Index to Nigerian Newspapers

Microsoft says that information and communications technology now has a role to play in the production, preservation, and consumption of food. It said that the concept of food was not just about eating it, “but to see how produce may be grown in the future while exploring the convergence of art, biology, and technology.” This, the ICT company said, it was doing through what it called ‘Project Florence’. The company stated this at the just-concluded Microsoft Underground Campus Tour in Washington, the United States of America. The Principal Research Designer, Asta Roseway, explained that there had always been a relationship between people and their gardens (with some sources linking these relationships to increased longevity), but with computer interaction, plants would be able to talk back. Roseway said that it was largely expected that population growth, climate change, soil erosion, and growing populations in cities would make urban farming (growing food indoors in tanks) more essential. Another technical staff member, Jeff Kramer, said that there were other advantages to this approach as well and stated that factors such as oxygen and humidity, which normally reduced the lifespan of servers, were no longer an issue, which resulted in efficiency gains.