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We're ~60 years from running out of topsoil globally if we continue degrading it at the current rate: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-o
by makerofspoons 6y ago
We're ~60 years from running out of topsoil globally if we continue degrading it at the current rate: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-farming-left-if-soil-degradation-continues/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-...
- FredPret 6y agoWe’ll probably be eating lab-grown meat and hydroponically-grown vegetables by then. If we’re not all uploaded to a server embedded in the planet’s core or orbiting the sun.
- neonnoodle 6y agoGood news! we're orbiting the sun now, well ahead of target date
- FredPret 6y agoDidn’t think the words “in an artificial sattelite” were really needed to convey the idea.
- debacle 6y agoHydroponically grown vegetables tend to be nutrientless sponges. Hydroponically grown celery tastes like water. Fresh, dirt-grown celery is nearly inedible because of how sharp and metallic the flavor is. Industrial and lab-grown meat will face the same problems.
- sp332 6y agoI've heard exactly the opposite about hydroponic vegetables. I suppose it depends on what nutrients the plants are given in the water. What is your experience?
- debacle 6y agoIt's 100% the nutrients + minerals. When you get right down to it, you're just trading one growing medium for another. That said, hydroponics allows for a level of control in nutrients that soil does not, generally leading to weighty, tasteless veggies.
- FredPret 6y agoUhm... no. Ever actually had any? How do you what lab-grown meat will taste like? And why do you think lots of pot-smokers insist on the hydroponic kind? For the weak watery effect?
- klyrs 6y agoIt can go either way, depending on how much fertilizer you use. Farms that cheap out will have an inferior product.
- faemir 6y agoAs someone in the industry, this is absolute rubbish and misinformation.
- haram_masala 6y agoLab-grown meat will taste exactly the way consumers expect meat to taste, for the same reason orange juice does.
- hinkley 6y ago[1] because we will engineer the process to a terrifying degree.
- FooHentai 6y agoI don't believe that's accurate. The main issue or limitation of hydroponics/aquaponics is that many types of vegetables cannot be grown via the method. It's suited to leafy greens and not, for example, root vegetables.
- FredPret 6y agoI googled "hydroponic potatoes" and I kid you not, the first words in the results were "Potatoes are one of the easiest crops to grow with a hydroponics system". I've also had grown and eaten hydroponic potatoes myself and they were great.
- FooHentai 6y agoHuh, my knowledge is outta date. Thanks for correcting!
- pepperonipizza 6y agoThis claim has been contested https://ourworldindata.org/soil-lifespans#:~:text=But%20the%20“60%20harvests”%20claim,and%2018%25%20exceeded%2010%2C000%20years https://ourworldindata.org/soil-lifespans#:~:text=But%20the%....
- markdown 6y agoWhere does the topsoil go? Doesn't it, by definition, just become topsoil somewhere else?
- redisman 6y agoWell no. Just like a rainforest doesn't just fly in the wind to become a rainforest somewhere else if you burn it. Soil is a ecosystem, not a raw material.
- onlyrealcuzzo 6y agoThat was a spectacular analogy.
- markdown 6y agoSure, soil is an ecosystem, but topsoil is the top part of that soil. The surface layer. If you bulldoze a rainforest, there's no more rainforest. But if you scrape away topsoil, you have subsoil, and you have a big pile of topsoil.
- supernovae 6y agoIt doesn't have to go anywhere, it can just "die" - lose its ability to hold water, nutrients, fungus, microbes - everything necessary for it to be beneficial to plants.
- markdown 6y agoSo they've done what's all too common these days... gone and changed what a word means. Dead topsoil is dead topsoil. It doesn't become rock or subsoil or something else. The title of this post is "corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil". It should be "a third of the top soil in the corn belt is badly degraded" or something like that.
- supernovae 6y agoHave they? It's common vernacular to say we lost something even if it isn't "i lost my keys" but "We lost the last dodo bird"... doesn't mean we can't find it, but, what we had will never be again.