5 ms·

Idea for Mexico: invest heavily in desalination, create whole states of hothouse farms (hothouse assuming that watering whole deserts would be bad for the ecolo

Idea for Mexico: invest heavily in desalination, create whole states of hothouse farms (hothouse assuming that watering whole deserts would be bad for the ecology and an inefficient use of water), and eat American agriculture's lunch. Subsidize the hell out of the desalination, pumping and waste water recycling, until the hothouse industry can pay for it themselves. Then sell the desalination technology and services to the world.

huherto 15y ago
Is this really an option? I am Mexican, but don't know much about this type of technology. We have big deserts next to the sea.
- sixtofour 15y ago
  Your first, second and third sentences are exactly my point. Yes it's an option, although you and most countries are fairly far from it yet. It takes decisions, purpose and money. If I can use you as a proxy for Mexico, whatever is not known about this by the larger Mexican economy, and engineering and agriculture communities, can be learned from the smaller groups of knowledgeable people and spread. It's a hard problem, and whatever technologies are developed can lead to exportable products and services (both engineering and agricultural). Yes, you have big deserts next to the sea, and you probably want to keep them deserts, if for no other reason than human transformation of large ecologies sometimes doesn't work out. So advanced, Mexican developed hothouse technology, enabled by desalinated and pumped water, gives you a place for Mexicans to migrate to in-country, without having to smuggle themselves across the border to die in an American or Mexican desert. All those Mexican citizens currently working for American agriculture, sending some money home but spending money in America for daily living, could instead be spending that money in Mexico. All that money earned would be feeding the Mexican economy, in addition to the national income earned from exporting agricultural products. Imagine if the safest food that Americans (and Mexicans) eat came from rigorously clean and high technology Mexican hothouses.
ericd 15y ago
Desalination takes a huge amount of energy - does your plan take that into account?
- sixtofour 15y ago
  It's obviously an off the top of my head post. Obviously that's part of the equation, and would have to be solved. It's not something that could happen immediately. An economic solution would evolve slowly, but only if it was decided. Mexico does have a lot of oil, so part of those decisions could involve moving some of that oil from quick money exports to longer term desalination, little by little. It may not always be oil, maybe a good portion of the needed energy could come from tides, winds, chemical differentials between deep sea and shallow sea water. It could be Mexico's Moon project.
sliverstorm 15y ago
Is that doable while narcotraficantes are still at large?
- sixtofour 15y ago
  Good question. But if you let that question stop you, then the terrorists have won.
  - sliverstorm 15y ago
    Narcos are not terrorists. They are narcos. Al Capone was not a terrorist either. Put differently, a terrorist wants you to live in fear thinking he will kill you. A narco will just kill you and be done with it.
cesar 15y ago
"Applying water desalinisation technology to agriculture is generally cost-ineffective" - http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/j4238e.htm http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/j4238e.htm

huherto 15y ago

Is this really an option? I am Mexican, but don't know much about this type of technology. We have big deserts next to the sea.

sixtofour 15y ago
Your first, second and third sentences are exactly my point. Yes it's an option, although you and most countries are fairly far from it yet. It takes decisions, purpose and money. If I can use you as a proxy for Mexico, whatever is not known about this by the larger Mexican economy, and engineering and agriculture communities, can be learned from the smaller groups of knowledgeable people and spread. It's a hard problem, and whatever technologies are developed can lead to exportable products and services (both engineering and agricultural). Yes, you have big deserts next to the sea, and you probably want to keep them deserts, if for no other reason than human transformation of large ecologies sometimes doesn't work out. So advanced, Mexican developed hothouse technology, enabled by desalinated and pumped water, gives you a place for Mexicans to migrate to in-country, without having to smuggle themselves across the border to die in an American or Mexican desert. All those Mexican citizens currently working for American agriculture, sending some money home but spending money in America for daily living, could instead be spending that money in Mexico. All that money earned would be feeding the Mexican economy, in addition to the national income earned from exporting agricultural products. Imagine if the safest food that Americans (and Mexicans) eat came from rigorously clean and high technology Mexican hothouses.

ericd 15y ago

Desalination takes a huge amount of energy - does your plan take that into account?

sixtofour 15y ago
It's obviously an off the top of my head post. Obviously that's part of the equation, and would have to be solved. It's not something that could happen immediately. An economic solution would evolve slowly, but only if it was decided. Mexico does have a lot of oil, so part of those decisions could involve moving some of that oil from quick money exports to longer term desalination, little by little. It may not always be oil, maybe a good portion of the needed energy could come from tides, winds, chemical differentials between deep sea and shallow sea water. It could be Mexico's Moon project.

sliverstorm 15y ago

Is that doable while narcotraficantes are still at large?

sixtofour 15y ago
Good question. But if you let that question stop you, then the terrorists have won.
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  Narcos are not terrorists. They are narcos. Al Capone was not a terrorist either. Put differently, a terrorist wants you to live in fear thinking he will kill you. A narco will just kill you and be done with it.

cesar 15y ago

"Applying water desalinisation technology to agriculture is generally cost-ineffective" - http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/j4238e.htm http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/j4238e.htm