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Affordable, Scalable, Overlooked: Evaporative Cooling Can Fight Food Loss – Why isn’t the Development Sector Embracing It?
Food loss due to lack of effective storage is a global problem: In sub-Saharan Africa alone, approximately 23 percent of available food is lost or wasted. There’s increasing interest in an innovative yet old-school solution to the problem: evaporative cooling. But though the technology can be adopted with minimal training, low up-front costs and no electricity, it is not widely used. MIT D-Lab research engineer Eric Verploegen explores five ways to increase the effective production, dissemination and usage of this technology.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Technology
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Low Tech, High Impact: An Affordable, Hand-Powered Innovation Aims to Boost Food Production in Africa
For many global development players, high-tech innovations are the go-to solution for challenges in emerging markets. But according to Taylor Quinn of JUST, Inc., low-tech approaches can be even smarter. He discusses the promising potential of locally made and hand-powered machines in emerging economy value chains, and explores how JUST is using one such device to improve food security, increase access to quality nutrition and promote entrepreneurship in Liberia.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
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IBM’s Microfinance Blockchain in Kenya Tests the Viability of Hyperledger
IBM is back supporting a microfinance project using a Hyperledger blockchain to help administer small loans at low interest to food sellers in Kenya.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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After Years Of Violence, Chef Offers Colombian Farmers Pride And Profit
A Colombian chef turned social entrepreneur, Leonor Espinosa has made it her mission to revive traditional agriculture, ancestral foodways and culinary know-how among rural, mainly indigenous and Afro-Colombian people.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Latin America
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McDonald’s Philippines goes cashless with PayMaya
Over 40 McDonald’s restaurants nationwide have started accepting card payments for all types of Mastercard and Visa credit, debit, and prepaid cards, through a collaboration with PayMaya Philippines.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Rethinking Food Security By Re-inventing the Cold Storage Chain
In developing countries, 40 percent of food losses occur after harvest and early on in the supply chain, leading to more than 250 million tons of food waste annually — mostly because of inadequate refrigeration and unreliable and expensive energy supply. Paula Rodriguez at InspiraFarms discusses the problem – and the company's innovative solution.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Developing countries will get sick before they get rich
Residents of developing nation cities are increasingly susceptible to obesity, particularly amid the mega-trends of urbanization, globalization, and industrialization of food supply. According to India’s National Institute of Nutrition, over a quarter of urban-dwelling men and nearly half of women are overweight.
- Categories
- Health Care
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