We can feed the world with technology

[Young Master Smeet]

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/21/2002655117

“Wheat is the most important food crop worldwide, grown across millions of hectares. Wheat yields in the field are usually low and vary with weather, soil, and crop management practices. We show that yields for wheat grown in indoor vertical farms under optimized growing conditions would be several hundred times higher than yields in the field due to higher yields, several harvests per year, and vertically stacked layers. Wheat grown indoors would use less land than field-grown wheat, be independent of climate, reuse most water, exclude pests and diseases, and have no nutrient losses to the environment. However, given the high energy costs for artificial lighting and capital costs, it is unlikely to be economically competitive with current market prices.”

“the Middle East imports most of its wheat because of its limited agricultural land and water resources (2). Adding indoor vertical wheat to developing programs for achieving sustainable desert agriculture already in place (36, 37) could help stabilize the regional food supply. Unused desert areas potentially offer a vast energy supply for solar farms in this region (38). Indoor vertical wheat facilities could be particularly valuable in buffering the effects of climate-related events or other anomalies in food production in any country; however, the likelihood of such a system becoming sufficiently economically viable to displace conventional means of grain production is low”

[ZJW]

Cf. At the bottom of this page the dissenting comment from ‘Stavos’, an enemy of unnecessary frugality:

 

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2015-10-07/notes-on-the-question-of-the-transition-to-communism

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