.com/MyCycle-921767214525403/