The world’s population is expected to increase to 9.1 billion by 2050, according to the UN. Feeding all those people will mean increasing food production by 70%, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. But aren't we running our of space to grow food?
Scary stuff, but for every new problem we have clever scientists and visionaries looking for solutions.
Here are two potential solutions I found out about recently, to our impending food shortage: Vertical Farms and Urban Hydroponics. Very cool stuff ind...... (agh! nearly typed 'indeed' !).
Vertical Farms grow food organically with no chemical herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers so if this replaces the intensive agricultural practices, the sooner the better.
Stupid bloody 'fire-fighting' humans. Yes, fire fighting - if you look at the management and future success of humanity as a business man would, you would say that we have been managing ourselves by fire-fighting, that is, dealing with problems as they come along rather than see them coming from afar and making sure we avoid them in the first place - fatal for any business in the long run. Populations got bigger, we needed to increase food production, e viola, the solution to that fire: intensive farming - genius! we put that fire out didnt we!? yes but what about the population fire? I suppose we will deal with that when its burning down the front door.
Urban Hydroponics - ..... well, this is what Peter Head, global leader of planning and sustainable development at Arup (a British engineering firm) says about it: “I wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw large retailers with greenhouses on their roofs growing produce for sale in the shop"
So I guess that just leaves the meat, dairy and wheat side of things - maybe if all the industrially farmed land we currently use for growing veg, can be passed back to small holding farmers, maybe we start heading in a more sustainable direction? too simple. The issues are surely complicated, but doesn't it make sense that, instead of fighting fires if we can make sustainable decisions before the fires start, and act more quickly (like we did during the war when things were desperate), perhaps we wont get so many fires burning in the first place.
Humans are undoubtedly ingenious and very good at solving problems in a short term way, but not so good it seems at organizing ourselves so that the cleverest people in our societies are the ones who make strategic decisions for the rest of us.Whats that Alexander Pope saying? 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing' . When you think how much knowledge we[humanity] have yet to discover about our planet and universe, I'd say what we have right now is 'a little knowledge'. And a little knowledge in the hands of people who think they are clever than they really are...? I mean, why did the dinosaurs last so long? what did they know? Well obviously, they didn't exterminate themselves cos they were dumb, oh yes, that makes sense doesnt it!
Stupid is as stupid does!
So if it turns out [looking back] that humanity only lasts one tenth as long as the dinosaurs did because we exterminate ourselves by consuming every earthly resource and build on every last inch of land mass to accommodate our enormously successful proliferation, on paper at least you would have to surmise that as a species, the humans must have been dumber than the dinosaurs, n'es pa? We have been around now for what, about half a million years, probably less (or 20 minutes if you are a creationist), I cant really see us beating 165 million years anytime soon.
Run Forest run!!!
Good Video about Urban Hydroponics here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqcBCcSLDlo
Juicy article VF and UH here: http://www.economist.com/node/17647627
Scary stuff, but for every new problem we have clever scientists and visionaries looking for solutions.
Here are two potential solutions I found out about recently, to our impending food shortage: Vertical Farms and Urban Hydroponics. Very cool stuff ind...... (agh! nearly typed 'indeed' !).
Vertical Farms grow food organically with no chemical herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers so if this replaces the intensive agricultural practices, the sooner the better.
Stupid bloody 'fire-fighting' humans. Yes, fire fighting - if you look at the management and future success of humanity as a business man would, you would say that we have been managing ourselves by fire-fighting, that is, dealing with problems as they come along rather than see them coming from afar and making sure we avoid them in the first place - fatal for any business in the long run. Populations got bigger, we needed to increase food production, e viola, the solution to that fire: intensive farming - genius! we put that fire out didnt we!? yes but what about the population fire? I suppose we will deal with that when its burning down the front door.
Urban Hydroponics - ..... well, this is what Peter Head, global leader of planning and sustainable development at Arup (a British engineering firm) says about it: “I wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw large retailers with greenhouses on their roofs growing produce for sale in the shop"
So I guess that just leaves the meat, dairy and wheat side of things - maybe if all the industrially farmed land we currently use for growing veg, can be passed back to small holding farmers, maybe we start heading in a more sustainable direction? too simple. The issues are surely complicated, but doesn't it make sense that, instead of fighting fires if we can make sustainable decisions before the fires start, and act more quickly (like we did during the war when things were desperate), perhaps we wont get so many fires burning in the first place.
Humans are undoubtedly ingenious and very good at solving problems in a short term way, but not so good it seems at organizing ourselves so that the cleverest people in our societies are the ones who make strategic decisions for the rest of us.Whats that Alexander Pope saying? 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing' . When you think how much knowledge we[humanity] have yet to discover about our planet and universe, I'd say what we have right now is 'a little knowledge'. And a little knowledge in the hands of people who think they are clever than they really are...? I mean, why did the dinosaurs last so long? what did they know? Well obviously, they didn't exterminate themselves cos they were dumb, oh yes, that makes sense doesnt it!
Stupid is as stupid does!
So if it turns out [looking back] that humanity only lasts one tenth as long as the dinosaurs did because we exterminate ourselves by consuming every earthly resource and build on every last inch of land mass to accommodate our enormously successful proliferation, on paper at least you would have to surmise that as a species, the humans must have been dumber than the dinosaurs, n'es pa? We have been around now for what, about half a million years, probably less (or 20 minutes if you are a creationist), I cant really see us beating 165 million years anytime soon.
Run Forest run!!!
Good Video about Urban Hydroponics here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqcBCcSLDlo
Juicy article VF and UH here: http://www.economist.com/node/17647627
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