Perhaps you weren’t shocked by the college applications scandal that recently broke in the United States? I must confess, I was deeply upset because it reveals a low tide mark in our society’s ethics today and underlines the absence of integrity in so many people’s lives. But I’m also saddened because “Operation Varsity Blues” has wider implications for our colleges and our communities. Fresh Dialogues host, Alison van Diggelen reports for the BBC World Service.
(Photo credit above: Daniel Gaines Photography via Breakthrough Silicon Valley)
The stories of college applications doctored with photo-shopped pictures of athletes; blatant bribery and cheating on SAT scores made my blood boil. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to share my views on the BBC World Service.
These rich elites – venture capitalists, actors and prominent business people – confused their privilege for merit; and by cheating they crushed the hopes and dreams of the least fortunate and most deserving students in our communities.
The BBC’s Fergus Nicoll asked me about the reputation damage to schools and I shared an interview I did recently with former President of Stanford University, John Hennessy. At the time, he was outraged at colleges “debasing themselves” and forgetting their values in the pursuit of athletes over academics. Watch the video (@3:00): Hennessy is known for his tact, but here, his anger is palpable.
Previous commentators on the BBC program, including Stephanie Studer of the Economist in China, and Kay Hymowitz of the City Journal in New York, talked about the destruction of meritocracy. That’s definitely under threat, both here and around the world. But who’ll suffer most from this scandal?
The hard working students and families from less advantaged communities. Like the inspiring students at Breakthrough Silicon Valley, a nonprofit here in California, that works to mentor and nurture first generation immigrants to achieve their college dreams. For them, it’s a double whammy: First: The opportunity cost. For every rich kid who got into college through a side door, there’s a student who worked like a Trojan to get the scores necessary to win a place, and lost out. But it’s more than that: What will this scandal do to the aspirations of these students and families who feel that the playing fieldjust got even steeper? And more broadly, how will our communities suffer if these well deserving youth lose out on taking their shot at a better future? The opportunity cost is both acute and enduring, both personal and wide ranging.
Is it too much to hope that colleges and communities can return to decent values and bring ethics back from its long holiday?
We should all be outraged when such revered institutions fail our society by creating shortcuts for those with wealth and privilege when they could be a powerful force for equity in our society.
Certainly, the staff and students of Breakthrough Silicon Valley are frustrated. As Diana, a high school junior, put it, “I’m sad but not shocked. I’ve always known that there are people who play the system, it just hurts to have this out there when I’m working so hard to get my shot.”
For the past five years, my team has cheered Diana on as she works incredibly hard to get to college. She grew up in a family that grapples with the constant stress of financial instability. They got home internet access just last month, and few in her community have gone to college, but Diana is blazing an impressive path. She has a 4.29 GPA while enrolled in the most rigorous courses her district offers. She founded a community service club and helps facilitate Breakthrough’s after-school program for 7th graders. She is proud of her community service, her persistence, and her identity as a strong Mexican-American woman. Diana is not just “qualified” to attend college, she is ready to lead when she gets there.
When colleges reinforce class divisions through legacy admissions and bend to the will of deep pockets, they miss out on students like Diana. Read more here. (NB: Names have been changed to protect student privacy)
The Paradise Camp Fire is the deadliest wildfire in California history. Why is that?
To date 79 people have died and almost 700 are still missing as the fire still rages on. Here in Silicon Valley, we’re processing the tragic devastation and choking in a blanket of smoke and misleading statements from our president, who blames forest mismanagement for the tragedy. Head of the California Professional Firefighters organization called the president’s claim “inane, ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to victims and to our firefighters on the front lines.”
I was invited to share my perspective on the BBC World Service and it felt good to call a lie a lie. NPR has explained its policy of not calling out Trump’s lies. I think it’s a complete cop out and agree with the listener who wrote: “To fail to identify a lie as a lie is a gross failure of journalism.”
“Donald Trump’s tweet at the weekend said, “There’s no reason for these massive fires…except forest management.” It’s over-simplification and it’s a downright lie. His aim is to distract and undermine the widely accepted role of climate change in these mega fires…the big picture is: climate change is causing longer droughts, hotter air, drier soil, faster winds and is creating these mega fires. So, thinning the forest is one thing, but the longer term thing is: we need to do more for climate change. We need to reduce our carbon footprint, and we need to encourage more clean energy.” Alison van Diggelen
Photo credit: Cpl. Dylan Chagnon, U.S. Marine Corps.
The BBC’s Fergus Nicoll is co-host of the program, Business Matters.
Here’s a transcript of our conversation (edited for length and clarity):
Fergus Nicoll: You’d think you were at a safe distance, Alison, but I guess there’s got to be knock-on effects weather-wise, smoke-wise, almost across the whole state?
Alison van Diggelen: It feels like California is on fire. Paradise (the town at the epicenter of the fire) is an ironic metaphor for California. The state is paradise for many but is rapidly becoming a hellish inferno. I’m 200 miles south-west of the Camp Fire and the air quality is terrible. We’re being advised to stay indoors and not exercise outside. It’s affecting almost every person in the Golden State.
Fergus Nicoll: Governor Jerry Brown said over the weekend, “Managing all the forests everywhere doesn’t stop climate change. Those that deny climate change are contributing to the tragedy.” He said, “The chickens are coming home to roost.” Is that what everybody’s talking about behind these headlines?
Alison van Diggelen: Absolutely.Donald Trump’s tweet at the weekend said, “There’s no reason for these massive fires…except forest management.” It’s over-simplification and it’s a downright lie. His aim is to distract and undermine the widely accepted role of climate change in these mega fires. There is a short-term solution in mitigation: doing some controlled thinning of forests and relaxing the logging rules, which the state law makers have done this summer. But the big picture is: climate change is causing longer droughts, hotter air, drier soil, faster winds and is creating these mega fires. So, thinning the forest is one thing, but the longer term thing is: we need to do more for climate change. We need to reduce our carbon footprint, and we need to encourage more clean energy.
Fergus Nicoll: I know these are issues you talk about on Fresh Dialogues. What about water? What about the shortages that California has had? Is it a problem fighting fire because there’s insufficient water?
Alison van Diggelen: That again is Donald Trump’s oversimplifications and a distraction. Water shortages (for fire fighting) aren’t a problem. Oroville Dam is very close to where the Camp Fire is burning and in Malibu, you’re right next to the ocean. So there’s really no issue about water shortages for putting out the fires. That is not the issue. Again it’s distracting…it’s point over there when we should be addressing the real issue of climate change.
And one other issue that a lot of people don’t know about is that nights in California have warmed nearly three times as fast as days during the fire season, so lower night time humidity means that the fires are growing and blazing overnight. That didn’t used to happen. So again, the finger points to climate change.
Fergus Nicoll: Alison, thanks for that. This is Business Matters, we’re live on the BBC.
What makes Madonna the ultimate female bad-ass role model? On the eve of Madonna’s 60th birthday, I was invited to join the BBC’s Roger Hearing in London and Bloomberg’s Enda Curran in Hong Kong to discuss the queen of pop’s controversial life and legacy. How has she redefined what it means to be a woman in her 60’s?
“In the realms of entertainment, whether you’re an actor or a musician, as a woman you’re supposed to fade away in a dignified manner when menopause kicks in. Madonna hasn’t done that and I think that’s a great, great thing. Why should women have to make this dignified exit because no one is asking men to do that?” Fiona Sturges, Culture critic at the Guardian, Financial Times.
Here is some of our conversation: Roger Hearing: Now Alison, you’re a fan, aren’t you?
Alison van Diggelen: I am a fan. How I’d describe Madonna is: She’s the ultimate bad-ass female role model. She’s fearless, creative, unpredictable and that makes her super compelling. I also have to praise her for her Billboard Music Awards speech in 2016. This was before #MeToo and she talked out misogyny, the double standards for men and woman. She appealed to women to reach out to other strong women, to learn, to collaborate and to be inspired. That’s a message that we cannot get tired of hearing.
Roger Hearing: But what makes her a role model?She’s been pretty controversial in lots of ways that many people thought was not appropriate, and wasn’t a good role model for anyone…
Alison van Diggelen: She’s a pioneer. She doesn’t accept the norms and conventions and I think that what she’s doing as a 60 year-old is: she’s going to reinvent what we think of a 60 year-old woman. I say: good on her! She makes some crazy choices in what she wears and what she does, but she’s always pushing the envelope, making us question what is “OK”? I think that qualifies her as a role model, even if you don’t like 100% of her choices.
Have you ever considered the benefits of fasting, but feared the challenges? Here in Silicon Valley, Sumaya Kazi is the poster child for intermittent fasting, a new trend in weight control that’s popular among the tech set. Intermittent fasting involves abstaining from food anywhere from sixteen hours to several days – with “normal” eating resumed in between. Enthusiasts say the health benefits extend far beyond weight loss. The BBC’s Health Check team sent Alison van Diggelen to explore the evidence.
“The effects were almost immediate for me: the weight started melting off really early on… I lost about 50 lbs over the first 7 1/2 months.” Sumaya Kazi
Here’s a transcript of my report (edited for length and clarity):
Alison van Diggelen: When 36-year old Sumaya Kazi launched her tech startup in 2010, the long hours, constant traveling and too much eating-out made her pack on the pounds. At over 200 lbs (90 kg), she tried to lose weight by exercising compulsively, trying weightloss groups, and doing weekly meal planning.
Sumaya Kazi: None of them stuck with me or showed me enough progress to stick with it. None of them felt like a lifestyle. When I found IF, it absolutely did for me.
Alison van Diggelen: For Kazi, fasting offered quick results:
Sumaya Kazi: The effects were almost immediate for me: the weight started melting off really early on, to my surprise, because I wasn’t working out at the time. I lost about 50 lbs over the first 7 1/2 months.
Alison van Diggelen: It was a BBC television documentary about fasting that convinced her to give it a try. Research from Johns Hopkins University in animals and humans suggested that fasting could enhance brain function and might evenhelp protect against cancer, strokes and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Fasting advocates claim it can reduce weight, improve blood sugar,can “re-set” the metabolism, boosts the immunesystem andcan even slow down aging. So what was Kazi’s personal experience?
Sumaya Kazi: I no longer had issues with high blood pressure. I was pre-diabetic early on and no longer have those issues. I no longer have issues of sleep apnea. Also I have more energy, I’m more productive, I feel more focused, I feel food tastes better.
Alison van Diggelen: So what does it involve? Kazi points out that the most popular form of intermittent fasting – or IF – is called “16-8.” That’s 16 hours of fasting followed by 8 hours of eating. Simply cutting out breakfast and eating an early dinner can accomplish that.
But Kazi prefers “alternate day” fasting. For her, Monday, Wednesday and Friday are fast days. The other days she calls “feast days.” This being Silicon Valley, she frames it in binary terms:
Sumaya Kazi:It’s almost like an on-off switch: I know when I should be eating, I know when I should be feasting. It keeps it simple for me. IF isn’t a magic pill. It works when you put it to work. It’s not a diet, it’s not about WHAT you eat, it’s about WHEN you eat. …
Alison van Diggelen: But how does it compare to other weight loss regimens? And are its claims backed up by research?
A professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago recently completed a fasting study with 28 obese patients and found that – like traditional diets – the 16-8 fast could offer an effective method for losing weight – but cautioned that longer-term, large-scale controlled trials are needed.
Santa Clara University Prof Heidi Lidtke, Nutritionist explains fasting for the BBC. Photo by Alison van Diggelen, Fresh Dialogues
I went to a coffee shop in a local bookstore to chat with a nutrition expert, Professor Heidi Lidtke.
Alison van Diggelen: Heidi and I assess the vast array of diet books on the bookstore walls. It’s quite overwhelming.
Heidi Lidtke: What I tell my students is: we should eat real food, mostly plants, not too much and we should enjoy what we eat.
Heidi is an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.
Heidi Lidtke: The most exciting research has been done in yeast and it shows that cancer in yeast can be totally stopped…the yeast cells are healthy and the cancer cells die after chemo and fasting. But it’s yeast and humans are NOT yeast. I don’t know how we can translate single cell organisms (yeast) to multi cell organisms – humans.
Alison van Diggelen:So it would be a stretch to say IF can cure cancer?
Heidi Lidtke:There are a lot of studies in rats and mice…It has cured and totally reversed diabetes in rats, not humans…But it’s not totally transferable, right?
Alison van Diggelen: What about studies on humans and diabetes?
Heidi Lidtke: There have been some studies on some of precursors, sugar levels and insulin levels – those can go down in the first couple of months of IF. But all human studies have been small – 35 people….it’s hard to say 35 Turkish people are the same as 35 Americans… It’s hard to extrapolate from the research.
Alison van Diggelen:What would be required to convince scientists, to show this causal connection?
Heidi Lidtke: There would need to be multiple studies in multiple population groups…We’re in the process of doing that, but it takes time.
Alison van Diggelen: But Lidtke remains skeptical, especially about the cancer claimswhich could influence people when they’re feeling vulnerable.
Heidi Lidtke: My initial reaction? Interesting…I have concerns for some people at risk…people are forgoing scientifically validated treatment…that people are going to fast instead of getting chemo…I have concerns.
Alison van Diggelen: Lidtke also points out that fasting is not for everyone – and could be dangerous for those with eating disorders (like anorexia or bulimia). And she recommends discussing it witha doctor before trying it.
Heidi Lidtke: For someone who’s got disordered eating it just feeds into that and gives them a framework.
Alison van Diggelen: So how does IF compare to other diets?
Heidi Lidtke: The research on IF is really slim and then research comparisons are even slimmer. It’s hard to do comparisons. The diet that works is the one you stick to. If you’re able to stick and keep the weight off, then that’s the one that works.
Alison van Diggelen: Lidtke emphasizes that there’s no diet that works for everyone and scientific research is limited, but she does single out the “DASH” diet which has been studied by the National Institutes of Health and is recommended by the US Dept of Agriculture in its nutrition guidelines. It’s rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods; and limited in sweetened foods and drinks, red meat, and fatsand has been proven to reduce blood pressure and hypertension, even without weight loss.
So, after hearing all the caveats, foranyone still keen to try fasting, Sumaya Kazi has three top tips….
Sumaya Kazi:
Look at IF as an experiment – It’s really better to approach it as something that you’re trying on for size…Feel free to experiment with the different schedules.
Give it some time. The first couple of days, you’ll likely be hangry, mad about starting. It’s about getting into the habit. Give it a fighting chance, push through and understand why you’re feeling what you’re feeling. After 2 weeks it’s going to start feeling like something you can actually do.
Sparkling water will be your best friend…carbonated water can help you feel full on fast days.
Alison van Diggelen: A small study in the US recently showed that fasting caused some people to experience lower blood pressure and improvements in processing sugar. But downsides like headaches, drowsiness and increased thirst were also reported. The bottom line is this: Despite Sumaya Kazi’s impressive transformation, to say that intermittent fasting is an enduring answer for everyone’s weight loss and general health: larger, longer-term studies are needed.
Plenty, a Silicon Valley company, plans to revolutionize farming by bringing it indoors and dramatically reducing water use. It has ambitious plans to replicate its warehouse farms in Japan, China and across Europe. BBC Click’s Alison van Diggelen explores: the veracity of its technology; its environmental claims; its use of AI and automation; and how it plans to disrupt the agricultural industry.
Here’s a transcript of the original (lengthier) report:
Plenty’s Patrick Mahoney (inside warehouse, sounds of farm fans, air-conditioning, beeps) : What you see is a cathedral like room – in which there are rows of towers on which our plants grow. This lush abundant overload of beautiful greens that we’re growing indoors here.
van Diggelen: Climate change is exacerbating food shortages by delivering more extreme temperatures, storms and severe droughts. Can technology help grow food more efficiently, using a fraction of the land and water of traditional agriculture? Matt Bernard, the CEO of Plenty, an indoor farming company in Silicon Valley believes it can. He grew up on a cherry farm in Wisconsin and says that fixing the water industry has been a driving force for him ever since. Barnard says that today’s agriculture industry uses about 80% of global water consumption and could use a “heck of a lot less.” His solution is “vertical farming” – massive indoor warehouses with powerful LEDs, and a super-efficient watering system. It uses just 1% of the water needed for a traditional field, he says.
Barnard: In the size of a couple of football fields we can grow 200 to 1000 acres. If you look at a football pitch – say FC Barcelona – we can grow what would grow on that field in the space of one net. That’s how land efficient it is. We get to grow all year long, without seasonality. [because we give the plants the perfect environment, they’re growing much faster than they do out in the field.
van Diggelen: Unlike rivals like, that grow produce on massive trays, Plenty’s plants grow out of 20-feet long poles and are fed with nutrient-rich water. Such soil-free systems, called hydroponics, have been around for decades, but recent tech advances have enabled a brave new world of indoor farming, on a scale that’s unprecedented. The temperature, humidity, and light is controlled by sensors and electronics, a system known as the Internet of Things or “IoT.” Here’s Bernard:
Bernard: We wouldn’t exist if it wouldn’t be for things like LED lights, if they hadn’t come down in cost by 98% over the last 7-8 yrs and the efficiency hadn’t improved.
van Diggelen: What other tech breakthroughs and cost curve reductions have been key?
Bernard: IoT sensors were too expensive 5 years ago, and weren’t practical enough – they were relatively dumb. Today the story is very different, camera tech and software technology make cameras as effective as possible. That tech and its cost effectiveness are critical to computer vision – a technology we need to run an effective farm.
van Diggelen: Can you break that down? What’s computer vision?
Bernard: The pairing of camera and vision tech with machine learning. Developing algorithms to allow machines to learn from the information they gather over time from what’s happening on the farm. Machine Learning was a couple of orders of magnitude more expensive only five years ago and also not effective enough to make use of in a farm.
van Diggelen: How does that make you better farmers?
Bernard: In the field, even in greenhouse, you don’t control all the inputs.
We end up with a giant optimization problem and we need to ask the machines to help if we want to learn and move as fast as possible.
van Diggelen: The sensors and software can spot plant problems before they’re obvious to a human he says. So, instead of using pesticides, this monitoring means ladybugs are its only pest control.
Many companies are vying for a slice of this fresh produce pie. And several have withered on the vine as they strive for economic viability. But with over 200 million dollars, Plenty is the best funded enterprise in the field. With funding and scaling expertise from Softbank’s Vision Fund, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and former Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt, Plenty has an aggressive plan to build its intensive farms close to major world cities. Providing local produce is key to its business model.
Barnard points out that the average lettuce travels about 2000 miles from field to grocery store in the U.S. The company aims to increase food nutrition and prolong shelf-life by what he describes as “collapsing the time from farms to tables, from weeks to minutes.”
In SF, the company’s focus is R&D, but it’ll start delivering produce this year from its first warehouse farm in Seattle. This 100,000 sf facility will powered entirely by renewable energy. But, like many tech dreams, marinated in Silicon Valley’s Kool Aid, is this all more hype than substance?
Jon Foley is the Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences. I caught up with him on the phone….
Foley: They use an enormous amount of resources to build the infrastructure to make these indoor farms. They use an enormous amount of energy to power them…to replace the sun and use indoor LED lighting. But we didn’t run out of sun!
The only benefits is maybe for water but food miles and food transportation isn’t really a huge problem for the environment. The biggest emissions of GHG from agriculture are not due to food miles, it’s things like deforestation, and too many cattle burping methane.
van Diggelen: Foley points out that many crops like wheat and corn just won’t grow indoors. They need heat and wind to develop stalks.
Foley: You see lots of vegetable greens: lettuce, arugula…you’re basically growing garnish.
van Diggelen: Foley also questions scalability…
Foley: Are we going to truly make a dent in global land-use that cost vastly more than farmland in Kansas? They’re not a silver bullet. They’re not really addressing the biggest problems we face feeding the world sustainably, it’ll be expensive and I doubt it’ll be reaching the world’s poorest billion.
van Diggelen: Another existential challenge is a pests outbreak. Due to the intensive nature of the farm, just one infestation could be catastrophic. Right now, the Plenty team is paranoid about pests. Workers and visitors must wear overalls and rubber boots disinfected in special shoe baths. A powerful ceiling fan is set up to remove any unwanted pests like Spider Mites.
Although the company plans to focus first on the U.S. market, another agriculture expert, Professor Heiman Lieth of UC Davis suggests the biggest opportunity might be in China where there’s a shortage of safe fresh produce, and government incentives for “green jobs” and subsidized renewable energy sources. The United Arab Emirates also offers a fertile venue with cheap power and affluent consumer demand.
But will consumers love the product enough to pay a premium?
Atmos: lettuce breaking sniffing…
(Lettuce container opening)
Keller: This was harvested ten minutes ago….We measure the size (tape measure unrolling). It’s ~9 cm – within accepted range. It meets the arugula profile…We’re on track…
van Diggelen: At this futuristic farm, even the taste testing is tech centered. The distinct taste, smell, even the size of each sample crop is tested twice a day and inputed to a computer program that features colorful pie-charts. Human and machine analysis creates a quick reaction-loop inside the warehouse to ensure a consistent taste and quality.
My mouth was watering by the time I met the taste experts, in Plenty’s white-tiled kitchen. Chief taste testers, Christine Keller and Leta Soza offered me what looked like baby spinach, but was in fact the sweetest, spiciest arugula I’ve ever tasted.
Keller (sniffing): We break it…We put our faces in the product and we take little sniffs so you detect every smell in there: Fresh cut grass, a very spicy wasabi…When we’re done, we roll it up into a little ball (Crunching, chewing…)
Keller: Our data teams and our plant science teams continue to improve the product because we know all the environmental controls going in and the sensory things coming out. It’s remarkable. It’s not been done.
Keller: We’re each filling out 3-digit codes for where the product came from, which room, (what farm, if you will) so we can track it back to all of the computer science that’s telling us the exact recipe that went in there.
Soza: (Typing andform filling): that’s slightly more than a four on the sweet actually – wasabi’s beautiful and so is bitter. Let’s send that off so farm ops can have the data and press on. (Laughter)
van Diggelen:It’s certainly a brave new vision for farming. But Plenty needs to scale up and surmount the cost challenges it faces, and keep growing tastier products than conventional farms, with a fraction of the water. It also needs to find markets where the demand and the price is “just right.” Only then will they flourish as well as their leafy green produce. Right now, it looks like a very tall order.
Listen to the BBC podcast or to the player above to hear a lively discussion of this report and some insights from Click’s Bill Thompson.
