It’s easy to take food innovation for granted, but the fact remains that if you really want to change the world, the quickest way to do it is through food, a touchpoint that all humans share. Norman Borlaug didn’t broker any treaties or disarmament plans, yet he was still awarded the Nobel Peace Prize when he invented dwarf wheat, changing the way in which desolate areas could feed themselves. A population capable of feeding itself is far more docile and less combative than one struggling fighting for starvation. Thus, a guy who genetically modified wheat gets the Nobel Peace Prize.
Similarly, research tells us that while much of the world is starving, half the food we grow and produce is thrown away. So any innovation that can connect the starving people of the world to the food that more fortunate populations throw away due to rot would be a nothing short of revolutionary. And that’s what a Southern California start-up called Apeel Sciences is doing with their work. Using organic compounds such as banana peels, stems, and other undesirable, but edible, byproducts of harvesting, the company has developed a safe, imperceptible barrier around produce that can extend the food’s life by up to five times.
We’ve tackled the waste that’s created by big box stores before, but a shelf life extended by 500% wouldn’t just serve the local community – it could buy enough time for otherwise food to reach the far corners of the Earth.
Says James Rogers, the founder of Apeel:
“It takes 30 days to get blueberries grown in Chile to market in the United States, which means they have to be picked before they’re ripe and shipped under heavy refrigeration. We can change that.”
The technology is currently (and successfully) being used to extend the edible life of cassava among African populations.
Here’s a time-lapse video that shows the compelling proposition of a product like the one Apeel is developing:
Speaking to the Apeel founder’s comment above, not only could this technology ensure that people in third-world nations can get edible food sent from further away than ever before, but more privileged nations can also get their imported produce fresher, riper, and untouched by preservatives that are used to make imported food affordable.
The coatings themselves are sold under the names Edipeel and Invisipeel, made of plant material turned into pellets used to cover produce. This covering controls the rate at which moisture and gasses pass in and out of the produce, slowing the rate of decay. The company just this week received a $33 million round of financing which takes their total raise to $40 million. A presentation made to the investors of the $33 million stated that the company has $6 billion of sales currently in negotiation.
Here’s more on the history of the firm and why it’s been so appealing to investors, social causes aside:
Says Ihra Ehrenpreis, a partner at DBL, a principal investor of the $33 million, “The answer to feeding the growing world population isn’t just to grow more food, it’s to preserve more of what we already grow and make optimal use of the resources we already have.”
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Robin Williams performs for military men and women as part of a United Service Organization (USO) show on board Camp Phoenix in December 2007
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.