Nine ways technology is Changing Hunger and Obesity

There are numerous ways to help fight the dual food issues of hunger and obesity; many just happen to live on your smart phone or laptop. Here, Food Tank rounds up nine innovative technologies that are wiring in solutions.

1. Give Your Calories

“Give Your Calories” allows users to turn the calories they’re eating into donations for Action Against Hunger. The app scales the calorie count to small donations: US$1 for items that contain fewer than 200 calories, US$2 for items containing 200-300 calories, and a US$5 donation for items that contain 300-400 calories.

2. M-Farm

M-Farm is a tool for Kenyan farmers that lets growers send a text to get instant information about the current retail price of their products. It also allows farmers buy their farm inputs directly from manufacturers at favorable prices as well as find buyers for their produce.

3. Agrilife

Agrilife sends Ugandan farmers information about their current production capabilities and also projects future production levels.

4. Satellite and radar sensor partnerships

The World Food Programme uses radar sensors and satellite mapping to track areas most affected by natural disasters in order to plan strategies to get residents in those places food and water.

5. The Hunger Site

The Hunger Site uses page views to generate sponsors. The payments for ad space are used to buy food staples for those in need around the world, distributed by organizations such as Mercy Corps, Feeding America and Millennium Promise. The website also offers tips on how users can help fight hunger, stats and news about world hunger, and more.

6. Mealmatch

Mealmatch partners with restaurants to donate meals to hungry people around the world; you simply check in when you’re eating a meal at one of the participating restaurants, and they donate a meal to a local food-supply project in Africa.

7. Fooducate

Fooducate aims to clear up the increasing confusion that comes with trying to make healthy choices in the grocery aisles. The app allows users to scan product barcodes and instantly get in-depth information about the food’s nutrition. It offers a “grade” ranging from a D to an A, based on the given food’s sugar content, trans fats, additives and preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, controversial food colorings, confusing serving sizes and more.

8. Clean Plates

Think of Clean Plates as a health-conscious Yelp. The app, currently available in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles, allows users to search for nearby restaurants based on criteria like their use of organic produce and ethically raised animals.

9. wHealthySolutions

This website, along with its smartphone app FoodSmart, provides nutrition and health tips and allows users to build their own lists of healthy products.

Talia Ralph

Talia Ralph is journalist and editor with a passion for food and a commitment to journalistic integrity. She is currently pursuing my Masters in Food Studies at NYU Steinhardt, where she studies the social, economic, and health implications of American and global food systems. Talia spent two years writing and editing breaking international news for award-winning website GlobalPost, as well as founding and editing The Landing: a non-fiction magazine striving for the lofty goal of timeless storytelling on the Internet. She has also written for Vice, the Boston Globe, Flaunt Magazine, Roads & Kingdoms and Thought Catalog. Talia was born and raised in Montreal with a healthy appreciation for bilingualism and poutine. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with an honors degree in magazine journalism from Emerson College in Boston, and has since spent stints in Los Angeles, Lima, and Vermont. She now calls New York City’s Lower East Side home. Some of her life-long loves include, but are not limited to: hiking, my Burton Feelgood snowboard, Bikram yoga, hip-hop, marathon cooking sessions, and gut-punching documentaries.