IKEA's New Garden & 4 Changes to Our Food Supply

This week in Food News!

IKEA's New Garden

IKEA wants to take over food and they should. We already reported on their innovative kitchen project and now they have just announced their new KRYDDA/VÄXER hydroponic garden, which allows you to grow fresh produce right at home, all year-around. It is clear, with the number of these types of installations more of us will be growing our own, its about convenience, cost, lack of pesticides, freshness and of course taste. Available this month in stores, the countertop garden was designed by Helena Karlen, of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.  

In IKEA’s design, you grow your produce using the absorbent foam plugs that keeps the plants moist, without ever over-watering. When ready you can transfer them into their own pots and then put the pots into a growing tray, which comes equipped with a solar lamp and costs about $80. 

4 Surprising Ways Warmer Temperatures Will Change Our Food

Talking about indoor gardens might be even more important as the US Global Change Research Program’s new report lists 4 important changes to our food supply based on Global Warming:

• Looks like our foods will spoil faster as the warmer temperatures actually foster disease-causing microbes and even more importantly allow E. Coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter bacterium to thrive and wreak havoc.

• Warmer temps mean more CO2 and that means a loss of nutrients in our foods including iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and nitrogen.

• Everyone tells us to eat more fish t o be healthier, but global warming might challenge that though as fish in warmer ocean temperatures absorb more mercury.

• Extreme weather, as we have seen the impact nationwide from the California drought has a huge impact on our food supply, and can severely cut down the amount of foods produced.