Jan 24What if Small Scale Farmers in Sub Saharan Africa Could Create Effective Fertilizer in their Backyards?My idea to utilize anaerobic digestion, microalgae and bacteria to make this a reality. — Fertilizer prices have risen 30% since the start of 2022 because of the ongoing war in Russia and Ukraine [1]. (Russia produces 23% of global ammonia, 14% of urea, 25% of nitrogen and 21% of global phosphate fertilizer. [2] Since the beginning of the war, Russia has halted all exports…Agriculture20 min readAgriculture20 min read
Dec 26, 2022Real Growth Can Not Be Measured. It Is Internal, Not External.2022 Year In Review — When I was 8 I wanted to swim with dolphins for a living. When I was 10 I wanted to be a journalist. When I was 12 I wanted to travel the world and make nature documentaries. When I was 14 I wanted to be a professional runner. Now, I’m…Reflections19 min readReflections19 min read
Nov 5, 2022From Trash to TreasureTurning agriculture waste into fertilizer — The population of Africa is expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, which will account for 27% of the global population. [1] More people equals more mouths to feed, which means we must produce more food. To produce enough food to meet the needs of 2.5 billion people, Africa must…Poverty26 min readPoverty26 min read
Oct 17, 2022Coke, Cramps, and Cedar Trees: Running My First 50km UltramarathonI looked around as I chugged a cup of coke. Standing at the finish line of my 50km ultramarathon. There were a few spectators standing around, and a long table of medals to my right. Except it wasn’t the finish line. It was the halfway point. I had ran the…Running26 min readRunning26 min read
Published inBioeconomy.XYZ·Oct 9, 2022Nanomaterial productionHow nanomaterials are made and the challenges that prevent large-scale adoption of nanotech — If Earth were the size of a basketball The circumference of the planet we inhabit is 40,075 km. Now imagine taking this massive planet, all its lands and oceans, trees and animals, and shrinking it down to the size of a basketball. If Earth were the size of a basketball, one nanometer would be the size of a…Nanotechnology13 min readNanotechnology13 min read
Sep 20, 2022Connecting the dots between food insecurity, fertilizer, inflation and transportation in Sub Saharan AfricaFertilizer and it’s importance for rural farmers in Sub Saharan Africa — If I asked you what the biggest problem with fertilizers are, I bet you’d say the environmental impact…which totally makes sense. Producing synthetic fertilizers uses a lot of energy and produces a lot of greenhouse gases (2% of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions to be precise) [1]. And then…Agriculture15 min readAgriculture15 min read
Published inBioeconomy.XYZ·Aug 22, 2022How water could fix our broken food production systemThe basics of Hydroponics 🌱🥬🍅🌿 — The word hydroponics can be broken down into two parts: “hydro”, and “ponics”. The word hydro means anything related to water, and the word ponics means labor. Combining the two, hydroponics is a method of growing plants in water instead of soil. That’s cool, but why? 38% of the global land surface is used…Farming8 min readFarming8 min read
Jun 14, 2022What I learned from running a marathon at 152 more kilometers. Then I can stop. My quads hurt. My calves hurt. My shoulders hurt. My neck hurt. My abs hurt. My brain was screaming at my muscles to stop. My legs were no longer cooperating with what I wanted them to do. …Running18 min readRunning18 min read
Published inBioeconomy.XYZ·Jun 1, 2022A transgenic strand of maize that can lift millions out of povertyDesigning maize to be more efficient and resilient to external stresses to tackle food shortages and malnutrition. — Maize is one of the most important food crops in the world, together with rice and wheat, providing at least 30% of the food calories to more than 4.5 billion people in 94 developing countries. [1] Today, maize is considered the staple crop for most of Sub-Saharan Africa, consumed regularly…GMO16 min readGMO16 min read
Feb 1, 2022Creating a Biosynthetic Pathway in Oryza Sativ for β-Carotene: A Review Article of Golden RiceA review article of why golden rice was made and the process of creating golden rice. — Table of contents Introduction Vitamin A Disease (VAD) B-Carotene Rice (oryza sativa) The Issue The Solution Poly-cis Pathway Phytoene Synthase Phytoene Desaturase ζ-carotene desaturase Lycopene β-cyclase Vectors pB19hpc vector pZPsC and pZCycH vectors Transformation Results Consequences and further developmentGene Editing21 min readGene Editing21 min read
