Pakistan dazzled the world when a state-sanctioned effort planted close to a million trees in one day, but India aims to blow that record away by a multiple of over 50. More than 800,000 volunteers are being given sapling to plant along roads, rails and in existing forests, all to be done within 24 hours in order to set a difficult record to beat.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh says it is an environmental effort: “the world has realized that serious efforts are needed to reduce carbon emissions to mitigate the effects of global climate change. Uttar Pradesh has made a beginning in this regard.” Aside from the direct planting effort, the government hopes this will raise awareness locally and worldwide.

At the Paris climate talks last December, the Indian government pledged to increase forest cover to 95 million hectares (235 million acres) by 2030. Aerial photography will monitor the trees after they are planted. The government’s goal is to increase forest cover to 33 percent, sequestering 2.5 billion tons of carbon.

The post Growth Spurt: India to Plant Record 50 Million Trees in 1 Day first appeared on Gajitz.

Each year, over 25 billion trees are logged or burned, but only 15 billion are planted – addressing this unsustainable shortfall, a drone startup is working toward an initial goal of aerially planting 1 billion seeds per year.

Biocarbon Engineering‘s approach involves mapping the geography of target areas, assessing their needs and conditions, then shooting soil-penetrating seed pods directly into the ground below from around 5 to 10 feet above. Already germinated and encased in a nutrient-rich gel, the seeds can be shot at a rate of 10 per second and, with multiple drones, could put 36,000 trees in the ground each day for about 15% of the cost of conventional planting methods.

One of the group’s founders is a 20-year NASA veteran who knows the stakes and understands the technological needs of this ambitious plan. The group aims to work with global non-profits and forestry services to deploy their solution around the world, mapping, planting and monitoring the results for further interventions.

From the company: “Destruction of global forests from lumber, mining, agriculture, and urban expansion destroys 26 billion trees each year. We believe that this industrial scale deforestation is best combated using the latest automation technologies. We use emerging technologies to deliver precision planting and mapping to increase the uptake rates and the likelihood of healthy forest development.”

“There are a variety of tree-planting techniques, including planting by hand and delivering dry seeds by air. However, hand-planting is slow and expensive, and spreading dry seeds results in low uptake rates. Our solution balances these two methods. First, by planting germinated seeds using precision agriculture techniques, we increase uptake rates. Second, our scalable, automated technology significantly reduces the manpower requirements and costs. Finally, our mapping UAVs will also provide invaluable intelligence on planting patterns, landscape design and appropriate timing.”

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Printed instead of planted, this strange concoction combines elements of gardening, gourmet dining and 3D printing technologies in a fresh new way.

Created by food designer Chloé Rutzerveld, Edible Growth involves an exterior casing of edible soil (growth medium) laced with mushroom seeds.

Once printed, the consumer waits while the seeds start to grow up and out through holes around load-bearing supports printed into the structure of the case. The finished food is ready to eat a few days later.

While many food printing experiments and ideas revolve around the concept of creating a finished product on the spot, this one is a unique sort of hybrid – it still requires patience, like (but less than) planted edibles would.

The post Living 3D-Printed Food: Output Seeds in Soil, Grow & Eat first appeared on Gajitz.