IKEA's New Garden & 4 Changes to Our Food Supply

IKEA wants to take over food, and it should. We've already reported on their innovative kitchen project, and now the company has just announced its new KRYDDA/VÄXER hydroponic garden, which allows you to grow fresh produce right at home, all year round.

It's clear, with the number of these types of installations, that more of us will be growing our own. It's about convenience, cost, lack of pesticides, freshness and, of course, taste. Available this month in stores, the countertop garden was designed by Helena Karlen, of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. 

In IKEA’s design, you grow your produce using the absorbent foam plugs that keep the plants moist without ever overwatering. When they're ready, you can transfer them into their own pots and then put the pots into a growing tray, which comes equipped with a solar lamp and costs about $80.'

4 Surprising Ways Warmer Temps Will Change Our Food

Talking about indoor gardens might be even more important, as the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s new report lists four important changes to our food supply, based on global warming:

• Looks like our foods will spoil faster, as the warmer temperatures actually foster disease-causing microbes and, even more importantly allow E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter bacterium to thrive and wreak havoc.
• Warmer temps mean more carbon dioxide, and that means a loss of nutrients in our foods, including iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and nitrogen.
• Everyone tells us to eat more fish for better health, but global warming might challenge that, though, as fish in warmer ocean temperatures absorb more mercury.
• Extreme weather, as we've seen the impact nationwide from the California drought, has a huge impact on our food supply, and can severely cut down the amount of foods produced.