Nature Rebounds [pdf]

http://phe.rockefeller.edu/docs/Nature_Rebounds.pdf

by kostyk • 11 years ago

8 1 11 years ago

phe.rockefeller.edu

birdsbolt• 11 years ago

Interesting, so much corn being used to feed animals, so little for humans. A gigantic energy loss trying to raise an animal first, then meat.

It's good to see that efficiency of producing corn has increased enormously.

Author - at the end - proposes a very extreme version of veganism -- cultivating proteins using bacteria feeding them hydrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen:

"Researchers for decades have been producing food conceived for astronauts on the way to Mars by cultivating hydrogenomonas on a diet of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and a little oxygen. They make proteins that taste like hazelnut. ... A single spherical fermenter of 100 yards diameter could produce the primary food for the 30 million inhabitants of Mexico City. The foods would, of course, be formatted before arriving at the consumer. Grimacing gourmets should observe that our most sophisticated foods, such as cheese and wine, are the product of sophisticated elaboration by microorganisms of simple feedstocks such as milk and grape juice. Globally, such a food system would allow humanity to release 90 percent of the land and sea now exploited for food."

It's definitely nice to see that all that meat production is getting more and more efficient. The meat industry is still the main producer of greenhouse gases but it's really getting astoundingly efficient, producing more food by producing less greenhouse gases.

Nature Rebounds [pdf]

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