5 ms·

And crop nutrient depletion

by goda90 5y ago

genewitch 5y ago
plants are 99.9999% carbon from carbon dioxide, though... what? edit: i mean of the things in a plant that contain carbon and don't, 99... whatever percent of a plant is atmospheric carbon. all the soil amendments added are to replace stuff like fungus that normally forms a relationship with nearby plants and gives nutrients that plants use to modulate energy production and transpiration (or whatever), similar to how we need all of the "salts" to have a functioning brain. N-P-K lets plants more efficiently turn atmospheric carbon into food than without. Couple this with the fact that humans use nearly all of a plant now, to make cooking oil, fuel oil, and animal feed, there's nothing left after we harvest for the fungus to eat. I normally would have launched into a diatribe against bayer/monsanto as a reply about stuff like this, but as it stands, i'm fine with careful and scientifically sound application of N-P-K for huge farms. I do, however, have a problem with pesticides and their "inactive" ingredients, not the least of which due to drinking water from an untreated well, myself. Also i know it's not 99.9999%.
- smolder 5y ago
  Studies show higher atmospheric carbon means the crops grow faster and have lower micronutrient density than crops grown in lower co2 environments. Our crops grow faster but aren't as healthy for us.
  - genewitch 5y ago
    I would like to read those, should you happen to know which ones. It seems counter-intuitive. soil amendments only including N-P-K don't seem like they'd help much with micronutrients anyhow, so ideally "functional local farming" should be considered an imperative, at least for supplementing mass-farmed foods. Like sure, canned and frozen vegetables for 6 meals a week, but one meal should have locally sourced something that hasn't been frozen or otherwise treated. A properly managed and grown acre of land can provide a quarter ton to a ton of food in a year, but you can't use tractors or anything, it all has to be managed by hand or small machines.
    - smolder 5y ago
      Not intended as snark or anything; there are a few articles about it in the HN story results you can look at: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=carbon+dioxide+crops https://hn.algolia.com/?q=carbon+dioxide+crops

And crop nutrient depletion

by goda90 5y ago

And crop nutrient depletion

plants are 99.9999% carbon from carbon dioxide, though... what? edit: i mean of the things in a plant that contain carbon and don't, 99... whatever percent of a plant is atmospheric carbon. all the soil amendments added are to replace stuff like fungus that normally forms a relationship with nearby plants and gives nutrients that plants use to modulate energy production and transpiration (or whatever), similar to how we need all of the "salts" to have a functioning brain. N-P-K lets plants more efficiently turn atmospheric carbon into food than without. Couple this with the fact that humans use nearly all of a plant now, to make cooking oil, fuel oil, and animal feed, there's nothing left after we harvest for the fungus to eat. I normally would have launched into a diatribe against bayer/monsanto as a reply about stuff like this, but as it stands, i'm fine with careful and scientifically sound application of N-P-K for huge farms. I do, however, have a problem with pesticides and their "inactive" ingredients, not the least of which due to drinking water from an untreated well, myself. Also i know it's not 99.9999%.

smolder 5y ago
Studies show higher atmospheric carbon means the crops grow faster and have lower micronutrient density than crops grown in lower co2 environments. Our crops grow faster but aren't as healthy for us.
- genewitch 5y ago
  I would like to read those, should you happen to know which ones. It seems counter-intuitive. soil amendments only including N-P-K don't seem like they'd help much with micronutrients anyhow, so ideally "functional local farming" should be considered an imperative, at least for supplementing mass-farmed foods. Like sure, canned and frozen vegetables for 6 meals a week, but one meal should have locally sourced something that hasn't been frozen or otherwise treated. A properly managed and grown acre of land can provide a quarter ton to a ton of food in a year, but you can't use tractors or anything, it all has to be managed by hand or small machines.
  - smolder 5y ago
    Not intended as snark or anything; there are a few articles about it in the HN story results you can look at: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=carbon+dioxide+crops https://hn.algolia.com/?q=carbon+dioxide+crops