In an £80 million greenhouse complex on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, cucumbers are being harvested as we speak. This is unusual because the month of January is completely out of season for harvesting crops such as cucumbers, but using state-of-the-art technology and sustainable growing techniques, the innovative project named Thanet Earth manages to grow crops such as these nearly all year round.

Amongst other crops, Thanet Earth is able to grow a steady supply of cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, which are ready for harvesting any time between January and November. This is because of the hydroponic growing technologies employed at Thanet Earth, who use a computer-controlled drip feed system, outstanding light levels, and the considerable height of the giant greenhouses to ensure that crops are both safe and of high-quality. These techniques also mean that crops are ready for harvesting only a month after they have been planted, an unprecedented growth time.

This exciting project is a major leap forward in the field of food technology, a development that will be welcomed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), who recently expressed serious concerns over food shortages in the future.

These concerns have led to a concentrated focus on sustainable growing techniques in order to meet future demand, which will in turn to lead to a wealth of new food job opportunities opening up in the fields of food science, food technology and agricultural development.

Due to the current global economic recession, the majority of food manufacturers reduced the amount they were investing in product development food jobs. However, according to The Oxford Research Agency, it is predicted that as consumers start to spend money again, thoughts will again turn to investment in greener, eco-friendly technologies.

Due to a positive outlook for 2010 after the instability of the previous year, The Oxford Research Agency are encouraging manufacturers to take advantage of the opportunities created by an increase in consumer confidence to reinvest in innovative technology.

This will also mean good news for those currently undertaking specialist training courses for food jobs in the fields of food technology, food science, and product development. As an increasing number of graduates are choosing this career path, it sets the food industry up well for the future. This is because not only will it be able to cope with future demand for increased volume and sustainability of food products, but it will also help graduates due to the availability of specialist food job opportunities.

In terms of brand and product development, the grocery think-tank IGD expects to see the following by the year 2012:

• 37 per cent more consumers will be buying locally produced foods on a regular basis
• 34 per cent will be buying a larger number of fair-trade products
• 15 per cent on consumers will buy more organic products

Fact - it's common practice for graduates who have been fortunate to have had an industrial placement for however short a time to be interviewed before those who have not ... no matter how good their grade!

Every graduate we have met who has taken part in an industrial placement considers the experience invaluable for a number of reasons. It has allowed them to put their studies into practice and to experience first hand the demands of working in the food manufacturing sector. And in many cases it allowed the graduate to decide which career path to follow; technical, manufacturing, process or NPD.

One thing for sure though is that many students have found it an challenging task to secure a placement in the first place - the main reason they are told is due to lack of resource. Catch twenty-two time as we need to encourage graduates into the food industry, get them excited and involved early on, showing them that the food manufacturing sector can be a highly rewarding career with long term opportunities.

We all are aware the pool of talent for the food industry is tight, therefore employers need to be more realistic, if you want 'the cream of the crop' you're going to have to get involved ... as little as a month long placement gives graduates the edge ... so spare some time and invest for the future and those employers that do will have the best graduates to pick from.

I'm not sure how many of you have caught the Twitter bug, but it really is strangely addictive. When pushed to describe it to people, it's difficult to know where to begin. Telling people "its micro blogging - instant and mobile" and that "you follow and are followed by people, with whom you're able to share ideas and links" just doesn't do it justice.

The cutest way I've heard it described is by Wired who described it as "almost like ESP...a Social Sixth Sense".

So, why are we talking about Twitter on the Food Job Blog? Well, product development chef recruitment specialists Check On, are rolling out (what we believe to be) a UK first, by launching a 'real time' jobs & news update service via Twitter for anyone looking for work as a development chef / work in new product development (NPD).

Why? Well, for one thing if you're working in a traditional cheffing environment, you're unlikely to want to sit down in front of computer after a split shift. http://www.Twitter.com/CheckOn will make it easy (and free) for you to keep updated however suits you: via the web, RSS, Instant Messenger or by SMS on your mobile. You'll also be able to communicate with Check On consultants and your peers ( if you want to ). It might - whisper it - even be fun :-)

If you're signing up for the CheckOn service however, we thought it might be interesting to have a look at some other cool things to do with Twitter...

First, you need to have some friends. Once you've found people you want to follow - the best way to do that is by checking out the followers of people you're interested in - If you follow them, and you've got something interesting to say, they'll then follow you. And you're off - multi layered conversations with your own community, delivered in realtime via mobile, IM, facebook ... in 140 characters or less. There really is no substitute for giving it a try......

The Guardian recently wrote a great piece on How to get the best out of Twitter

For those of you who can't be bothered to link or missed it, here's some cool twitter tools you might want to check out:

Finding people

www.Whoshouldifollow.com
www.Twitdir.com - directory
www.Twitterholic.com - the top users and accounts

Searching and organising

www.Summize.com - search for a word or phrase across the entire Twitter feed.
www.Quotably.com creates threads of discussions between people.
www.Terraminds.com - search engine, for users or phrases.
www.Tweetscan.com - search by user and time.
www.Twitterlocal.net finds twitterers near you.

Sharing

www.Twitthis.com,- lets people looking at your site or blog share the URL via Twitter.
www.Twitturly.com - what's being most linked-to and talked about?
www.Tweetmeme.com - what sort of topics are being discussed?

Visualise

www.Twittervision.com - real-time Google Maps mashup showing where tweets are being posted.
www.Twitterverse.com - tag clouds
www.Twittearth.com - visualisation of tweets, put onto a spiralling globe.
www.Tweetwheel.com - which of your friends are already following each other?

And..

http://pipes.yahoo.com/ouseful/tweetspeech - Yahoo Pipes converts (incoming) tweets to speech, playable via RSS.
www.Twittersnooze.com - hit the "snooze button", briefly, on verbose friends.
http://www.wp.korelab.com/yet-another-twitter-badge-twitter-balloon - your tweets superimposed on an image of your choosing.
www.twerpscan.com, avoid followers who befriend everyone: may be spammers.

See you on Twitter!

Ask most final year students or graduates where they want to work and the chances are they will say one of the big corporates like P&G, BT or until recently, one of the big banks. If they want to work in the food industry they will say one of the major brands like: Mars, Kellogg's, Cadbury Schweppes or Heinz. Yet this flies in the face of what most of them say they want from their first job in food. Sure, you will get to work with major global brands but how much influence will you have on product development? You have to ask yourself: how many new products do Heinz Baked Beans go through in the average year?

Increasingly, I believe graduates should also look at the own-label chilled product manufacturers who develop new lines for Tesco and M&S. While a global brand might carry out a dozen or so new product developments in a year, these companies could develop up to 800. You may say OK, that's fine for the guys in new product development but I have a degree in manufacturing science and I want to make a difference. Well you won't be Just in Time to teach Heinz much about the latest in Lean Manufacturing techniques. They have been at the cutting edge of real time manufacturing systems since the seventies. Own-label manufacturers may be more open to your ideas as they will be anxious to leapfrog a developmental stage or two in manufacturing know-how.

If it's a challenge you are looking for, how about managing a team of 100 people two years out of university? The non-branded chilled food market is as challenging as you like and backed by multi-million pound budgets and international networks, where you can learn the latest management thinking from around the world. And finally, if that's not enough there is always the thrill of seeing products that you developed or had a hand in the manufacture of sitting in the chillers of the major food retailers. After all, we all like to have our works of art on display for the whole world to see and, of course, to enjoy.