- 18 hours ago
Tomorrow Today - Smart Farming
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
01:00We'll make tuna pasta with asparagus.
01:02Just add the diced green vegetable, tomatoes and a can of the vegan tuna, which is made from a range of ingredients.
01:12It's now a mixture of northern European seaweeds from Norway, Ireland and Sweden, while the fibrous texture comes from fava beans and peas.
01:23Then we add a little more vegetable and cereal fiber and vegetable extracts to round off the taste and give it that special texture you associate with canned tuna fish.
01:34Real tuna has big drawbacks.
01:41Stocks are overfished using brutal methods and it contains high levels of mercury.
01:47About 80% of the catch ends up in the can.
01:51The vegan imitation looks kind of like the real thing, but is it really any cleaner?
01:57The startup seaweed only spends eight weeks in the water, but the whole time it also sucks up substances from the environment like a sponge.
02:05We select seaweed that has acceptable intake levels of heavy metals, but we also reduce those by blanching it, making it safe for consumption.
02:18There are certainly more ways to reduce this even further, which would allow us to eat more algae.
02:26But there's still a lot of research ahead. It'll be exciting.
02:32Just blanch the seaweed? So just drop it briefly in boiling water?
02:38Does that really get rid of heavy metals?
02:41It would be great if it were that easy, but I'm a bit skeptical.
02:45Anna Fricke is an algae specialist who conducts research for the Food for Future project at the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops.
02:55And she's developing a system that allows her to grow kelp free of any contamination from heavy metals.
03:04What's new, of course, is what we're doing here at the Institute.
03:07We no longer use seawater at all, but rather deep brine, saline groundwater.
03:13We're pioneers in the field in Germany.
03:15Anna Fricke cultivates her algae in naturally occurring salty groundwater,
03:23studying how it develops in what are called climate chambers in different light and temperature conditions.
03:30Our work is aimed at opening up seaweed cultivations for urban areas,
03:34so moving away from the coast and producing fresh, healthy algae biomass inland
03:39for use in food and other applications like cosmetics.
03:45After receiving assurance that the vegan tuna is safe to eat in small quantities,
03:50it's time for a taste test.
03:52What do people think?
04:01Mmm, tasty.
04:02Mmm, delicious.
04:05It tastes like a regular tuna.
04:08It smells and looks just like the meat we all know, and supposedly tastes the same too.
04:17Until now, only a handful of people, mostly researchers, have tried meat cultivated in a lab.
04:24But that could soon change.
04:26In the Netherlands, what's called a cellular farm is in planning.
04:30The goal is to produce meat on-site in bioreactors with donor cattle living happily ever after.
04:37Leon Mounen is a fourth-generation farmer.
04:44He's proud of his organic farm.
04:47But even though tradition is important to him, he set himself a very modern goal,
04:53culturing his own meat in a bioreactor as soon as he can, using cells from his cattle.
04:59He first heard about cultured meat over ten years ago, and the idea piqued his interest straight away.
05:12I was immediately fascinated by the possibility of producing meat without killing the cows.
05:20Though I also think that what we do is a very natural thing.
05:25We leave the animals in their natural environment.
05:27We let them graze, and they can do what they were born to do.
05:32And as a farmer, I also continue to do what I like to do.
05:41The idea of producing more meat with fewer cows,
05:45and without having to slaughter the animals, wouldn't leave him alone.
05:52During workshops on the topic, he got to know people at Respect Farms.
05:57It's a project working to become the world's first cellular farm of its kind,
06:03with the goal of proving that cultivated meat can also be produced on conventional farms.
06:12Leon Mounen's farm is serving as a model for what this futuristic farm could look like.
06:18One of the co-founders of Respect Farms is Florentina Zieglovski.
06:27She's currently involved in clarifying future prospects for farmers in a feasibility study that's being co-financed by the EU.
06:36The Swiss farmers' co-operative FENACO also supports the project.
06:40It warns that as the sector grows, it's important to ensure farmers do more than just deliver raw feedstocks.
06:47Instead, Zieglovski wants to offer them real alternatives to conventional meat production.
06:53I see the greatest opportunities in our own production.
07:02We're pursuing research in three different areas.
07:05The first is biopsies, so the biomass, the nutrient medium.
07:10And then there's the bioreactor, so our own production.
07:16And I especially see many opportunities in production for farmers to produce their own meat.
07:22Not just to donate cells or raw materials, but also to get involved in production themselves.
07:28The project is also supported by Dutch startup Mosa Meat, which made headlines in 2013 with the world's first hamburger made from lab-grown meat to be tasted on camera.
07:41That single patty cost around 325,000 euros to make.
07:46The price to produce one has since fallen to around 10 euros per burger.
07:51The company opened a new production facility in 2024.
07:55After years of research and millions of euros in investment, it's ready to hit the market with products.
08:04Mosa Meat's chief business officer, Tim van der Hooyt, is also here today.
08:08The company has been involved in the Respect Farms project as well.
08:13Cultivated meat is a whole new industry that's finding its feet at the moment.
08:20We have the opportunity to really design a new way of producing food.
08:24What does that value chain look like?
08:26And we're exploring different options.
08:28So for us, it's important to go to very large-scale production to bring down costs.
08:33But we're also doing this to create a more resilient food system.
08:38And in that sense, decentralized production could really be an important thing to explore.
08:45Cultivated meat from farms is still little more than a hopeful vision.
08:50Until now, only tiny quantities of it have been made in laboratories and super expensive bioreactors.
08:57How can it be turned into a business for a farm?
09:00But as we are scaling up, we are moving from a more pharma-type model to a more food model.
09:05So what we're doing at Moza Meat is developing, for example, machines that are more a closed system,
09:10so that they can also be used in other locations and that the requirements for the environment
09:15where it's being produced aren't as stringent as in some of the more clean lab environments.
09:25Respect Farms is currently working with partners to develop a pilot farm concept slated to be
09:31implemented as early as next year. That farm of the future could look like this,
09:37with the farmer monitoring the system from the control room.
09:42A kind of airlock will seal off the sterile production hall where cell propagation takes place.
09:50So hygiene will be important there, but the rest of the farm can be run as normal.
09:56This first pilot facility is for research only, though. Cultivating meat commercially is a more distant goal.
10:11Farmers can never be sure how their next harvest will turn out. Success or failure is at the mercy of the weather.
10:18Long dry spells can ruin crops and so can heavy rains. That's been true for thousands of years,
10:25but with climate change, extreme weather events are growing more frequent. How can we make grain more resilient?
10:36Odette Whedon usually likes things neat and tidy, just not when it comes to her wheat.
10:45What we see here are very different types of ears, and each ear is a different plant,
10:51an individual in its own right. It looks a bit wild and chaotic. Wild? Chaotic?
11:01That's what we want and what we mean. It makes sense.
11:06Quite a different setup than a normal wheat field. There, every single plant has exactly the same genetic
11:13makeup because they're identical clones of a particular high yield variety.
11:19That also means that every plant is equally resistant to certain diseases, or not.
11:26Now, due to global warming, plants are confronted with more pathogens, some of them new ones.
11:31If you consider that every plant in a variety is genetically identical, it means that no matter
11:39what the stress is, whether a disease or drought, then every plant can only react in the same way.
11:47In other words, if a new pathogen or disease appears and a plant is susceptible,
11:52then the whole field is susceptible, and then you see yields drop.
11:55Farmers are also increasingly having to deal with unpredictable weather. In Germany,
12:05they were hit particularly hard by the dry summers of 2018, 2019, and 2022. And in other years,
12:13those dry stretches have alternated with sudden, heavy rainfall. Odette Wieden is convinced that
12:22diversity on fields can help. Her research looks at how practical it is to plant genetically diverse
12:29wheat, also known as population wheat. On this plot, the plants aren't clones, but the offspring of
12:36carefully selected parents. They're all closely related and yet different. Does planting cereals in this
12:44way really bring added value? That's what the research aims to show. In a trial, 10 farms are growing the
12:52population wheat at different locations in Germany. One participant is Volker Mente in the state of Hesse.
13:00I was skeptical because with other varieties, you can read up on how to cultivate them,
13:05when they're ready to harvest, where they're vulnerable, and what you have to pay attention to.
13:09With population wheat, it's a bit of a black box.
13:14Mente and the other farmers grew population wheat from two different varieties. In between,
13:20they planted a variety with known characteristics, among them a stable average yield and good baking
13:27properties. Organic baker Christian Lecht is passionate about bread. He's developed his own
13:34recipe for each type because every flour is different. He gets input on the process from the mill that grinds
13:42the grain. They tell you how wet the gluten is, for example, an important parameter, so how much
13:51protein the flour has. That's very important for dough formation and crumb formation, especially when
13:57you're using wheat flour. Then the enzyme value is really important. It tells me how long I can ferment the
14:03dough. At our bakery, we want to let the dough rise for a very long time. And this enzyme value gives us an
14:10indication of how long we can leave it to create even more flavor.
14:16Great aroma, moist inside, and a super crust. Can the new flour from the test fields also perform this
14:24well? Christian Lecht's bakery and 13 others are going to put it to the test.
14:29But first, the grain has to grow to maturity while withstanding fungal diseases and other adversities.
14:36For two years, Odette Wiedon and her team keep a close eye on all 10 experimental plots.
14:43The results are convincing. The population wheat yields top out between 10 and 14 percent higher than
14:50those of the conventional variety, both on average and under a wide range of different conditions at individual
14:57locations. Apparently, the population wheat plants were able to make better use of available nutrients
15:04and also cope better with climatic conditions. And they thrived in comparison to the clones,
15:10even though the two test years were very different. One saw lots of precipitation, the other was very dry.
15:19Diversity won, hands down. The researchers were surprised by such a clear result.
15:26But how come? One possible reason, because with population wheat the plants are different heights,
15:32the length of their roots also differs. So they can access different resources,
15:39different water and nutrients. It's a very complex kind of collaboration that ensures deficiencies
15:46are compensated for, that enough water and enough nutrients are available to every plant.
15:52The plants' different heights also mean wind is better able to ventilate the field,
16:00helping prevent fungal disease. And because the wheat plants have many more defense mechanisms in
16:06general, diseases are stopped before they spread widely. Farmer Volker Mente definitely approves.
16:14The population wheat on his field adapted flexibly in the face of adversity.
16:20Any concerns we had beforehand weren't confirmed. On the contrary,
16:24there was no noticeable difference in terms of harvest and yield.
16:28And what about the taste? Christian Lecht has made two types of bread for the trial. The first is
16:38particularly aromatic and stays fresh for a long time. A quarter of the flour in it is from population
16:46wheat. One he calls pop crust is made completely from the wheat, refined with black cumin and walnuts. The
16:54long fermentation that he views as critical worked well. The dough matured for 24 hours.
17:03Throughout the process of making this bread, I was surprised repeatedly. It felt really special when
17:09I was kneading it. Then also in the baking process itself, it was really stable. At first I thought it
17:17was going to be really flat. But then in the oven it rose tremendously. And afterwards it also had a nice crust.
17:24It has a super long shelf life and its aroma is excellent. Somehow the flour seems to be more than
17:31just the sum of its traits. I always compare wheat populations with the human population. We as humans are
17:40also very diverse. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. And we can compensate for each other.
17:48When one person isn't doing well, another is doing better. There's a balance. And that's exactly how it
17:54is in the fields. There are different individuals. When weaker individuals can't do something, stronger ones
18:01can compensate. And we'll need resilient wheat to make agriculture fit for the challenges looming in the future.
18:20Could livestock also help make farming more fit for the future? Researchers in Bavaria are testing whether
18:28grazing sheep on fields used to grow crops, helps or harms yields. If it helps it would be great news for
18:36farmers, shepherds and sheep. It's been raining for days. Even so, shepherd Alex Smitana and his boss,
18:48Thomas Kroner, have to move the flock today. There's just not enough grazing left in this pasture. So they
18:59need to be driven to a new one. This time they're being transported by truck.
19:08Driving paths are now rare and along main roads or through industrial zones. And if there's nowhere to
19:14take a break, it's a pain. It takes six hours to load the sheep in the pouring rain. The work is
19:27backbreaking and often paid just minimum wage. The first 250 sheep set out on the journey. The next
19:35pasture is 25 kilometers away. Sheep can help renew the pastures they graze on and also provide wool,
19:47meat and milk. Yet for most people, they've declined in importance. Bavaria has more sheep than any other
19:55German state. But sheep herding has changed dramatically over the past decades. Since the Second World War,
20:03agriculture in Germany has seen major structural changes. It used to be dominated by farms that
20:09combined growing crops and keeping livestock. But since the 1970s, EU agricultural policy incentives and
20:17rising wages led more and more farmers to specialize. Back in 1950, Bavaria had over 390,000 sheep.
20:27Today, there are only around 200,000. They're taken care of by only about 100 full-time shepherds. To be profitable,
20:39flocks now have to be a lot larger. And then there's climate change, which in places has caused soil to dry out
20:49and pasture quality to decline.
20:55Weather, climate, and the challenge of caring for animals under changing conditions.
21:01Many shepherds are growing increasingly concerned.
21:07On his land, Markus Schenk also grows grain and other crops. He's one of eight shepherds who've been
21:14taking part in a special project for the last couple of years. Researchers from Bavaria and the nearby
21:21state of Saxony-Anhalt want to find out how grazing sheep on cropland affects the soil, the crops, and the
21:28animals. Today, he's getting a visit from Maria Hoffmann, who works at the Bavarian State Institute for
21:34agriculture. I want to quickly show you how the grazing record works. Today, we want to record
21:42how long grazing goes on. I'll add the date first, then from when to when the sheep are on the field,
21:48and what they're grazing on. Here we've got spelt. Maybe also note what they eat before and after,
21:54so we can draw conclusions later during analysis. Grazing croplands is a very old practice. It used to
22:02be standard. But with the intensification of agriculture in recent decades, livestock and
22:08crop farming have drifted apart. So cropland grazing has largely been forgotten.
22:15Within the framework of the research project, Markus Schenk's sheep are allowed onto his spelt field
22:21in spring. He's divided it into three equal-sized plots. The reference plot on the right side of the
22:30image is off-limits. On the left-hand plot, they only graze briefly. This represents a less intensive
22:38grazing environment. On the middle plot, the animals are allowed to graze more intensively over a longer
22:49period of time. Usually, we graze the fields once or twice during the winter months. But that really
22:58depends on the weather, soil conditions and how we rotate the flock. We're not always at the right
23:05field at the right time. That's definitely a bit of a challenge. Not all farmers are convinced it's a good
23:14idea to graze sheep on land used to grow crops. Some farmers worry the sheep might damage their fields.
23:23But we want to show that the opposite can be true. That the animals can actually improve soil
23:29health and plant well-being. For example, by nibbling on young grain plants, they might stimulate growth.
23:35Four weeks later, Maria Hoffmann checks to see how the crop is developing. In all three spelt plots,
23:47she regularly examines both the plants and the soil throughout the year.
23:54The field has developed well despite some extreme conditions. We had hail and a sudden frost.
24:00But even so, we've got a dense crop. You can see it clearly. The ground is totally covered. Now we just
24:08have to monitor how the plants continue to grow. She also measures how much moisture is in the soil.
24:19Our measurements already show that the grazed plot consistently has higher soil moisture.
24:24That's quite striking. Hoffmann also uses a method called soil profiling to find out whether the
24:32sheep's hooves compact the soil and how that affects life forms that live in it.
24:39You do have to press to break up these clumps, but you can still see active worms. The top 10
24:46centimeters are compacted, but we still have crumbly clumps. On one square meter, the agricultural
24:55scientist also documents how well the spelt plants grow, all the way to harvest. We record the coverage
25:04ratio. That's the proportion of weeds to crop plants. We also assess hoof damage. The plants have
25:11recovered and ultimately will see at harvest what kinds of yields we get. Even if cropland grazing proves
25:20beneficial, it doesn't mean every farmer has to start keeping animals again. Farmers and shepherds could
25:26also chalk up a win-win situation simply by working together more closely. In it, shepherds would have
25:34access to more grazing land and farmers would see better harvests. A move that could benefit both and help
25:41make agriculture more sustainable.
25:50And that's all for now. But we hope you'll join us again next time for more exciting stories from the
25:56worlds of science and technology here on Tomorrow Today. Bye for now.
Be the first to comment