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The vast majority of crop land in the US is not used to produce food for humans directly, but rather for animals. (I don't have a source, but at as an agronomis

by jqm 11y ago

The vast majority of crop land in the US is not used to produce food for humans directly, but rather for animals. (I don't have a source, but at as an agronomist and someone who grew up in agriculture, and someone who has paid careful attention when traveling I can say this is almost certainly the case or close enough to the case to be relevant for the below point...). The key to growing more high value food (protein and fat as opposed to low nutrient density fiber, vitamins and water foodstuff like this system provides) is to remove animals from the equation. This is the terrible inefficiency in modern agriculture and solving it would result in tremendous gains. I'm very excited about things like tank grown nutrient yeasts. There was an article a few weeks ago about a type that has been engineered to produce milk for instance. This type of thing is the future I believe and has great potential. A few off season indoor vegetables are great too. As condiments.

jqm 11y ago
Here is a some more info... http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/cropmajor.html http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/cropmajor.html Corn is the largest crop in the US. 84 million acres of it were grown in 2011 (try fitting that in a hydro system in an old factory). According to the National Corn Growers Association, 80% of corn in the US is consumed by animals.. poultry, cattle, hogs, fish etc. Soybeans are the second largest crop with ~74 million acres grown in 2011. Although not as dramatic as corn, animals eat a significant share of soybeans as well. Over 30 million tons of soybean meal is used as livestock feed annually (very roughly 1/3 of soybean production according to my quick and dirty calculations). The third largest crop is hay at ~56 million acres. This is exclusively used for animal feed. These three crops together are many times the acreage of all other crops combined. Manifestly, the big savings in water, fuel, fertilizer etc would be to remove the dependence on animals in the diet.
- PopeOfNope 11y ago
  There's evidence to suggest that by eliminating herd animals, we're actually shooting ourselves in the foot[0]. I won't argue the benefits of increasing meat and animal product consumption here, but there is evidence to support that as well. [0]: http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/reversing-desertification-with-livestock http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/reversing-desertification-with-li...
  - jqm 11y ago
    Interesting point. Also there are many areas suitable for animal grazing that aren't good for crops. The problem is grain fed meet and milk from an efficiency standpoint.

by jqm 11y ago

jqm 11y ago

Here is a some more info... http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/cropmajor.html http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/cropmajor.html Corn is the largest crop in the US. 84 million acres of it were grown in 2011 (try fitting that in a hydro system in an old factory). According to the National Corn Growers Association, 80% of corn in the US is consumed by animals.. poultry, cattle, hogs, fish etc. Soybeans are the second largest crop with ~74 million acres grown in 2011. Although not as dramatic as corn, animals eat a significant share of soybeans as well. Over 30 million tons of soybean meal is used as livestock feed annually (very roughly 1/3 of soybean production according to my quick and dirty calculations). The third largest crop is hay at ~56 million acres. This is exclusively used for animal feed. These three crops together are many times the acreage of all other crops combined. Manifestly, the big savings in water, fuel, fertilizer etc would be to remove the dependence on animals in the diet.

PopeOfNope 11y ago
There's evidence to suggest that by eliminating herd animals, we're actually shooting ourselves in the foot[0]. I won't argue the benefits of increasing meat and animal product consumption here, but there is evidence to support that as well. [0]: http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/reversing-desertification-with-livestock http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/reversing-desertification-with-li...
- jqm 11y ago
  Interesting point. Also there are many areas suitable for animal grazing that aren't good for crops. The problem is grain fed meet and milk from an efficiency standpoint.