Produce is grown across somewhere between 250 and 300 million square feet of commercial greenhouse space in the U.S.. That’s a whole lot of crops that need to be monitored to make sure they are watered, properly lit and healthy. 

Thankfully, iUnu (pronounced “yoo-noo”) is here to help. The company makes Luna, a robot that scurries around on rails mounted to the ceilings of greenhouses. Using a variety of cameras, sensors and computer vision, Luna helps greenhouse growers better understand and manage the welfare of their crops to improve overall yield. 

For this week's Automat podcast, I sat down with iUnu Co-Founder and CEO, Adam Greenberg to learn more about the culture around greenhouse growing, and how Luna works to make it better.

The Automat: Meet Luna the Robotic Monitoring System for Greenhouses

"The [cannabis edibles] consumer is probably not who you think it is," said Linda Gilbert, formerly Managing Editor, Consumer Insights cannabis data company BDS Analytics. "The average age of a cannabis consumer is 42. This is not an 18 year old living in his parent’s basement."

In this talk from the Smart Kitchen Summit 2018, The Spoon's Catherine Lamb talks with Linda and two other experts about the burgeoning cannabis edibles market — and where we can expect it to grow from here.

Smart Kitchen Show

The Future of Cannabis Edibles is Wellness, Not Recreation

Like many people, I've long been fascinated with space and one of the most interesting aspects of interstellar travel is what exactly people will eat on space and once they get up there among the stars.

This is something that Angelo Vermeulen has been thinking about for a long time.  After spending years focused on systems and design for interstellar travel and colonization, Vermeulen was made the commander of the first HI-SEAS mission, a NASA funded space simulation focused on researching how to keep crews happy during long missions in space.  

In this episode, we talk about his experience on the HI-SEAS, some of his key takeaways, and the current state of space food research.

www.thespoon.tech

Talking Space Food With Angelo Vermeulen

Like most people, when I think food robots I think about efficiency. More burgers flipped, dishes cleaned and customers served. But what if the precision of robots can actually make food that tastes better?

I talk about this, the uncanny valley of meat and more with this week's guest, Ali Bouzari, the chief science officer of Pilot R&D and Render Foods and author of INGREDIENT: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food.

You can find out more about Ali at https://www.alibouzari.com/

Smart Kitchen Show from The Spoon

Food Robots & The Uncanny Valley of Meat

This week on the editor roundtable edition of the Smart Kitchen Show, Mike, Catherine, Jenn and Chris discuss:

-The explosion in food AI (including news by McCormicks new partnership with IBM)
-The crackdown on CBD by different local governments as everyone struggles to figure out what is and isn't legal
-The recent launch of BSH Appliances smart kitchen accelerator (and all the other foodtech accelerators)
-Finding love on a smart fridge

Make sure to find more podcasts at www.thespoon.tech

Editor Roundtable Podcast: AI Everywhere, CBD Crackdown & Finding Love on a Refrigerator

Gotta give credit where credit is due: Amazon sure has lots of ideas about how to get more stuff to your house.

While everyone is focused on delivery drones, cute little delivery bots and pickup lockers, Amazon's also been brainstorming about putting a robot in your garage that could go and retrieve your latest package for you.

That's just one of the topics we tackle in this week's podcast with the Spoon editor gang.  Other topics include:

-Motif's massive $90 million funding round for its plant to democratize plant-based ingredients
-How Gen Z is shaking up the food business with its eating habits
-Do we need refrigeration in our countertop appliances?

As always, you can find more podcasts at www.thespoon.tech

Editor Roundtable: Amazon Robot, Gen Z Eating Habits & Fridge-Powered Pressure Cookers

If you're a reader of the Spoon or a hardcore foodtech nerd (or, more than likely, both), you have read about a nascent but fast-growing group of startups working on technology to make food "out of thin air". These new companies are exciting because they are able to entirely disconnect from using agriculture-based resources - yes, both animal AND plant-based inputs - to create protein with a negligible impact on our the environment. The technique they are using is called "gas fermentation". 

I am so fascinated by this technology and these companies that I decided to invite the CEO of Solar Foods, Pasi Vainikka, on the show to tell us a little more about when we can expect protein created with this new process to hit our plates.

I hope you enjoy it. You can find out more about Solar Foods at https://solarfoods.fi

As always, find more podcasts about foodtech at The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech

Making Food Out of Thin Air with Solar Foods

The Spoon crew gets together to talk about the latest edition of the Food Tech 25. The Food Tech 25 are the twenty five  companies the Spoon editorial team believe are doing most interesting work in the world of food tech right now.

Mike also gets excited about a new craft chocolate appliance for the home.

On this podcast:

Michael Wolf
Catherine Lamb
Jenn Marston
Chris Albrecht

As always, check out www.thespoon.tech for stories and to subscribe to our newsletter.

The Food Tech 25

As you might expect, working a robot into the busy back of house of a fast food restaurant isn't as easy as just setting it in front of the grill and plugging it in.

Nope, restaurants are a complicated mix of workflows, equipment and yes, people, so automating a part of the process with robotics requires planning.

For this podcast we talk with some of the folks working on the leading edge of restaurant robotics, including Shawn Lange of Lab2Fab (a division of Middleby) and David Zito of Miso Robotics (the company behind Flippy, the burger flipping robot).

**Important Note** - We are going to change the name of this podcast to The Food Tech Show from The Spoon. Why? Because we talk about lots of things in addition to the connected kitchen (though we still talk about that a whole bunch) and thought the name should reflect the wide set of topics.  You won't have to change a thing - just stay subscribed and keep an eye out for our new podcast logo with the new name next week!

The Food Tech Show From The Spoon

Here Come The BurgerBots: A Conversation About Restaurant Robotics

Welcome to The Food Tech Show with Michael Wolf (formerly the Smart Kitchen Show). 

The Spoon team is back together for another editorial roundtable (this time with sound effects!).

This week we discuss:
-Who would use a tiny little countertop dishwasher
-The problem with Beyond Meat burgers
-The growing robot backlash
-Are we ok with Walmart walking into our homes?

On the podcast are Michael Wolf, Catherine Lamb, Chris Albrecht and Jenn Marston.

The Food Tech Show With Michael Wolf

Tiny Little Dishwashers

This is a podcast where Mike professes his love...for cereal.  

After breaking himself free of the morning cereal habit years ago, Mike decides to try Magic Spoon, a new high-protein low carb sweetener that sells only through a direct-to-consumer model. This cereal, which tastes like the sugar cereal of our (and maybe your) childhoods, has been on backorder and out of stock despite an eye-popping price point of $10 per 7 ounce box.

As always, check out The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech for more news and analysis (and the occasional cereal review).

Let's Talk Cereal: A Magic Spoon Review

Join host Michael Wolf as he shares the stories of those changing the way we cook, buy and think about food.

The Automat: Meet Luna the Robotic Monitoring System for Greenhouses

The Food Tech Show With Michael Wolf

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