Friday, November 15, 2013

15/11/13: Australian farmers: from agriculture to aquaculture; new packaging 'nose' how fresh your fish is; ocean acidification

As Australias's agribusiness sector fights against ever-increasing global competition, Agricultural body AgriFood Skills has suggested that the country's farmers could benefit from the financially rewarding opportunites created by aquaculture. 

Speaking about the potential of aquaculture, Arthur Blewitt, CEO, AgriFood Skills said "[the] diverse skills learnt in farming, from the patience and determination necessary to go out every day to feed farm animals or irrigate crops, to the nurturing qualities required to take young farm animals all the way through to market – or seeds through to crops that can be harvested – are the very same skills needed to take on fish farming."
Full article available here.

Jenneke Heising, a PhD student at the Food quality and Design Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands is currently working on a novel project to determine the freshness of supermarket fish.

Supermarkets face substantial challenges when it comes to fresh fish. Variables such as water temperature, the type of food a fish has eaten and even the sex of the fish can determine the speed at which the meat decays.

Heising's new intelligent packaging features a built-in 'nose' that tells your smartphone how fresh the fish is, before you buy it.

Fish is a complicated product for supermarkets. Few foodstuffs are as variable as fish. Even the catch from a single fishing boat can contain fish with very different shelf lives. Water temperature, the sex of the fish and the type of food a fish has recently eaten can all influence the speed at which the meat decays.
Full story available here.

According to a recent report by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) the world's oceans are becoming increasingly acidic. 

Scientists anticipate that acidification is likely to increase by 170% by 2100, adding that some 30% of ocean species are unlikely to survive in these conditions.

It is also estimated that by 2020, 10% of the Arctic will be inhospitable to species that build their shells from calcium carbonate. By 2100 the entire Arctic will be a hostile environment.
Read the full BBC report here.


Fish on ice, supermarket, Spain.
Fish on ice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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