Food For Thought Notes PDF

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These are all the notes for the course Food For Thought taught at the University of Delaware by Dr. Kali Kniel...

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Food For Thought- 2/6/17 **Need i-clicker -

4 written assignments, syllabus quiz at the end of next week There is a lot of pseudoscience about food be critical about them We are a huge growing population, & growing at a faster rate than we used to  We must increase food production by 70% to meet global demands by the year 2050

Pulses: dried peas in the legume family that are highly nutritious -

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We waste about 1/3 of our food…includes the food we throw out, the soil we used, the transportation involved, etc. People want a clean label meaning we can read and understand all the words on it… meaning it must be written at a lower reading level…can be deceitful because stuff gets “dumbed down” or omitted Guacamole company uses extreme pressure to eliminate microorganisms and make it so the guac cannot get brown

2/13/17 Food trends & Influencers Grand challenge: feeding 9 billion by 2050  70% more food -

Our numbers of farms are going down because people are not passing on that job or choosing it as a career “pulses” – lentils, seeds, beans, rice  are a good way to provide nutrients in an ecofriendly way In Delaware, 1 in 8 People struggles with hungry Food insecurity: struggling to find affordable fruits/veggies, whole grains, low fat milk, and other healthy foods -We have “food desserts” or “food oasis”  when there just is not enough access to healthful food…where there are few grocers selling fresh produce, but tons of fast food places and convenience stores selling salty snacks

Solutions: -

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We are turning to more community gardens, young kids learning how to grow fruits an veggies o Difficulty: you can hand out fruits and veggies but lots of people don’t know how to cook it Cooking classes Nutritional education

There is a food education system called Food Navigator -

Shows that US doesn’t rank too well in terms of food insecurity, but is fair in terms of food waste

Think about our food supply -

Where do you shop for food? Where does the food come from? Where does the money go?

Overall, in an average American Income, only a small portion of the money goes towards food Food Trends or Food Fads? -

Staying on-trend requires an understanding of consumers, culture, and the economy Taste in America is always changing  Omnivorous and open-minded  An “anything-goes” food culture  Products are driven by consumer demand

-Food trends represent the evolving needs of people around eating including… - economic, health, social, political - living and value trends may emerge - local foods, substantial agriculture, healthful living - Food trend analysts and “translators” compile market research, develop tours for companies, product development - Aggregate data and “make sense of the chaos” There is science involved  You have to have good innovation, have consumer insights, have a good culinary team, and have good commercialization -

Having something get commercialized is really when it becomes a trend Examples: kronut  fad, siracha trend

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Superficial manifestations of trends Example: paleo diet 1975 ,abundance of raw protein

Fad

Trend -

Slower paced evolutions with deep cultural roots Example: Greek Yogurt has showed astronomical growth  High protein for health and culture probiotics

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First in greek grocery stores in NY Taken up by Trader Hoes Tart flavors picked up by yogurt infiltrated from Korea across the US Now everywhere Example: chobani is a huge company

Birth of a Trend -

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4 stages  2 different ways it can be born o Courier birth  A trend follows another trend or is spawned from a different industry o Fusion Births  Multiple influencing factors 1. Chaos 2. Blips  more people getting interested 3. Shadows other companies picking up the idea 4. Trends  becomes mainstream

Learning about a trend? -

Stage 1: An ingredient/dish/cuisine debuts in a fine-dining restaurant or regional ethnic eatery Stage 2: Reading about it in a gourmet magazine Stage 3: On slides

Valentines Day Stuff -

Red velvet: roots in the 1930’s…appeared as a chocolate cake that was kindof burgundy colored because they were putting vinegar in it In 2009, it was apart of 1.5% of all items on menus. By 2013, it was in 4.1% of items

Mainstream Large Food Companies move slowly -

Trend development happens quickly in niche markets and at “mom and pop” shops Winter fancy Food show o Highlights specialty type foods  Maple water, mushroom teas, pulses/hemp, seaweed, specialty snacks

Key Trends that Continue -

Foods being “free from….” Example: sugar free, fat free Meeting millennial demands Health and challenges of the clean label

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Rise of the clean label The clean label and sustainability Nutrition and low milk prices Protein and transfat removal Meeting flexitarian needs Use of Dietary fibers and natural origin Vegetarian ingredient solutions

Weird trend: baconmania

Why baconfest? -

Cured meats has a huge history in the US It is a big money maker Pork belly prices low and stead, lean meat trensds 1990s “pork the other white meat” Cooking issues resolved by pre-cooked bacon! In 6 years we had an increase in bacon products by over 26% o Now we’re getting a shortage Smaller industries = “cottage industry”

Wednesday No Class 2/17/17 **Exams are not cumulative Today: Biotechnology and GMO’s Arctic Apples: apples that won’t brown because they’ve changed the gene for polyphenyloxidase New Food dating: “used by” and “best if used by” over the next couple of years, the current dating names for foods will be changing GMOs: organisms where genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination. The technology is often called “modern biotechnology”/ “gene technology”/ or “genetic engineering” It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also btwn nonrelated species

The bottom line is that these things are produced for an ADVANTAGE.

Seedless watermelons: A naturally occurring phenomenon that plant breeders took advantage of….it is something that came about and marketors started growing watermelons like that….it is not a GMO…they are bred like that There is a bit of controversial science : climate change

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We can see definite changes on how much food we can produce on the land that we have: going down in southern US, Australia, Africa

When crops are being planted, there is a lot of movement of soil..we want to reduce that because it affects the global climate…we want to enhance biodiversity of the soil You could argue that spraying a crop with an insecticide or an herbicide so that weeds won’t grow, rather than having to go in with your tractor and stir up the soil  is a sustainable practice

-Biotechnology can be a tool used to grow crops today, including growth of crops with healthful human traits and herbicide resistance. These traits can result in increased yield as well  TRUE

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Due to lack of land availability, it is essential to grow crops efficiently. Corn is a good example of crop growth utilizing technology and emphasizing wise land use over time  TRUE

1 Bushel = 56 pounds EXAMPLE: CHANGES IN CORN PRODUCTION 1890: 35-40 Labor hours requiresd to produce 100 bushels of corn 1987: 2 ¾ hours required to produce 100 bushels of corn 2016 national average is 168 bushels per acre What is Biotechnology? “Bio” means life “Techno” means tools “Ology” means the use or study of

Selective Breeding -

Farmers have been creating new plants and animals by modifying genetic structures since the beginning of agriculture, even if they didn’t know it - New colors plants, drought tolerance…is due to selective breeding

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We can cross breed! It wasn’t until 1865 that Gregor Mendel first suggested the nature of genes and their function in the development of an organism, but since as early as the 1500’s, farmers have been swapping DNA through a process called Cross Breeding If you wanted to make a new type of peach….why would it be a terrible idea of putting a peanut gene in it?  Allergies! “no evidence of harm” how do you prove that? You can show scientifically that GM corn is the same of non GM corn…but how do you show it doesn’t do any harm? You can’t

Biotechnology is a highly regulated aspect of Science -

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FDA o Evaluation of safety of food and feed o Substantial equivalence  we have to show that it is equivalent to the food that wasn’t GM USDA o A branch of USDA called APHIS that does field trials…testing these crops extensively for many years before they make it to a human market EPA  environ mental protection agency o Look at the safety of pesticide levels and use of herbicides -There are about 165 or more consultations covering 19 different species… thinking about what crops can go out to a markey The first GM crops were planted in 1995 and statistics have been collected since 1996 Approx 10% of the worlds agricultural fields are now planted with GM crops Risk Assesment o How can you asses the risk if you are looking for something that Is equivalent?  Look at parent crop, the donor genes, the safety of final product, characterization of the genes

Benefits Today: -

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There are benefits in corn where they are protected from mold, also protects them from insects o Mold can create a mico toxin that can cause cancer There are enzymes that produce low-lactose milk more efficiently

Products Being Developed To: -

Protect rice and sugar cane from insects Produce a potato with reduced acrylamide levels o If you fry a potato at too high of a temperature Remove allergenic proteins (e.g. peanuts, soy)

CRISPR/CAS9 Technology for Gene Editing 2/20/17

There are about 9,000,000 dairy cows in the US  

50% of cows are on farms with 500 cows or less o Smaller farms are called “family farms” 50% of cows are on farms with more than 500 cows o Larger farms are called “factory farms”

1980  350,000 dairy farms  avg. 75 cows per farm  family could support themselves on 75 cows

2014 45,000 dairy farms  avg. 204 cows per farm  farms have had to expand to stay in business The “typical” US dairy farm -

Most dairy farm owners come from a family with a history of dairying Owners expand to stay in business More than 90% of dairy farms, even large ones, are owned by a family

The Average US Dairy Cow -

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Produce 22,000lbs (2,560 gallons) of milk per year o To do this, they need to eat about 40,000lbs of feed per year o Over 50% of the feed is grown on the farm  silage, hay, etc. o The feed is typically wet = doesn’t make sense to ship wet feed Produce 55,000lbs of manure per year o Most is stores until application on crop land o Manure manages to minimize environmental losses o There are regulations on when you can fertilize with the manure liquid and how you store it so it doesn’t runoff or contaminate rivers/bodies of water Most dairy farmers job is finished with the milk o They collect the milk  sell it to cooperatives  Cooperatives have gotten bigger  UD sells their milk to Hi-Point Dairy  A lot of times, a cooperative just stores the milk then sells it to a processor  Is just the middle man  Retailer: buys the products from processors and sell them to consumers  Ex. Walmart, Acme, Costco What is Rbst o This is a peptide (short protein) hormone o Made from recombinant bacteria  This is where the “r” comes form

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o rbST= recombinant bovine somatotrophin Bacterial recombinant Proteins o Concept  You have a cow cell, inside of that cow cell is DNA  You have a bacteria cell  keeps its DNA in plasma  The DNA is extracted from the cow and bacteria cells  Isolate the somatotrophin cell o Put it in the bacteria plasma o THEN put the plasma back into the bacteria o The bacteria then grows and divides ad makes Bst o Then you can harvest the bst and take it and inject it into a cow o Injected into cows ever 14 days  injected, not consumed  This makes the cows produce more milk  It shifts their metabolism  More feed nutrients are directed to mammary glands  Milk production per mammary cell increases  Increases milk production 5-10%  Dairy cows naturally produce more somatotrophin than beef cows o Remember, average cow = 22,000lbs of milk o Now, Average cow treated with rbST = 24,000lbs (2,790) gallons of milk per year o Think about this on a herd level/production level  The herd treated with rbst= will be more efficient, they will also eat less and poop less Scenario: Producing 50,000 gallons of milk per year o Need 21 cows NOT treated with rbST eat 840,000lbs feed o Need 19 cows TREATED with rbST eat 790,000lbs feed That’s why rbST was created…it’s economically viable It was produced for the first time in 1980 and was followed by extensive testing The reason the FDA approved it for use: no negative health impact on cows There is no such thing as hormone free milk there is naturally somatotrophin in their milk bST in milk is destroyed by pasteurization bST in unpasteurized milk is broken down (digested) in digestive tract just like all other proteins we eat Even if injected in humans, bST is inactive because the hST receptor does not bind bST Farmers gave it a try  they’re usually slow to change o In a 6 year span , it went from not being on the market, to being used in over 50% of dairies o How has the use of rbST changed btwn 2000 & 2017?  It has gone down…why?  Consumer stigma reguarding it

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In 1997, this clever company decided that they weren’t going to use it on their cows so they labeled that their products were not coming from cows treating with rbST  Was it a marketing strategy?  Was it really their ethical views? o Consumers are led to believe that there are documented negative effects of rbST on human health which is not true Environmental impact of rbST-free is not appropriately marketed o Example of advertisement campaigns  “going green” by using only milk from cows not treated with rbST in its store brand milk  “New eco-friendly container”…”Not from cows treated with rbST”

2/22/17 Food Biotech Labeling **buy clicker* Homework assignment on food waste 1st exam Monday the 6th Short reading on Canvas + 15 minute podcast #5 It’s important for anything nutritional to be labeled appropriately Special labeling is required only to disclose a material change, such as:   

Allergens present in food Increased levels of naturally occurring toxins Changes to nutrient composition or profile

Last summer the senate passed a GM food labeling bill that would create a national standard for labeling food made with genetically modified organisms. A GMO label will sometimes say “ partially produced with genetic engineering” Before this came about, there was the USDA seal of Organic…this seal means you cannot have any products that aren’t organic TO be released February/March 2017: -

Non browning aples Keep their original color longer, stay crisp longer They were able to insert a short sequence of DNA that turned into RNA that silenced the gene in the fruit that would start the browning process It is meant to be very useful…may help eliminate food waste, may increase shelf life of apples

Currently in development: potatoes, tomatoes

One thing that has come out is when we first started thinking about corn an soybean, a big part of them is the seed. When you choose to purchase or grow Monsanto  farmer wanted to be able to use the seeds he was collecting & he figured he was allowed and the company said no USDA put in a “terminator technology” that would stop the seed so it couldn’t be replicated to minimize any negative impacts they might have because they were still relatively new There are “designer fruits” popping up in grocery stores  red prince apple, cotton candy grapes, witch fingers Biotech can be used to help enhance sustainability -

Sustainability in agriculture is about meeting todays needs in a manner that ensures we can continue to meet those needs tomorrow, as well as, or better than today

Important tools for protectinv crops -

Responsive use of biotech seeds *listen to ud capture here* Responsible use of crop protection products Integrated weed and pest management practices

Several crop species have been engineered to produce their own insecticide, Bt- toxin, making them resistant to certain insects -

Bt = a soil bacteria that forms spores and these spores are a special way that the bacteria can fade away but still be present The toxin doesn’t kill the insect immediately BT spores do not spread to other insects or cause disease outbreaks on their own Larva eats bt (you could spray bt on organic corn, or have it engineered for corn to prodce it in the leaf)  toxin binds to a receptor in the midgut and starts acting on the insect, the crystals casue the gut wall to break down, allowing spores and normal gut bacteria to enter the body, the insect dies as spores spread

BT has been used for years in organic agriculture -

Herbicide resistance o Several crop varieties have been engineered to be resistant to the application of herbicide simplifying weed management  You can spray herbicide to kill the weeds  Pros: don’t have to use a broad base herbicide

1 thing that has been a great success is the papaya. All papayas are made/ grown using bio technology

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Ringspot virus  present in Hawaii where we get a lot of our papayas The plant was now engineered to make a virus protein on its skin so the virus is not able to infect it

Commercial varieties of 3 crop species have been genetically engineered to be resistant to plant viral diseases: squash, papaya, and potato -

Glyphosate: 16 times less toxic than older herbicides Newer biotech varieties addressing weed resistance

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Moldboard plowing: exposes soil to wind, erosion No-Till Farming: Plants seeds directly into residue of previous crop Crops thrive better with weed and insect control Less land, insecticides, fertilizers, fuel, animals, and feed needed to produce same amount of food

Sad story of biotechnology: golden rice was a great idea in the late 1990’s, it uses about 5 different genes to stop illnesses like blindness but it isn’t grown Foods from crops and animals raised using biotechnology o Sweet Corn, Papaya, Dairy Products, food ingredients like sweeteners, vegetable oils, corn starch, soy protein o More than 90% of all US Soybeans Basics of Organic Agriculture -

Whats the organic market like? o It has been growing since like early 2000’s o 2002 National organic program through the USDA

We are using cover crops, green manures, animal manures, and crop rotations to fertilize the soil, maximize biological activity and maintain long term soil health -

Use of biological control, crop rotations, and other techniques to manage weeds, insects and diseases An emphasis on biodiversity of the agricultural system and the surrounding environment Using rotational grazing and mixed forage pastures for livestock

USDA national organic standards board – April 1995 Implemented 2001/2002 Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system

What is allowed? sewage/sludge

- produced w/o pesticides, no bioengineering, no cloning animals, no