I’d be down for some algae burgers if it helps the planet 🌿🍔
Anyone here read Artemis by Andy Weir? Yeah…
I have it’s a great book!
I feel like this kinda thing is a bit of a trope in sci-fi and cyberpunk, where one staple crop is used to cheaply feed a large number of people. In some works the staple crop is algae, in some it’s soy, etc. Arguably, in the real world US it’s corn.
Can’t we do this in vertical farms, industrially, and not only take no more land from nature, but give land back. The more land we can return to nature the better.
From what I understand vertical farming really only works out economically for high value crops. Using artificial light instead of the sun takes a lot of energy, and tall buildings are expensive and require maintenance. Algae tanks would also be SUPER heavy, which is a whole other problem.
It’s not ready, yet. But it could get started in places baking in too much solar.
Buildings are still SUPER expensive, both up front and in an ongoing way. Personally I think it’s a bit misguided to promote vertical farms when we are currently wasting so much space to create e.g. parking lots, or to grow corn to burn in cars.
Tall buildings are good for housing people though.
Use old mines and go down. 😃 But yes, there are other land wastes we can go for right now.
The potential is great but I think it’s better to rethink our current choices and be more conscious with the food that we now have. If we lessen our consumption of animal meat then we can focus on feeding supposed animal feed crops to humans. The use of land and water would be less alongside lower carbon emissions.
But animal meat is tasty 😣. Maybe plant based alternatives or lab grown meat will fill that gap and we can start using the farmland more efficiently
Humans need some meat in their ration, and lab grown replacements etc are now too expensive for most of the planet.
However, “some” doesn’t mean a burger or two every day, so yes, there’s space for improvement. Meat is really expensive in terms of carbon emissions.
Frankly I’m not sure how one would notably reduce emissions of anything without actual control (like by force) over most of the world, where green stuff is less relevant than hunger and illiteracy.
But maybe it’s best that USA and EU and similar developed countries don’t have that control. I mean, green energy etc sometimes seem more important than actual lives being saved for many.
No, humans do not need meat. This is plain false! You can greatly decrease emissions by cutting out animal consumption and the FAO has been pleading for a global plant based diet for ages…
