Pioneering Method Determines if Tomatoes are Ready to Pick

The AHA! Team — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 06:39:18 +0000

Yulia Karra via Israel21c – This new machine learning technology could help farmers optimize harvest timing and improve the quality of the produce. Researchers recently developed a machine learning model that helps assess the quality of tomatoes before harvest. The pioneering method could make tomato harvest easier, more cost efficient and sustainable. In a study recently published in the Computers and Electronics in Agriculture scientific journal, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) said their model recognizes the key parameters of tomato quality with exceptional accuracy. Why tomatoes? The coauthors explain that the tomato is “one of the most substantial crops grown worldwide, with significant economic and nutritional values.” In 2020, the global gross production of tomatoes was 189 million tons. Tomatoes are nutritionally rich, offering sugars, organic acids, lycopene, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and may even reduce the risk of several cancers, cardiovascular conditions, and age-related macular degeneration. However, traditional methods of determining the quality of tomato crops happen only after harvest and have many drawbacks. The HUJI researchers, in collaboration with researchers from Bar-Ilan University and the government’s Volcani Center Agricultural Research Organization, employed hyperspectral imaging to develop a machine learning model for pre-harvest assessment. Hyperspectral images of specific ranges of light wavelengths, known as spectral bands, are used to study the properties of objects based on how they reflect light. The scientists used a handheld hyperspectral camera to collect data from 567 tomato fruits across five cultivars. They then employed machine learning algorithms to predict seven critical tomato quality parameters: weight, firmness, total soluble solids, citric acid, ascorbic acid, lycopene, and pH. The model demonstrated high prediction accuracy. The researchers said the study highlights potential for integration of the method into agricultural practices to evaluate produce quality during ripening stages, optimizing harvest timing, as well in supermarkets at later stages. “Our research aims to bridge the gap between advanced imaging technology, AI, and practical agricultural applications,” said David Helman from HUJI’s Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, who led the study. “This work has the potential to revolutionize quality monitoring not only in tomatoes but also in other crops. Our next step is to build a low-cost device — ToMAI-SENS — based on our model that will be used across the fruit value chain, from farms to consumers,” he added. To read the original article click here.

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The Danger of “Big Meat” and How to Build a Healthier Food System

AHA Publisher — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 07:00:41 +0000

Damon Hines via NaturalHealth365 – Fact: 99 percent of America’s farms are “factory farms,” where millions of animals are crammed into windowless sheds and stuffed into wire cages, and the animal products – meat, dairy, and poultry – routinely contaminated with toxic pesticides, antibiotics, parasites, and pathogens. This is what we refer to as, the “Big Meat” industry and it’s at the heart of so many health issues. We can not ignore this reality: Big Meat is damaging to human health, as it’s loaded with artery clogging (toxic) fat – too much omega-6 and lower levels of beneficial omega-3 – which can lead to obesity, cancer, heart attacks, and a host of other serious and life-threatening health problems. Did you know that factory farms emit over 200 gases, including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia? These gases further compound Big Meat’s damage to human health and the environment. No, the facts can’t be changed. It’s too late for that. But we can rise up against them, find alternatives and new solutions, and do our part as consumers to consciously boycott Big Meat and its dirty deeds. The problem with “Big Meat” and a Call to Action The alternative to Big Meat is the “Regeneration Revolution,” an umbrella term that involves everything from farming innovation and consumer awareness to political/policy change, and new investment practices. America eats the cheapest, lowest grade food of any industrial nation. That’s right, taxpayer money helps to support a highly-toxic, food supply that’s slowing poisoning an entire nation. It’s a problem further exacerbated by American consumers’ love for fast food and highly processed, nutritionally-deficient foods. Roughly 80 percent of Americans patronize fast food restaurants, and the damage from the “Super Size Me” lifestyle is why America has become a leader in chronic diseases statistics and healthcare costs. But here’s the catch. The alternative to Big Meat is already in place. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The U.S. has a $60 billion market for organic and grass fed and pastured food. In addition, sales of plant-based alternative meat products (Impossible Burger, Beyond, etc.) have skyrockted. According to Neilsen, in May, sales of alternative meat products in grocery stores went up 264 percent. As a side note: we do not suggest that these highly-processed, plant-based burgers are any better for your health. But, it does illustrate a point. People truly want a greener, happier world. Sadly, politicians, Corporate America and Big Meat have other ideas in mind. The Unraveling of Ecosystems and Wasting Away of “Moral Imaginations” Factory farming and the food/water crisis are all aspects of a wider dysboisis – a term commonly used by scientists to describe the collapse of gut biomes, but in recent years has been used to define the unraveling of ecosystems. Radical change is needed to repair this “looming catastrophe,” a catastrophe of interlinked emergencies that scientists warn could result in global systemic collapse. Change starts with us, the consumers. Boycotting Big Meat will protect our health, protect the health of meat industry workers, protect family farms, farm animals, rural economies, water supplies, air quality, soil health, and wildlife biodiversity. Take a stand. Support local, organic and regenerative farms. Buy healthy, humane and environmentally-friendly foods. Author Mark O’ Connell sums it up best: “It’s not the melting of the ice-caps or the burning of the forests that seem to be the real apocalyptic scenario, but rather the slow atrophying of our moral imaginations.” Sources for this article include: Organicconsumers.org, Organicconsumers.org, Theguardian.com To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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Pioneering Method Determines if Tomatoes are Ready to Pick

The Danger of “Big Meat” and How to Build a Healthier Food System