In light of the ongoing COVID-19 developments, the FoodTech Challenge Awards Ceremony will be rescheduled to late November and we are in the process of finalising the dates. We will update you as soon as these are confirmed, and we very much appreciate your patience. To ensure the safety and wellbeing of participants, judges, partners, attendees and staff, the awards ceremony will be held as a virtual event. This decision was made after careful consultation with our partners and UAE public health authorities.

Please stay tuned to our social channels as we share our exciting plans for the virtual event! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us should you have any questions.

COVID-19 has accelerated progress not just in public health and medicine, but other industries impacted by the pandemic as well. As you’ll see in our ‘Food for Thought’ section, the UAE is experimenting with efficient food production methods and sharing agricultural data, open to everyone, to demonstrate its commitment to food security for all. We hope these resources inspire you and help you in your own food security efforts.

Stay fresh,
The FoodTech Challenge Team
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Food for Thought
 

Minister of State for Food and Water Security reaffirms UAE's commitment to UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
WAM, by Hatem Mohamed

H.E. Mariam Almheiri, Minister of State for Food Security, was a guest speaker at a virtual meeting of G20 food and agriculture ministers focusing on food and water security concerns during and post-COVID-19.

The UAE's sustainable food plan involves growing rice and developing soil

Euronews, by Daleen Hassan, Rebecca McLaughlin-Eastham and Salim Essaid
 

Khalifa University is in the process of developing an artificial soil that is made up of almost 90% desert sand with the aim of using it locally and eventually regionally by farmers. Scientists are hopeful that this soil will transform the crop sector in the UAE.

Read more »

Abu Dhabi launches new open data platform to improve public services

The National
 

Abu Dhabi Open Data, an open data platform, has been launched by the Department of Government Support in partnership with 23 other government entities, aiming to facilitate the exchange of more than 550 data sets across agriculture, environment, health, transportation, energy, and technology.

Nearly 200 of the world's biggest food suppliers pledge to halve their food waste

Washington Post, by Emily Heil
 

Close to 200 food suppliers have pledged to cut their food waste in half by 2030. Major companies including Unilever, PepsiCo and Nestle Global have joined the 10x20x30 initiative, a global effort to slash the staggering amount of food that is discarded every year.
Fun Food Facts
Potatoes can improve Wi-Fi signals.

Getting a strong Wi-Fi signal can be a challenge, especially while aboard a moving airplane, thousands of feet above the ground. In 2012, Boeing experimented with ways to improve the signal on their planes, by seating 20,000 pounds of potatoes on the plane like passengers. Because of their water content and chemistry, potatoes absorb and reflect radio wave signals in a similar way humans do. They called the project Synthetic Personnel Using Dialectic Substitution, or SPUDS.
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