These 4 Tech Trends Are Driving Us Toward Food Abundance

Singularity Hub ^ | May 18, 2018 | Peter H. Diamandis, MD

[familyop]

"Vertical Farming"

Because large buildings are cheap.

"Wine from France, beef from Texas, potatoes from Idaho."

Peter H. Diamandis, MD, is not very familiar with agriculture or markets.

"Today, we must grow an entire cow—all bones, skin, and internals included—to produce a steak."

That would be about a 600-700 pound steak. Dr. Diamandisio must be pretty fat.

"Imagine returning millions, perhaps billions, of acres of grazing land back to the wilderness? This is the promise of lab-grown meats."

Oh, Dr. Diamandisioelli doesn't like private property. He wants communism with that, too, eh?

[CIB-173RDABN]

While the article may not have mentioned it, how else could it work. Are you telling me there would be independent farmers on every floor? Or, more likely (if the idea is even viable) that one corporation would control the entire operation.

Now if it works in one city, economy of scale would almost demand similar operations in every major city. Again, would there be multiple corporation each with their own building or again more likely a single corporation would be control all of them.

Now when you think “central control” you may think government but that is not always the case. Look at newspapers today. Most are owned by just a few companies. This would be the same thing.

Personally I think we are better off with a thousand scattered farms and ranches then a few centrally located “farms” in the big cities.

But the argument is moot, it is not going to happen since the local governments will write so many regulations that it would not be profitable (and what the regulator don’t restrict the environmentalist would).

But I may be wrong. These are after all just my opinions and I have been wrong before. Have a good day

[2ndDivisionVet]

“Because large buildings are cheap.”

Completely Surreal Photos Of America’s Abandoned Malls
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3657255/posts

Up to 25% of U.S. shopping malls may close in the next five years, report says
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3556989/posts

[alligator]

There was a very good book written by Julian Simon back in 1998 which discussed many of the ideas from this article. I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in getting a unbiased explanation of challenges facing us today. He dives into the conventional beliefs about scarcity of energy and natural resources, pollution of the environment, the effects of immigration, and the “perils of overpopulation... The name of the book is “Ultimate Resource 2”. Seriously, go read it.

[central_va]

We are exporting food and importing finished durable goods which is bankrupting and de - industrializing the USA plus causing food prices to go ever higher. So what little you might save buying cheap crap at Walmart is eaten up by food inflation. Lose - lose. Globalism sucks.

[ckilmer]

Actually there are about six more major agricultural revolutions that the author didn’t mention

[tbw2]

Norman Borlaug, the unassuming Protestant plant breeder even Slate called the man who saved a billion from starvation.
He was the father of the Green Revolution.

[posterchild]

I don’t expect ‘central control’ here any more than I expect central control of software development just because of a few hardware vendors, nor do I expect central control of 3D printing of devices just because there are a few dominant players in the 3D printing machine business, nor do I expect there is central control in blockchain just because there are a few dominant players (bitcoin and etherium) in the calculated hash and distributed record keeping business, etc.

[Moonman62]

Ultimately, technology has enabled a massive variety of food at a significantly reduced cost and with fewer resources used for production.

...

Technology sure beats more government.

[Moonman62]

Thank you. I was just thinking of the Greening Revolution.

[familyop]

Thanks. There are some high costs for keeping large buildings, though (property tax, maintenance, etc.). Necessary high indoor humidity adds to the problems.

[familyop]

Thanks for the book tip. I look forward to it.

[Excellence]

There are machines that take co2 out of the air and pump it into a hothouse, so that’s a given.

[P.O.E.]

[maddogtiger]

Nobody has a clue about micronutrients.