Slow Steps Through a Minefield

Chilis on Wheels New York, is part of a coalition of mostly vegan and Black, Indigenous, and Latinx-founded and led organizations that partner with the Office of Food and Nutritional Services to expand plant-based offerings in the city’s schools. The group works to implement practices like “Vegan Fridays,” where the school meal of the day is plant-based, a practice that is picking up speed across the U.S.

Companies like Good Karma allow people with autism to use apps to communicate through pictures and icons. Yet, the apps require users to do a lot of complicated movements, some of who may not have that mobility. However, brain interference technology, could be the answer. Through the technology “a mere thought can get a computer to speak a word or phrase .”

The intensive, alert care low weight infants need is often complicated by overstressed parents and overstretched hospital workers. A bracelet that monitors an infants temperature--and gives an alert when the temperature falls to unsafe levels--provides valuable support to ensuring the safety of these vulnerable young lives.

Para continuar con sus tareas y, entre ellas, la atención al público durante la pandemia, varios gobiernos locales en Argentina desarollaron chatbots, líneas 0800, aplicaciones y redes sociales como canales para los trámites que antes se hacían de modo presencial. En una localidad, hubo más de 20.000 descargas de la aplicación del Gobierno en teléfonos móviles y más de 23.000 reclamos realizados a través de ella.

Coastal Shellfish, an Indigenous aquaculture company in British Columbia, is focusing on sustainable food and food security through its product Great Bear Scallops. This is the first project funded by the Costal Funds trust set up by donors, governments, and First Nations to support sustainable Indigenous-led businesses. The company has been selling scallops to several local businesses like restaurants and breweries.

The Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture has helped the town of Ajo in Arizona distribute affordable and nutrient-dense food to the community after the coronavirus pandemic created a significant financial strain on many families. Additional support has come from the town's participation in the Environmental Protection Agency's program Local Food, Local Places which "provides technical support and expertise to help towns leverage food systems to boost economic development."

At the Fujitsu factory in Japan, a significant decline in demand for semiconductor computer chips meant the company had large empty factory space sitting unused. A new business approach allowed them to dually address both the need to evolve their business model with a global decline of viable agricultural space needed to grow the world's food. Now, the factory houses indoor vegetable gardens, soil free and less resource-heavy than traditional farmland.

"Farm to table" is a well-known saying in the food industry, but "lab to table" is also rapidly joining the rank of commonplace terminology. To both reduce the amount of animals killed and lessen the impact on the environment to raise livestock, researchers have found a way to manufacture cell-based meat that is created in a lab, yet still has the texture of meat.

The Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Program and Nutrition Rehabilitation Home in Kathmandu provide resources to children experiencing, or at risk for, malnutrition, which has long been a life-threatening issue in Nepal.

During the pandemic, indigenous communities received massive federal funding through the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, and the Relief and Economic Security Act for a number of needs, like infrastructure and tribal housing improvements. Many indigenous entities received smaller funds too. But COVID exacerbated several long-pending and neglected issues, local officials and tribal members say, and the funding does not sufficiently address them in the longterm.