“it is very labor-intensive. No way could we feed enough people to make it work for most of the world’s population”
Robots will work 24x7. They can make it much more feasible.
10-20 years, but starting before that with increasingly mechanized systems shifting trays and controlling lights and irrigation. Gradually building in more sensors and intelligence, as well as motorized mechanisms.
Yes, there are several 24 hour a day operations around the world, many in the U.S. That’s not the problem here. Mechanized agriculture uses haute technology. Nontraditional agriculture not so much.
If the division of labor doesn’t exceed population growth, then we have problems. Malthus was wrong, but only in his timing. Each new advance brings us closer to a black swan event and then it’s cataclysmic.
The trouble with the greenies is that they inevitably turn to collective action to deal with the problems that they think the evil free market has saddled us with. They refuse to acknowledge that it is collective action, i.e. governments, that place us on the fast track to division of labor on steroids. The problems we have in production, distribution, and consumption are not results of free markets. They are results of collective action because the appetites of the collective are always greater than the sum of its parts (individuals).
A really cool use of technology to feed people is the vertical harvest concept. There are several sites that do this. My favorite is Vertical Harvest of Jackson, Wyoming. They feed people in the middle of winter in a valley that is sometimes cut off from the rest of the world by snow. Cool stuff, but highly dependent on division of labor. It takes both new technology and old technology for a solution.