Innovations 2008 
by Ellen Gooch

From the world-saving to the merely useful with the truly strange thrown in for good measure, here are Trofima kai Pota's picks for the innovations of 2008.

 Vertical Farms

Within 40 years, nearly 80 percent of the earth's population will reside in cities.  In this same time frame, humanity will increase its ranks by an estimated 3 billion people. To feed the human race, an additional 10,000,000,000 acres of land will be needed.  Considering that almost 80% of arable land is already in use, finding those extra acres is going to be difficult.

Luckily, Dr. Dickson Despommier of the department of Environmental Health Science at Columbia University has a solution: build up - way up.  Along with several other scientists and architects, Dr. Despommier has devised the Vertical Farm Project.  One proposal from this group is called SKYFarm.  Developed by architect Gordon Graff for the city of Toronto, it will be a 58 floor skyscraper that will offer 8 million square feet of growing space, enough to feed an estimated 35,000 people each year.

As spectacular as such a tower would be, Dr. Despommier tells me that size doesn't matter: adding a few stories to existing buildings in the urban landscape would work just as well. 

"All the technology necessary to create vertical farms now exists.  You can take this technology and apply it to the superstructure; you don't have to make it tall if you can distribute enough of them through out the urban setting - on top of schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, etc."   Referring to the work of environmentalist and artist, Majora Carter, whose work reclaiming areas of urban blight in New York's South Bronx has won her many awards, Dr. Despommier points out that such farms would do much to reduce urban decay.

Hydroponic technology has been around for ages.  Sir Francis Bacon published a book on the subject of growing terrestrial plants without soil in 1627.  Since then, many improvements have been made, especially by NASA, which developed (without genetic engineering) plants adapted to the indoors.  These include dwarf versions of wheat, corn and rice.  Why develop these, you may ask?  Astronauts cannot live on freeze-dried food alone - if people ever populate Mars, they are going to have to grow their own food.

Vertical farms take this hydroponic technology and stack it, with each floor dedicated to a single crop.  This allows the grower to create ideal conditions for each plant.  Ideal, by the way, does not mean perfect.  The biggest problem with hydroponic crops is their lack of flavor.  

"Pressure produces taste," says Dr. Despommier, "you need to stress the plant." When a plant is scared, it throws all its energy into seed production as a method of survival.  This produces flavonoids and flavonoids are what make a plant taste good.  One company, Eurofresh, produces what are considered some of the tastiest tomatoes in the US.  They grow them in 35 acres worth of greenhouses in the Arizona desert.

While the technology is there, Dr. Despommier says that research is still needed to define the best conditions in any given environment for any given crop.  Government funding may be needed, as well as partnerships with leading agricultural universities, such as the Agricultural University of Athens.  He will be speaking in Athens this spring; Trofima kai Pota will keep you updated as to where you can hear him.

Super Fruits
Ever hear of Mangosteen, a high-antioxidant fruit from Southeast Asia? Somewhat sweet and a tad tangy, mangosteen will be coming soon to a juice near you, along with goji berries, acai and more pomegranate. And if you haven't heard of those, you probably haven't heard of yumberries either.  Yumberries (the new name for yang-mei fruit) have been grown in China for thousands of years, but were only exported this year. They look a little bit like a raspberry, but taste like a combination of cranberry and pomegranate juice. What makes these fruits "super" is their high nutritional value and their antioxidant qualities.  And their wacky names.

No More Stickers
Is there anything more annoying than adhesive labels on fruit?  Grower, packers and retailers are taxed with sticking them on products like apples or tomatoes (with a goodly percentage falling off before they reach market).  Consumers have to peel them off; hopefully they make it to the trash can before adhering to, say, the kitchen counter or Fido's nose.
Solution: the Fruit Tattoo.  Developed by a former University of Florida research scientist and marketed by Georgia-based Durand-Wayland, the so-called Natural Light Labeling System uses a concentrated beam of light to etch a logo, price, lot, batch number - anything you want - onto the fruit.  It works by removing the pigment from the outer layer of skin, revealing a contrasting color underneath. The fruit is undamaged, the label is edible and you never have to deal with adhesive labels again.  

Inventive Ad Campaigns     
Welch's has launched a new lickable ad campaign for their grape juice.  Similar to perfume ads, that allow you to pull back a tab to reveal a fragrance, Welch's has launched tabs in an edition of People magazine in the form of a one page print ad that let the customers peel to taste. 
And advertising firm Leo Burnett won a Gold medal at this year's New York Festival Innovative Advertising Awards for their growing outdoor billboard.  Erected to promote McDonald's health conscious menu, the billboard was planted with green lettuce and spelled the words "Fresh Salad."

Customizable Food
For those that know what they want, the era of fully customizable food has arrived.  Here are just a few of the options now on offer:

Ipifini has designed Programmable Liquid Containers.  These provide small capsules that allow you to release flavor, color, fragrance or extra doses of caffeine.  
In the US, Domino's Pizza recently created an online "pizza builder" and guarantees that your "personalized" pizza will arrive in just half an hour.
If you are like the Germans and love muesli (a mix of cereals, nuts and dried fruit) than MyMuesili.com is for you.  The company allows you to customize your own mix of ingredients, choosing for a selection of over 70 possibilities.  All ingredients are sugar-free and organic.
In a similar vein is the YouBar Build-A-Bar that  lets you customize a granola bar to your taste, You get to choose the base (which can be crunchy, salted, organic or raw), sweeteners (honey, agave nectar, Splenda, stevia, organic brown rice syrup, molasses), fruits, berries, grains, nuts and on and on.  All are made by hand.
Finally, now you can customize your own M&Ms.  The regular "m" logo is removed and your mark is added in its stead. There are 21 colors to choose from, to suit all but the most bizarre logos.

Cool Coffee Cups
Some like their coffee to go.  Some like to drink their coffee at a cafe.  For both types, Laurent Corio has designed the ultimate cup featuring two modes:  "En terrasse" and "To Go". in the "En terrasse" mode it is a traditional coffee cup or you can use the saucer as the cap for the cup and have it "To Go".

Better Water
One of the winners of the Dupont 2008 Package Awards -- Lindoya Vida, Klabin of Brazil - invented an energy-saving alternative approach to bottle systems that improves access to clean drinking water.  Called the Water Bag-in-Box the design provides an alternative to bottle systems that can cost 40 percent more per liter to produce and which are a large component of landfill.  The materials are responsibly-sourced and the outer packaging, made from corrugated cardboard, is 100 percent recyclable. Plus the lightweight inner liner can be recycled into other plastic components and is suitable for energy recovery.

Bizarre Burger
A group of Iranian inventors have come up with a new idea for frequent drivers, especially those that don't have time to cook dinner. Noting how much heat is generated by a car, they created the Exhaust Burger concept.  It sounds gross, but the mechanism actually protects the meat from most of the fumes.  And, hey, clean-up is easy.

Even More Bizarre Burger
Swiss-based company Katadyn has launched the World's first cheese burger in a can.  Easy to prepare, simply heat the can in a water bath, open the lid, and eat.  Also on offer is dehydrated red wine which - when reconstituted - has a alcoholic content of 9.27%.   No word on available vintages..