Feed Subscriptions
Rolling Links
- Flowing Data Exploring all things data!
- Technology Review The authority on the future of technology
- Signal vs. Noise
- Treehugger Well known green blog.
- Postgenomic Postgenomic collects posts from hundreds of science blogs and then does useful and interesting things with that data.
.jpg)
Three innovative programs use cooking technology as a tool for making education and greener technology more widely available. While all three work to make food preparation more efficiently, each sees development in the kitchen as a foundation for broader reforms.
The Near East Foundation (NEF) realized that the amount of time spent gathering fuel for inefficient wood-burning stoves made it impossible for women to participate in education programs in Morocco. After working closely with local agricultural officials to examine the problem of home energy efficiency and its effects on girls and women, the NEF began teaching families to build more efficient ovens and stoves, which reduce fuel consumption by 50 to 60 percent. Construction of the stoves provides a skilled trade for women and a successful model of small business development, while their operation reduces smoke emissions in the home and the strain on local forests. In addition to giving more women the time to attend school, profits from the program have been used to fund scholarships.
An earlier program in Ethiopia reduced energy use in a similar way. Realizing that baking injerra–a delicious spongy flatbread–accounted for roughly 80 percent of the average household’s energy consumption, the Ministry of Mines and Energy began exploring ways to making cooking more efficient. The ministry’s labors resulted in the Mitre stove, an efficient cooking device made using simple metal molds. With access to the basic patterns, people can use a wide range of materials to construct stoves for about US$5 apiece, reducing energy demand and making cooking safer. The program expanded with the introduction of institutional-sized Mitre stoves.
The NEF and Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Energy programs made existing devices far more efficient. Sun Ovens, created by Wisconsin restaurateur and Rotarian Tom Burns, make solar cooking technology more useful in developing communities by insulating food in ways that guarantee it will remain warm between preparation and consumption and by dramatically shortening cooking time in relation to other solar ovens. Despite the different approach, Sun Ovens have many of the same benefits as the other programs. Their use reduces deforestation, improves the health of families by reducing household smoke and the risk of fire, and greatly lessens the burden placed on women and girls.
