Technology Magazine February 2020 | Page 66

SMART CITIES
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“ ( VERTICAL FARMING ) USES 95 % LESS WATER THAN TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURE , ALL WHILE REMAINING 100-PLUS TIMES MORE PRODUCTIVE ON THE SAME FOOTPRINT ”

Irving Fain , CEO and Co-Founder , Bowery Farming indigestible fats and sugars . “ Diets are changing with rising incomes and urbanisation – people are consuming more animal-source foods , sugar , fats and oils , refined grains , and processed foods . This ‘ nutrition transition ’ is causing increases in overweight and obesity and diet-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease ,” noted a report on Changing diets : Urbanization and the nutrition transition by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute .
In the UK , despite all the advances of modern medicine , life expectancy for lower-middle class and working class males is – when adjusted for infant mortality – three years lower than it was in the mid-Victorian era . “ The implications of a better understanding of mid-Victorian health are profound . It becomes clear that , with the exception of family planning , the vast edifice of post-1948 healthcare has not so much enabled us to live longer but has merely supplied methods of controlling the symptoms of non-communicable degenerative diseases , which have become prevalent due to our failure to maintain mid-Victorian nutritional standards ,” write Dr Paul Clayton , a
FEBRUARY 2020