Talk:Food

• Vertical farms (feed 40,000-50,000 people)
• Look into algae as a food source. Spirulina etc.
  • Seaweed is an underexploited food source.
• Make the point about using the best strains of plants (possibly GM) for food. Free seed exchanges
• In-vitro meat
• Seawater greenhouses
• Automated agricultural equipment. Robot farmers
  • Tractors and combine harvesters could be fully automated with today's technology. Application of GPS, vision system and cut-off safety boundaries near roads and habitation.
• As fishing has become more and more hi-tech lately (sonar to find shoals of fish etc.) might it be possible to build autonomous fishing boats? This would save people from doing dangerous work. I can envision autonomous lobster pots that have sensors to tell when they've caught a lobster. This sensor would activate a mechanism to haul the pot back in.
• LED grow lights may actually improve yield by supplying just the right wavelengths, but the evidence is not in yet.

How much land is needed to feed one person?

• [1] "The data I keep coming across on the web and in gardening books suggests that, to provide an adequate, year-round vegetable diet (excluding grains) for a family of four using standardized organic gardening methods, you would need a garden plot about 4000-5000 square feet" That's 1000-1250 square feet per person, 93-116m²
• [2] "On approximately two acres-- half of which was on a terraced 35 degree slope--I produced enough food to feed more than 300 people (with a peak of 450 people at one point), 49 weeks a year in my fully organic CSA on the edge of Silicon Valley . If I could do it there you can do it anywhere." 2 acres = 8094m². For 300 people, that's 27m² per person. For 450, it's 18m²
• Hydroponics: [3] "SH garden produces 2 kilos of vegetables a day per 20m² space."
• [4] 20m², according to one of the guys who designed food production systems for NASA (probably aeroponics, though he doesn't specifically mention aeroponics in the video).
• At the very inefficient end of the spectrum: [5] "The current typical American’s food footprint load, including area left to meat, is approximately 2.1 acres. Traditional Victorian wisdom was that two acres would feed a person." 2 acres = 8094m².