I have to notice that as a former commodities trader she is still very much fond of big business and big government. I tend to agree with most of the things she said, but the issue is giving all the power, all the land to just a few major players.

All of this is a big advertisement for large commercial farms to certain extent. It can be interpreted that way, however I do believe that people should own as much land as possible in their respective countries.

We cannot just give away our ability to feed ourselves to corporations. Small and mid size farms should coexist with larger businesses also.

Ideally, the Government and a corporation could own equal shares of the company, but at the same time individual farmers need to be given a chance to retain control over their own land.

All countries need to become self sufficient as much as possible. As much as possible food, resources, etc.

If you own some arable land you better hold on to it - the tendency is that larger and larger chunks of land are being purchased and sold worldwide. Meaning that simple people can no longer purchase arable land.

Apartments versus houses is also something to say. The tendency is that more and more people move to the cities and live in huge apartment blocks, while not even owning the land.

The goal of every country, family, person is to become as much self sufficient (if such a need arises).

The only regret I had is that I have not purchased arable land close to the city in Europe where I live. In 7 years the actual value of land in some countries increased 100 - 300 percent.

Feeding the world is a good idea, but be sure to have an acre or two for yourself also. Worst case you will be able to rent it out in the future.

Another thing worth mentioning is that population growth predictions may change over time. Have a piece of land for yourself also. In a new world, those who will be able to feed themselves and the others will be the free ones. The rest will be in a less fortunate situation.

Dale Modisette

7y↑3

It all came about after a project I worked on to design a green subdivision with many others. I thought I could do more and started gathering info. That was when G+ was still invite only. A village is a 50 million dollar undertaken. Then broke it down to a what I call Dartanyan's Restaurant & Farm but again that was 5 million dollar undertaken. So I decided trying a homeless shelter with my knowledge.

1.9848 acre per person living in a sustainable village (234 people and 464.4432 acres for the village)
80% crafted, made and grown in said village And 20% are raw materials, food not grown, medical equipment/supplies, electronics and etc.

- 0.6250 acre of farmland/person (146.2500ac)
- 0.0892 acre of farmland products to be sold/person (20.8728ac)
- 0.2321 acre of living area/person (54.3114ac)
- 0.0214 acre of wine vineyards/person (5.0076ac)
- 0.0714 acre of ponds/person (16.7076ac)
- 0.1069 acre of coffee/person or 3,456 trees (25.0146ac) [555 trees/2.4711 acres or 1 Hectare]
- 0.0071 acre of teas/person (1.6614ac)
- 0.0142 acre of herbs/person (3.3228ac)
- 0.1428 acre of schools/person (33.4152ac)
- 0.2142 acre of park & wildlife/person (50.1228ac)
- 0.1428 acre of village square/person (33.4152ac)
- 0.1785 acre of livestock/person (41.7690ac)
- 0.1392 acre of roads & etc/person (32.5728ac)
_______________________________________________________________

By using a mix of permaculture and aquaponics which in turn use 90% less water to grow food and a minimum of twice as fast :

* Reduces Labor by 75%
* Reuses 95% of the water
* Low Electricity Need (use solar to stay off the grid)
* Faster Vegetable
* Longer Shelf Life
* Organic Mineral Rich
* Produces Its own Fertilizer
* Non-Contaminated Fish
* Use of Tiger Shrimp &/or Crawfish to clean algae
* Uses of the Bacteria and fecal matter are collected to make Methane in place of natural gas &/or Decomposed solids to worm bin which turn is used to make Compost Tea is brewed from worm casting and water. The tea can be used for Fruit Orchard to increase Microbial Content in the soil.
________________________________________________________________

The Helpful Garden

The idea is to design a homeless shelter using Aquaponics and permaculture to feed them as well as make money for them. Each place will have 9 to 13 (12 x 18) 216 sq ft building for living in. So the "Helpful Garden" will be shelter to up to 13 people as well as a farmers market. The one thing about homeless shelters is that one can be built every 80 miles about or so. I can see a minimum of 3000 homeless shelters of the "Helpful Garden" being built worldwide. (Powered by solar & wind) To build said place is about $500,000 depending where it built. Though it won't need donation or government grants to run for all it's money comes from it farmers market.

Profits:
40% profit breakdown:

Money needed for sheltered women: $15,000/each allotted to each tiny home each year. plus stables (Example: coffee, sugar, flour, salt and pepper)

60% profit breakdown:

10% to building new Helpful Gardens
20% to maintenance
15% to college grants
15% to etc.

Budget : $500,000

1.) Land : 3+ acres (Budget $25,000.00 or less)
2.) Tiny Homes: 9 to 13 (12 x 18) 216 sq ft [on ½ acre] (Budget $156,000.00 or less)
3.) Intake Office: 600 Sq ft (Budget $25,000.00 or less)
4.) Farmers Market: ½ acre (Budget $45,000.00 or less)
5.) Parking Lot: ¼ acre (Budget $5,000.00)
6.) Aquaponics and Permaculture Farm: 1 ¾ acres (Budget $109,000.00 or more)

a.) Up to 3 different fish
b.) Tiger shrimp
c.) Crayfish
d.) 3 different apple and pears trees so [to have them throughout the year]
e.) Citrus trees like lemons, oranges and 2 two others.
f.) Chickens (meat and eggs)
g.) Goats (milk and cheese)
h.) Honey Bees 4 to 6 hives
i.) 2 fig trees (maybe)
j.) Freshwater mussels (maybe)
k.) Rabbits (maybe)

Powered : [Total Budget $135,000.00]

1.) Solar (Budget $90,000)
a.) Tiny Homes 13 set of 4 - 250 watt cell with light sensors (52 solar cells) cost between $27,287.00 and $36,387.00
b.) Aquaponics System - (?)
c.) Intake Office - set of 6 - 250 watt cell with light sensors
(cost between $3,148.50 and $4,198.50)
d.) Farmers Market - (?)

2.) Wind Power - (Budget $45,000)
a.) Windmill electric generator 15 to 30 KW cost between $18,000 - $48,000
______________________________________________________________________

Just some working notes:

Payroll for security : $3,900/wk $16,900/mo $202,800/yr
3 full time: ($24/hr) $2,880/wk $12,480/mo $149,760/yr
4 part time: 17 hour work week ($15/hr) $1,020/wk $4,420/mo $53,040/yr

Payroll for gardeners : same as security

Volunteers : 36 (though it's like $6/hr to help pay for their gas and childcare if needed).
$4,320/wk $18,720/mo $224,640/yr

Total payroll : $427,440/yr

Money needed for sheltered women: $144,000/yr or $12,000/each allotted to each tiny home (12)
Money of the other 60% profit equals $270,000

$450,000 plus payroll equals $958,769.04
Needed $263.34/hr@70/hr@52/wk=$958,769.04

235,000 lbs vegetables
@$0.5/lb=$32.28/hr or 64.56 lbs/hr or 645.5 lbs/day

30,000 lbs fish/crayfish/shrimp
@ $3/lbs = $247.251/day or $90,000.00/yr

These are all low ball figures
$174,720 online sales per year
$117,500 vegetable sale per year
$90,000.00 meat sales per year
$500 honey sales per year

At point soda sales per year

Snack & hot food sale per year

Cloths & wares sales per year

Frozen food sales per year

Canning goods sales per year

Dairy/cheese sales per year

SmallTown Homestead

@MargauMonteyRibera Stop acting like a Victim. The fact that you don't compete well doesn't mean you can't compete.

Continue to blame other's and you will never get ahead. That is the difference between the west and most other societies.

Japan became one of the worlds largest economies and it is not western. If they can succeed so can you.

And China? It doesn't play by rules of fairness, they steal constantly and create a debt trap for poor nations. But go ahead and work with a communist dictatorship. But don't come crying to the west when you are owned, controlled and wiped out as a people.

Other societies need to grow up, and start taking responsibility for yourselves. You aren't children.

Lilac Lizard

ug! I got a reasonable way though, but the block to text is too unreadable. paragraphs please!!!!!!

I would agree today's man is a predator, BUT when you look at humans as we were evolving, there was co-operation not just predatation. When you look at ancient cultures (stone age), there is definitely predatation, but not in the way we see it today, so I'm not convinced it's in our DNA.

There's some interesting research into plants that shows that they actually co-operate much more than they compete, even across species, which is causing questioning in scientists as to how we view the entire history of our planet's development & if we've got it completely wrong.

Using the plant information & looking at ancient cultures more objectively, are we necessarily a predator by nature? Or is that just our last resort go to response?

Today's society has elevated psychopaths to positions where they control everything, but they're only a tiny minority of the population & if you removed them, our evolution may be completely different. China's system MAY be able to remove psychopaths domination (the great purge may have even reduced the number of people with genetics to develop those traits)

Lilac Lizard

Just as well climate stopped shadowing sunspots a couple of hundred years ago then I guess :) Anyway, agree on the inputs, but add another point, mined phosphorous supplies are limited & expected to run out in 50-100 years. The more countries that increase their use, the faster they get used up.

Check out "holistic grazing" it has some serious potential to be modified to replace those inputs, while adding food into the system. Basically they mob animals together in mass herds, 5000 cows in a paddock that would normally hold 20, but only leave them there for 1 day then move them on & repeat. It's being used to reverse desertification, but imagine if you used a herd to mow down crop waste after harvest, think about the amount of fertiliser coming off those animals as they follow the harvesters around! (in some systems, they add chickens 3 days later too, to feed off the maggots in the dung patties & add more manure).

It also of course removes all need to harvest any food for cattle as they self harvest, or for the fertiliser machinery & because the animals are rotated so much, the de-wormers etc are no longer needed, because they die off from no hosts before the animals return & managed properly, this adds carbon/humus into the soil, which makes the plants stronger & so they need far less pesticides.

In pure grazing land, they plant perennials & herbicides are eliminated too, because the mass animal numbers mean weeds end up being trampled & dying, while the favourite food seeds are passed through in the dung in the highest numbers for regrowing

We consumers need to be demanding grass fed meat & eating more meat to make this system roll out more widely faster

Isaac Groen

This by stating the obvious, and referencing that they are stating the obvious, but with a new approach. She approached the problem like a math / economics problem and made sweeping assumptions and exclusions in her analysis by my account at least.

1, as mentioned many times in the comments, vegetarianism, or at least drastically reducing meat consumption will go a long way to solving the problem.

2, any reference to the long term success of the system, 2050 doesn't seem that far away at all, i will be as old as my dad is now. I will be alive and might have children, i want them to be able to feed theirs... The commercialization of agriculture has led to enormous environmental damage, i won't list sources, just google scholar it. Her plan basically has the african community destroy their landscape so it can export its soil in the form of nutrients. What happens when the soil erodes? Deserts form? Water shortages? All that food is going somewhere, all those nutrients end up somewhere, they will affect the quality of the soil there to.

There is probably more points to add to this list but i will leave that up to you since you made it this far into my ramblings.

One last thing to consider is technological progress, what about new growing techniques, like aquaponics and vertical farming?

All comments from YouTube:

Arūnas Jonas Kastėnas

4y↑22

Dustin Chen

yup

Matthew Bissonnette

4y↑7

I believe I read somewhere that some species of the aquatic plant kelp both fresh water and salt water can actually be eaten by people and be converted by the human digestive system and be used for both nutrients and energy. The Japanese use seaweed as a garnish in some of their foods so the theory is sound; if mankind could find a crop that could be grown off coasts or in rivers and other bodies of fresh water then we would geometrically increase the size of usable farming land to humanity; in might be sound in theory.

Angela Sealana

7y↑5

This is awesome in the true sense of the world. How amazing that TED and YouTube are making the propagation of this message possible. I will be changing my behaviors and sharing this.

Rowana Forrest

5y↑27

It's now about 1.5 years after this TED talk, and things are happening that are not mentioned in this talk. The weather has been doing peculiar things all over the globe, resulting in heavy crop losses in various areas and some farms closing down as a result. Whether the climate is warming, or cooling -- only one thing is not debatable: Climate is altering, and it's hitting agriculture hard. It will take time for farming methods to adjust to these unusual weather conditions, and in the meantime there will be continued large crop losses. One of the most sustainable solutions that could be practiced immediately and sustained in most parts of the world is if people who are not "farmers" begin growing as much of their own food as they can (even turning a portion of one's back yard into a vegetable garden would help).

rasronin

It ain’t about waste or weather. The people in charge are shortsighted and stupid.

Don T. Ripfüller

2y↑1

That's it right there. Grow as much of whatever you can that you can. And don't use chemicals, use dead leaves and hay layers and build the soil up

Аналитика Форекс от Ярослава Мудрого

2y↑1

Soon there will be a global event, an international conference organized by the people themselves, "Global Crisis. We are people. We want to Live," on the Creative Society channel. They will tell us the truth about what's really waiting for us if we don't all come together.

taylor matthews

2y↑1

no we are about to enter the worst food crisis in decades most likely way worse than 2008 unless we get really lucky

taylor matthews

2y↑1

food crisis is real now

2 More Replies...

Peter Coombs

6y↑2

Great talk, but I noticed one thing missing. I can't speak for other places, but I think that I can say that Africa has enough land and manpower not only to be self-sufficient, but to become a large exporter of calories. It seems to me that potable water is the only problem in this equation (that, and ignorant government officials); and this is a BIG problem. There is a huge, prehistoric aquifer beneath the Saharan desert, but it's already been stretched to where the water in places must be brought up from such a depth that it is nearly boiling hot when it reaches the surface. This is not sustainable. With ocean levels rising, they should be looking into an affordable method of fresh water extraction. This might possibly kill the proverbial two birds. And when I say 'they,' I am referring to all of the African governments working together. They could also learn water conservation from India, mass production from Canada and GMO modification from the US, but these may only be stop-gap measures. An African Union like Europe has, where governments work together for a common good and the creation of a cheap, fresh water source will turn the tide and give Africans what they need not only to be self sufficient, but to become a supplier of calories in a time when green will become the new gold.

bright93

5y↑2

The presenter said the world could make enough food to prevent enormous calorie deficits because farmers in Africa and elsewhere had yields the same as farmers in the US in 1940. Thus, these farmers need only adapt the industrial food production used in the US. However, this depends on finite and diminishing water resources and heavy use of petroleum derived chemicals. I think it likely that watershed scarcity will become a more acute problem sooner than later and there is credible evidence that the once vaunted peak oil may be on the horizon. I would want to know how these and perhaps other factors would impact food production.

Julian 'PUREBLOOD'

3y↑10

Each household grows their own and then share between each other, simple good old days.
And cut out the big companies that are killing us with poisonous chemicals in our foods.

People Power Not Corporations

Tha GameReview

3y↑2

Somehow I get the feeling that most third world country and other countries that aren't associated with the whole industrialization, will have more land for agriculture and in the future we see where there will be a lots of demand.

This could turn some continents who are more into agriculture a huge success.
No wonder 🤔 most of the countries where so much interested into African and Indian markets for investment.

David Nelson

6y↑6

A very good, well constructed, and thought-provoking presentation.

Yusiv

2y↑2

It’s kind of depressing knowing I was brought into this life just to suffer when this earth can’t and won’t be able to produce food for every person on earth, and I feel for everyone in the future who won’t be able to have a good sustainable life. All I can do now is be optimistic for some type of miracle but I highly doubt that will become true.

Mojave4ever

6y↑3

When you dismiss demand (i.e., birthrate) and look to "governments" or "studies" to focus on and address demand, then it is not possible to identify the problem. Generally speaking, when you intentionally refuse to identify any given problem, you will only find an effective solution by accident.

Dale Modisette

7y↑3

robheusd

6y↑1

You'll need closed cycle agriculture to keep producing food to cirumvent the problems of droughts, esp. in large cities. And to keep farming on open fields in countries like the Sahel, you need to plant lots of trees - the African Great Green Wall project. And cheap ways for desalinating water like MemStill (membrane destillation) which uses excess heat from industry or power production or solar to create clean drinking water at a low prive (0.40 $/m3).

shrewtamed

7y↑71

The main issue I have with this Talk is that the lady seems to assume that the only reason African farms have low productivity is because of lack of knowledge and supplying farmers with info/technology will change that. She does not mention the fact that keeping the farms at low productivity/low investment is a perfectly rational strategy, because no matter how much you invest in your farm you won't be able to compete with the heavily subsidised EU/US crops.

Ok Po

2y↑1

@Christopher K Africa is really big but 80% of it is dessert and jungle where it's impossible to harvest anything, South Africa is the main food producer in Africa bc it has the most fertile lands

Christopher K

@Marsh You do know how big Africa is? Tiny Zimbabwe doesn't account for the rest it. More white pride BS.

SmallTown Homestead

Random Tromboner

4y↑3

@Linnet Mbotto seems like a reason to sell food to Africa

Linnet Mbotto

4y↑4

EU/AU dont sell food to Africa, Africa can sell food to Africa... There are so many places in Africa with food shortage

4 More Replies...

SnoopyDoo

6y↑1

Been hearing this same speech for the last 50 years. First it was that we couldn't feed the people by 1990, then by 2000, then by 2010. Just keep bumping the date up. She's just another doom's day fortune teller. She forgot to mention the most important cure - starvation and people killing each other off over food and water, which reduces the demand for food and thus restoring the balance.

Basia 'Azjatycki Cukier' Włodkowska

7y↑2

Or.... stop feeding key grains to food? Yes, I know it's a consumption pattern and so, not subject of the talk, but maybe putting in place global bans on how much food can be fed to food would help? Like, a global agreement to reduce current 40% to like 20%?

Gurpreet Dhaliwal

6y↑1

I have read that the issue isn't the production of food the issue is distribution..the food wastage in developed countries is unimaginable..

paperEATER101

6y↑1

They've been telling this to us at least since Malthus ...Erlich was telling us 50 years ago to get ready imminently for hundreds of millions of starvation deaths all over the world ...food prices have gone down and up and down since 2008 ...most famines of recent decades occurred despite ample available food, rotting in cargo ships etc., while war-torn infrastructure or meddling governments got in the way of distribution.

TheFourthWinchester

6y↑2

Indians and Indian politicians will never touch commercialization of agriculture simply because over half of India lives in its villages and they form a major voter base. Indians have been brutalized by big industries and corrupt polticians far too many times in the past 70 years to ever let their lands go and lose their livelihood. Educating them and changing their habits to increase yield and implement sustainable agriculture which doesn't let the land go barren is the next big step. Aside from this, the world has to change. Most of the crops are wasted on feeding animals which in turn are eaten by humans everywhere outside India (which doesn't consume much meat even though a majority are non-vegetarians and even though they can afford it). This puts a huge strain on the environment and agriculture as well. Change that culture first.

heresteven

3y↑3

Covid and supply chain disruptions and extreme weather events is making this come true.

Harikesh Singh

7y↑2

India should work more furiously on improving agricultural infrastructure.

Anushri Charmer

5y↑1

And population control too

noviceprepper53

7y↑7

interesting presentation, thank you. from the little I think I know China and Chinese companies are all over African resources and infrastructure, offering loans and other incentives. some of those loans will default. the presenter makes it sound as if ordinary africans own the resources in their countries. I don't believe that is the case. africa cannot be the supplier of food in the world because african countries, in some instances, don't own their resources. other countries, other businesses in other countries, not just china, own those resources. think how it would be in america if america's bread basket in the midwest were owned by russia, england or any other than american companies. america wouldn't be a net exporter. I don't believe most african countries will be allowed to be net exporter because, in my largely ignorant and uninformed opinion, many poor countries have their resources stripped from them, sometimes by corrupt leaders who allow loans to default for a pay day or by outside countries paying far less than the fair market value of the resources, meaning that effectively the country cannot invest in education for it's citizens, or in it's infrastructure. when countries with resources try to protect themselves, they are sometimes called socialist or anti-democratic (Cuba and Venezuela come to mind). Imperialism has morphed into so many sneaky off shoots and it's condoned. poor countries have to be wise, educated and tough to keep what they have. otherwise it will be stolen.

Lilac Lizard

noviceprepper53

If what I said and believe is true, I agree with you, her assessment misses some key points. I'd have to research though to be sure I knew exactly what I was talking about. My opinions come from the articles I've read. China has well over a billion people. It is, sensibly, building relationships where it can. It needs land and other resources just to feed it's people so what it's doing makes sense. Also, we're still an imperialistic world, a predatory species. We prey on one another (unless it is socialized out of us or mitigated out), and we prey on the other animals around us (unless those animals hide from us or are our pets). We're an immature species, shortsighted, self-involved in a way dangerous for a steward species to be, and in many ways we are cruel. I'm sorry to say so, but it's just the truth. Our present evolution matches, in my opinion, a short term species. I hope we get it together to build ourselves into a longer term (million years at least) species, but presently, based on what I've read, seen, experienced, my interpretation of our actions, we're largely opportunistic predators and we're stubborn, especially when we perceive something is inconvenient to us. At our core we are a violent species that excels at reproducing. Many like our world the way it is, but it's not sustainable, even for the highest status of us. There are too many of us and we don't respect life, ourselves, our own rules/laws. If it weren't for climate change I'd hold out hope that, if we survived long enough, we might evolve into a longer term species but given who we are at present, and the heat coming our way, I don't see a way out for us. The heat will melt our icebergs, even in the winter, the water will absorb more heat, we're setting ourselves up for self-destruction as if we don't believe we can die. We can die. We will, unless we pull up. No model, in my opinion, will help us unless it factors in who we are, i.e., our predatory ways. The Presenter presents some interesting points but she doesn't take into account how the powerful manipulate situations to their advantage. As long as people allow each other, and their governments, to behave in a predatory way, none of us are safe. It is hard for ordinary people because the government has the deep pockets and they own the guns, but when it comes down to it we're a species. If we let our leaders get away with this, it's on us. We have to be willing to speak up for one another, to stand for one another, to call out wrong, to have zero tolerance for abuse, to die rather than to allow abuse to stand, or to be visited on the vulnerable and innocent (that includes creating a decent quality of life and death for our factory food animals). We have to be diligent, to pay attention and we're going to have to reorganize our entire world, and how we behave within it. That's going to be hugely challenging, but it's either that or death. Death is final. When we finally understand that, that we can and will die, I think future people will be a whole lot more serious than those of us currently alive. I wish we would get started now, but we're dragging our feet. Predatory loans have been a post-imperialistic tool for a long time, corruption, owning puppets, the things we've done and have been doing are not new, but we need to collectedly refuse to accept this sort of predation, for any of us, for any life. We have to change but currently we're really not ready. I'm ready. Others are ready. But our President isn't ready. His Team isn't ready. Many dictators aren't ready. Drug traffickers aren't ready. Tobacco manufacturers aren't ready. Many humans with strong predatory natures aren't ready. Climate change will make future people more ready but I don't know if we'll be able to change ourselves in time, once people have a different mindset. The Presenter doesn't take into account who we are as predators and how that shapes the opportunities available to poor people. She doesn't take into account how the powerful control and withhold information, and how lack of information harms the poor. If it was as doable as the Presenter makes it sound, Africans in various African countries would've already done it, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. There are reasons many African countries have been unable to do so, and it has much to do, in my opinion, on the predation of the powerful on the powerless. How do you strengthen something you do not own? If Africans do not own key resources in their countries, the strength in their countries is not theirs. My opinion. Best regards.

Lilac Lizard

As far as what she talks about though, that China involvement you talk of negates everything she said. I'd say China is MILES ahead of her on this one!

A Mack Bolan

In 1984 and 1985 there were two large concerts done to raise money and awareness of the hunger problem, and they raised millions of dollars to send aid to Africa. However a large part of that went to waste having wound up in the hands of corrupt governments. The same happened in India and other places, google "food aid waste". You might want to start looking into your own future, whenever you buy groceries buy an extra can of peas, or corn, or beans, etc. and start your own bank of food. Always, Always remember "SOYLENT GREEN is PEOPLE!

Billyjoesmo

7y↑1

We have had a loss of up 50% of crop yields this year.Hail storms To much or to little rain.
Future prospects are grimm.

Dan S

2y↑1

Great talk. If I may add: If your solution is only “comercialization” but you don’t address “corruption” then you are ignoring the insidious problem that keeps developing areas from progressing.

Memento Terram

6y↑1

So, Africa may be able to produce enough food to feed itself through green revolution? In USA, we produce an excess of food, but that is because agriculture is so efficient through consolidation, such that only 1 or 2 percent of the people are actually farming. Which works just fine when everyone else has jobs+money. What is supposed to happen in Africa when all of those small scale farmers are out of work? Who will invest in large farms if no one has money to buy the food? Will the continent be politically stable? I have heard all of my life, 50+ years, the world has the ability to feed itself, and yet people still starve. The current global system works great as long as there are enough jobs+money for everyone. If jobs are all automated/consolidated, if money is sucked away through growing wealth inequality, the system will not function so well. And those who think this system is the solution for everything will wish they had bothered to reform/tweak it for such changes, and perhaps instead find it replaced by something that is not of their choosing.

Fuvity

7y↑1

For someone who worked on wall st she seems to have ignored how the market responds to growing demands

microbuilder

6y↑183

Its hard for me to take this seriously when the US alone throws out nearly half the food we make, and we're still fat AF.

Anders Mattson

https://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI

M I

She’s mostly right except Africa will have to feed the world.

Anders Mattson

4y↑1

@Hypercarnivore, 2019 seem to ben a bad year for agriculture in US. Canada too.

CanadaCommunity Org

4y↑1

@MEDIC MIKE The point is the Georgia guide stones went up in 1981, "POPULATION REDUCTION" by any which means possible which includes "FOOD" Aids, Ebola, Geoengineering and vaccines it has everything to do with she is saying we are in the middle of global genocide, the next step is 5G in 2020. You live in the USA you are in the heart of it do you not notice the weather pattern ? They control it with https://youtu.be/jAnjpWH8lGA HAARP . She does not have the whole picture!

MEDIC MIKE

What would that have to do with what she is saying? Your point is we (the United States should give up our food for the Chinese or Indians? She is saying even if we did that it still isn't enough to feed everybody.

23 More Replies...

MJYouAreNotAlone1

You are absolutely right, too many don’t research and keep their heads in the sand!!!!

michael s

6y↑3

Glad someone is bringing attention to this, but two problems she did not touch on. One, inputs for the green revolution are costly. Especially as oil becomes more scarce and expensive in the decades just ahead, transport costs, machinery operation costs, fertilizer and pesticide costs will all become much higher, making hard to sustain much less expand the green revolution. (I know, electric cars will save us, blah, blah, blah--heard it all, and, no, fill-in-the-blank will not avert this crisis.)

Second, grain prices have a long history of going up when sunspots activity goes down, and a solar cyclical low is starting now. If one wishes to understand the scientific explanation for this established phenomenon, I refer you to the works of Henrik Svensmark and Jan Veizer, among others. Solar activity hit an 8000 year peak during the global warming scare at the end of the 20th century, accompanied by warmer temperatures, reliable growing seasons, and stable weather patterns. As we continue to enter into the developing cyclical low in solar activity, we should expect to see the opposite, as we did during previous prolonged lows in solar magnetic field strength. Indeed, satellite data indicate that temperatures already have been trending lower for over a decade, with record low temperatures far outnumbering new record highs, with many places around the world experiencing unseasonably cool temperatures, record snowfalls, changes in precipitation, and other weather extremes increasingly reminiscent of previous prolonged lows in the sunspot cycle, a proxy for solar magnetic field strength. We should expect these trends to become much more severe during the next decade.

Will the green revolution be able to be vastly expanded amid the triple whammy of increasing energy scarcity, the climate effects of the next grand solar minimum, and the slowing economic growth (or outright contraction) that results from servicing the all time record global debt burden (which is still expanding, you may have noticed)? I am not optimistic.

Lilac Lizard

Lan Nguyen

6y↑3

Her model didn't mention the growing trend of obesity even in calories net importer like China. So changing consumption pattern is not the story of "asking developed countries act on your behalf". Eating less calories and food with richer nutritional values are even more important than filling the gap of calories deficit

Mr. Khanh

By the way love you

Mr. Khanh

Yeah, you are on the right path. Calories is a good measure but we can change that.

sanjuansteve

7y↑21

I'd like to see every home and school in the world with at least an indoor vertical garden! :D

Lord Hater

@sanjuansteve Facts are African countries average 6 children per women whilst developed first world countries average 1,5 and whilst you can supplement or feed a family on a single vertical garden, you can't feed average 8 people on it, no way especially if you take into account what this woman said, mainly caloric value rather than just mass, plus all of it (the gardens) hinge on availability of fresh water which we don't have enough especially in Africa second thing chemical fertilisers not present, which then returns us to the biggest problem food production faces....people. more people more problems, cut number of people and spend within your means you won't have an issue with starvation, children won't have to suffer and neither would adults, cut the number of people and you will have enough it is the most rational solution.

sanjuansteve

@Lord Hater I agree that we should all plant food everywhere. And I think we should share it freely. But you make yourself sound like a MAGA bigot with your comment.

Lord Hater

I don't think a vertical garden will feed 50 or so children one man in Africa has on average, instead of Africans focusing on producing more food for citizens, how bout they stop producing citizens, say one child policy, half the world population in 50 years, it will happen one way or another.

No Way Jose

I share this vision

Anushri Charmer

5y↑2

Why not to work on population control instead. In developed countries already population is in control but in developing country, have one child policy.
Why to live a life of insect with more population , have smaller family then live with more resources per capita

Arcturusgold

The soil used in Agricultural in the UK has overall only 9 more years effectiveness for producing food before its is completely useless. Some patches may be usable but unless a solution can be found it will cause havoc for farmers and consumers alike. What other countries have the same problem?

Aime Munanka

7y↑5

Great speech/talk

Ed Ok

7y↑1

great speech.

Fermented Sourdough

Necessary to look at global crop losses (quantity) and failures (quality).

Zack Wise

7y↑31

"This is the first time that I'm sharing what we discovered."
So no peer review yet then? Cool, glad we're portraying this as fact.

MEDIC MIKE

The Chinese have already figured this out... Have you ever heard of their one Road one belt initiative to take over India and Africa? They have already locked up 11 African countries. And they are not doing this with goodness in their hearts. China is the new pre-world war 2 Hitler Germany..

Tesfu Weldemikael

If you want to see some realistic predictions, consult the FAO and not Tedx.

izzzzzz6

4y↑2

It's actually going to be much worse than she is making out. This is not the only problem we will face regarding famine. With the worlds population just peaking we may need less food in 50 years from now on-wards but water is going to be an issue over those next 50 years. We need to plant trees like never before. We need to put a stop to deforestation and desertification. We need to stop overeating and to stop wasting food. Many of the countries that import could grow for themselves but without solving these other issues you can expect to see famine. Now, whatever the media choose to report and what they blame it on is another issue. Institutions are evil!

habiyakarelj

5y↑10

Maybe she meant, this is the first time they are sharing this information with the rest of the world, aka Public!

Nick002

Demand will outstrip supply, poorer countries will have famine until the balance is restored, water could be an even more pressing and difficult situation to manage

Michael Glenning

5y↑5

The GSM starting in 2019 will user in the global famine only hinted at in the 2008 food riots. As time progresses, the end of the interglacial period will hammer down the world's populations and economies.

domsau2

6y↑4

Summarize: reform Africa's agriculture, now!

Isaac Groen

Charles

7y↑7

I thought that lab-grown meat was going to be the solution. Labs can now grow highly nutritious "meat" for a low price. Moreover, the biotechnology revolution will enable GMO crops to grow in harsh conditions.

Lilac Lizard

& China doesn't need verticle farms, they're spending billions on farmland & water projects for them in Africa, which is just as well, because verticle farms are a novelty for hippies wanting super fresh leafy greens & herbs. No-one's using them for anything that actually needs high light & nutrients, or produces significant calories

Lilac Lizard

6y↑2

lab meat needs fetal bovine serum to be produced - that means killing a pregnant cow & then draining all the unborn baby's blood to kill it & then using that blood to grow the meat. No thanks!

GM is stupid! Well it's not, but those controlling it are using it purely for profit, so it's a lost cause! Why would you use GM corn when you can simply grow a genetically diverse corn like painted mountain corn & within 2-3 seasons of planting the best seed from your crop, you have corn PERFECTLY suited to your conditions. Then again, why would you even grow corn when sorghum produces as much food but can tolerate droughts & uses much less food & water.

Then of course there's NASA's Mars potato experiment that found 8 different species of potatoes capable of growing in the toughest conditions on earth or mars, with no gm needed

mackiwawa

Naa its still about £500 to grow one burger

Laowyn

Charles GMOs are not the solution now like they were not the solution during the "Green revolution". They will only help already developed country, which is not the point.

dangelobenjamin

7y↑2

Charles yeah and vertical farms save so much space. China can benefit the most from this i think

Big Z

5y↑3

It takes roughly 3,500 calories in crops to produce a 410 calorie mcdouble. The reason people starve is because others desire burgers and steaks daily.

Just imagine the control the us could have if it stopped consuming so much protein and with the extra calories made other countries dependant.

Philip B

Sara Menker might be right in her overall analysis, but I' am certain that the map she presented of the situation 40 years ago 07:10 is flawed. The calorie-deficit countries all appear in the same shade of red, regardless of the circumstances of each country. For example, Japan had a population roughly twice that of France, living on less than 400K sq km vs 550K sq km in France; and had only about 15% arable land vs a third in France. Were Japanese farmers so much more productive that they could feed twice as many on their approx 60,000 sq km of arable land as the French could on approx 180,000 sq km of arable land? I doubt it.

Vadhna Samedy Hun

7y↑4

The map that shows the self-sufficient and importers of calories 40 years ago is somewhat wrong. Take a look at Cambodia, a country which locates in South East Asia with highlighted blue. No, we were so poor 40 years old, between 1975-1979, my country was in genocide regime led by Pol Pot, the people were forced to overwork without getting enough foods to eat or survive, approximately 2 millions of people were killed.

Zac Monarch

That's what will happen again buddy..I'm sure u are glad u made it through.. probably learned some stuff too..I pray for a quick and insufferable end

머리검은

6y↑52

She is talking economics without any economics.

ybet1000

5y↑3

Least the shirt she was wearing was interesting

CisSalty liu

As a inter-national trade and in support to the algriculture markets of the USA , particularly the gen-modified corn and beans, China government imported lots of food from the US. that is the true. China still have the ability and capability to feed its population. Lots of the farm land in the inner mainland, and these areas, due to the low income, not enough farmer working, but once there were the crisis, which I believe so pationately will never happen, the government can take swift action on it.

Karl Schulz

With South Africa we have a land reform wavering above our heads putting strain on our farmers, and the fact that white farmers are being killed over their land, and more recently Australia giving our farmers great incentives to immigrate and go farm over there.
Unfortunately it all comes back to oppression and lack of education that is going to drive all our farmers out of our country and kill our previously self sustained agriculture status.

Jake Young

7y↑4

So is this base purely on the import and export of calories from each country? And if so how do we know that is directly tied to if there is enough calories for the population?

Abhay Bhatt

Its the best possible scenario.

Mecha Hawk

2y↑1

Ooooo if only I could go back in time and tell her how right she was

Graham Lyons

If the climate changes to a warmer earth with more CO2, crops with benefit; the possibility of future global food shortage is remote. If the climate changes to a lengthy cold period, with less CO2, the shortage of food will be extremely dangerous.

Ronald Jordan

This is a good presentation, but it misses so many facts. For one, modern agriculture is based on fossil fuels of which there is a finite amount. Second, she talks about the environmental devastation of removing forests, however much of that doesn't factor in the loss of topsoil and water. Add climate change to that mix and yields are going to fall.

I don't know how possible it is to increase acreage under production via a mass movement a la victory gardens, but that might be one way to mitigate the problem. But honestly even then, when fossil fuels either get to expensive to extract (peak oil) or we can't use any more fossil fuels because of climate change, yields are going to fall, and probably below agrarian era because we have fucked up the ecosystem so badly.

Frankly, we've exceeded our carrying capacity. Let's home there is away out of it. Maybe 4th gen nuclear and/or fission could give us enough clean electricity to grow food inside or in aquaponics. But until that arrives, we are staring down the barrel of a population collapse.

Everson Jerseys Dairy Grazing

What will happen is big ag will move into Africa, hire the locals to work for next to nothing then export all the calories out of the country leaving the people of Africa with less calories than before. Encourage the smaller family farms, people who will care about the land and fellow country men.

HumanoidOrganism

I've always wondered if it is better to let 10,000 die of starvation or feed them and have their offspring of, say 50,000, die x years later. Some parts of the world cannot support populations on an ongoing basis. If we encourage births in those areas, rather than contraception are we not causing more human suffering in the long term?

Code of Life

6y↑1

This is a very complex problem. I do believe though, that FASTING can not only change our health to the better but it can also help with this global problem. I am talking about sustainable fasting. Fasting that can change the way we live, the way we think and the way we behave. Eating, for example, one meal a day is not only a great prevention of noncommunicable diseases but it also saves our decision processes and in the end of a day, the resources of our planet.

TheSoulofaGremlin

I like how she deliberately left out China at the end, it's like - yep, they're screwed.

Anthony Lamberto

6y↑86

Sometimes you can set the speed to 1.25
It's one of those times

kayrenee624

Great tip!

Matthew Baker

3y↑1

@Graham T funny how at 1.5 there are still long uncomfortable pauses.

Leotique

4y↑1

I watch all my videos 1.5 or 1.75 x speed except songs

Graham T

5y↑8

good advice. I found 1.5 acceptable.

Thelonious M

Human population growth is geometric and food production growth is arithmetic - soon food demand will outstrip supply said Malthus in 1798. Figuring out the calories isn't the problem, the problem is the proteins. Possible solutions are insects and synthetic proteins.

Nadine Black

6y↑1

Well I'm already feeling the food shortage trying to decipher between GMO's
,high pesticides and radiated foods, .and trying to find something
without High fructose Corn syrup , GMO soy or GMO Conola oil in it .Good Luck

truth shallsetyoufree

The governments should listen to this woman

Curtis Carpenter

3y↑1

Let the food moutains go, legerslate the price of food in bulk by law, as a price maker we deal food insecurity dealing with the entirity of the issue.🤯🧠🎯

Mr Spork

here in southern az we used to get about 12 killing frosts every winter plus some snow...and since the 1980's when i moved here , every year we get less killing frost and no snow, a few years ago we hit 5 frosts and last year for the first time we had zero and more rain than ever...sounds great at first as i thought i don't have to plant new crops but it turned out the plants are about 10 percent productivity of last year and i was not able to start any new plants because most plants cant germinate above 90 degrees F and since my old ones never died i have been trying to get by but i have spent alot of money this year buying vegetables that i normally just grow

akram shalabi

Birth control,weight control and redirecting investments in wars and weapon aquisition will dramatically reduce the gap between food consumption and production .

Eric Blair

2y↑1

Interesting and she makes many good points.... ONE of the biggest issues is food WASTE! Part of that problem is that MANY people do not understand the difference between BEST by dates V EXP dates.... food is generally still good 10 years past the best by date. Another big issue is "what is food?" Watch the show "bizarre foods with Andrew Zimmern sp?" foods from one area is considered bizarre in other areas. BOTH issues can be improved with education.....

Ali Abrahim

7y↑1

yes there are have Gap. But It is wonderful to tell us that future, strategies agriculture plays a major role in promoting all people around a world, in food production is agriculture on beneficial in eating and in body.
The value on calories is value for knowledge, but more importantly in the relationships in traders and cultural building, the production of human capacity how working know eat vegetables, fruit, and eating less meat. so ideas in the global value competition on Western countries or some Asia, know how in a global market is best ideas. but Africa, Perhaps the best countries to have the most rain to agricultural environment excellent but less thinkers. into agricultural support or agricultural technology.

David De Souza

7y↑1

Make smart food choices guys. Your dollar is a vote for what you believe in. Make the world green again and end all suffering 💚

Phil Jamieson

It's ALL about consumption patterns, the very thing she ignores! We have the land and the water. As long as we all switch to a vegetarian / vegan diet.

Roland Smyth

2y↑1

It's ironic that only those who have enough food, have access to electricity and by extension, the internet to see this will agree but will do nothing more. Grow food for ourselves and nature instead of lawns as a start.

Akeem Perez

7y↑13

Bottom line, 2/3 of the population just needs to walk into the ocean.

Anushri Charmer

5y↑2

Or try to control population growth by having fewer children?!

Graham T

zombie apocalypse

Jay Kay

5y↑1

Can you be first

Jay Kay

Idiot

Milani Morales

7y↑7

Well livestock has been on the decline since colonialism in the U.S.A. has taken flight. So there goes all the Big Macs.

Potito Gradone

Couldn't we gain a few more decades by switching to Plant Based diet, i.e., stopping eating animal products?

Haohui Chen

Interesting talk. However, I doubt the calculations of cal gaps between 1967-1977. China had the worst farming years and people were starving. If it was blue, where are those cal?

aznfratboy1

7y↑25

I wonder how much food wastage contributes to this issue.

Wormwood

2 4 1 lol..... if there wasn't so much of it, it wouldn't be so cheap and thrown in the dustbin.

John Baxter

5y↑1

America is in for the biggest shock. People's in other countries no how to go without, Americans don't. Oh how America's burger dream is collapsing.

John Baxter

5y↑1

Massively does food waste contribute. America's just had massive floods and now all corn/wheat is wasted. The climate is "wasting" crops as we speak.

habiyakarelj

Name last name, we sure love a discount!!! Hahahahhh

Name Last Name

and all due to 2-for-1 discounts. oh the irony

John Z

3y↑1

Regardless how we save food and fill every vertical space with crops, if humans keep this pace of population growth, we will run short or out of food and destroy the environment in the process, which will induce war and destruction. Human beings should simply learn to have fewer kids. This is especially true for people in poorer countries or poor people (not by coersion, but more like through public awareness, such as smoking is harmful to your health type of awareness, e.g. for the happiness of your children, have fewer kids). It doesn't make sense to bring children to the world with a pretty good chance that they will live poor for the rest of their lives. Most people don't want to see a pet go hungry, and yet they are OK to bring kids to the screwed up world and know statistically most of them will suffer. If the world's population is just 60 million as opposed to 6 billion, seafood along is enough to feed all the world's population. The technology we have is good enough already, but in actuality 99 percent of the effort is wasted keeping up with population growth (and arm race). Humans should learn to live quality lives and increase happiness, rather than just aimlessly producing kids.

RonanTheBarbarian

self supply for vegetables would be the best solution, to also cut down on the amount you can buy from fast foods in one sitting could have some implications to help, but people are so lazy and wont accept a problem before its a problem. its the government, not allowing us to live in a socialism world, we are obliged to buy food because we don't own anything anymore.

Kath Fennemore

6y↑4

You forgot that we have not discovered enough phosphorous resources to feed the planet past 2030

Lesli Rodriguez Bendezu

Please where can I find more info about the phosphorous , it is not available in the environment and it can not be created Synthetically in a lab?

Bonus challenge kab aaega

3y↑3

You know better when you already plan it

Xing-ming Lin

She said weight is a simplified measurement, so is calorie. we don't actually consume such amount of grains. Lots of China importing grains are used to build a robust global agriculture economy system.

WorldCollections

According to her, we’re now only 3 years away from this food colapse.

Joseph Moilliet

2y↑2

In 2017, the world produced enough calories to feed 11 billion people. We have a transportation and waste issue before we have production problem

Zayn Umar

2y↑1

Facts. Very interesting

Jeff Bingaman

7y↑7

Commercial farming is not only communistic but it creates higher amounts of pests and pollution.
The dust bowl was created from commercial farming.

JJ J

Africa and India need to import more birth control than food. It would help them more.

Bill

It's 10 years from now, we can easily produce food by building upwards, and with global warming new areas in Russia will open up for food production.

Dan E.

Problem with global warming is that it brings erratic weather that decreases yield and or wipe out a whole crop. It happened this year with the mustard crop in Canada due to drought. I do agree that with agricultural engineering would lead to a boom in production that could solve the problem.

Graham Lyons

And it may not be. Increased temperature and CO2, both of them increase plant growth.

Grumpy Groucho Marxist

7y↑49

She talked about not all foods being made equal, yet didn't differentiate between any types of food - only talking about calories. This is exactly the wrong way of approaching this issue.

Good health is not achieved through calories entirely sourced from fat, sugar or other poor quality foods. Our bodies require vitamins, minerals...NUTRIENTS! SOME of which nutrients happen to contain dietary calories - essential fats, carbs and high quality plant proteins. Defining food security based upon raw calories is misguided, and increasingly so, as more and more of the caloric foods produced in the world are of lower and lower nutrient density.

We are already in a food crisis. Parts of the world are plagued by life threatening vitamin and mineral deficiencies, over-reliance upon poor quality protein crops, natural plant toxicants and microbiologically compromised crops. Not even to mention all the obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, cancer, inflammatory and metabolic diseases caused by people not just in western countries, but globally, consuming far too many calories and not enough nutrients!!!

Anushri Charmer

How can people want quantity over quality?
Have one child, feed and educate the child properly, instead of producing dozens of starving children and then thinking how to exploit earth more to produce more.
And no care for other life forms on earth other than human.
Many animals are getting extinct.

TaraBoo Art ARMY

The trouble is, there are very few foods that provide both nutrition AND calories. Most highly nutritious foods (greens, berries and other fruits, etc.) are quite low in calories, and most high-calorie foods (corn, potatoes, grains, etc.) do not have that many nutrients. And even the few foods that have both (sweet potatoes are a notable example) don’t grow in all climates.

John Baxter

Nettles are a wonder food. So full of nutritional values. Plants don't use or burn calories, they just use nutrients. I do not feel hungry after a cup of nettles.

Grumpy Groucho Marxist

6y↑2

@pennymac16
I'm well aware of ketosis, however it's an incredibly well regulated process In vivo. While completely normal, it is not a significant source of energy in healthy individuals. It can be a useful source of energy for overweight individuals in a consistent caloric deficient or for healthy individuals during a fast period, however the body cannot keep this up indefinitely and it is certainly not a viable way of maintaining satisfactory health long term. Even the strictest of low carb diets, notably in Inuit populations, typically consist of about 20% of calories from carbs in form of glycogen from meat - pretty much the lowest carb food you can get. Despite this, ketosis is not a significant source of energy in these populations as their bodies have adapted to maximise carb absorption and be as lean as possible.

'Ketogenic' diets are inherently unsustainable, and the few populations that subsist on very low carb diets typically have reduced life expectancy, various metabolic issues and do not meet the criteria for what is generally considered to be satisfactory health.

pennymac16

Actually, due to the biological mechanism known as "ketosis," carbohydrates (which include any form of sugar, simple or other) are not essential for human bodies and satisfactory health. However, it wouldn't be viable to have everyone (or even a majority) on a diet without carbs.

4 More Replies...

izzzzzz6

4y↑2

She forgot to take into account the fact that water is disappearing. The Aral sea (4th largest lake in the world just dried up due to over irrigation) Deep water wells are drying up. Rain is not coming due to deforestation. Try multiplying this disaster by 10 over the next 20 years!

Sheesh

surely we will export tons and tons of food from the us to Ethiopia... this is totally whats going to solve to problem smh

Fleck Smugbrother

I simply don't think the people of earth have enough of a determination to do what is needed until it's too late. And when it's too late, we will simply revert to the old standby, tribalism, and go to war over this. That's all mankind knows. So throw into the mix the issues with water supply, and I think one can see the bleak future mankind faces. Overall, we're just not clever enough to get out of our own way. I surely hope I'm wrong......

Lane Romel

7y↑28

Biggest problem is the people who should be speaking are silent and the people who should be quiet are speaking

Allen Allen

White vs Black..my remedy whites use more opiates, and heroin, problem solved

Jesse Wetherell

7y↑3

yea I just wrote a massive post and then didn't post it!

Tony Rios

I didn't watch this at all but I'm going to assume that the speaker does not acknowledge that the world in fact does overproduce food but must of it goes to waste due to lack of proper storage and distribution. The only reason people starve now and will starve in the future is not due to the shortage of food whatsoever.

Watch the Clouds

Interesting, less than a decade away! Here we are today with many reporting shortages and ships not allowed to port

ROSALIA MARTINEZ

She is brilliant no notes or prompts .

Mr Meow

2y↑6

this aged very well

Filip Wessman

Smart move then of South Africa and Zimbabwe to take commercial farms from white professional farmers and give it to untrained black sustainability farmers. And hope they can make the same amounts.

frisianmouve

Yeah i'm not really worried about this, population growth is flattening and global warming makes more land arable. Furthermore, if people could just stop being anti-GMO more crops per hectare can be grown. If all else fails meat will become more expensive and the market will make it so less meat is eaten and more plants

CaedenV

7y↑1

How will it happen? Highly automated warehouse farming!
Solar panels, LED lighting, and humidity controls make it so you can grow almost any small to medium sized crop in a warehouse setting in places with very little land, water, or power availability. Due to the nature of such a controlled environment it means you can grow almost any crop in almost any part of the world during any time of the year. Always fresh, always local, with minimal need for pesticides or weeding. This won't help for large crops like trees or corn, but pretty much anything shorter than 6' tall can be grown in a warehouse environment.
We can decentralize food production. This food shortfall is only an issue if we continue using massive land-track farming for everything. Yes, the cost of setup is higher than traditional farming. But the year round yields in Japan and Korea where a lot of this is starting is proving that the per-crop price of this farming is equal or cheaper than traditional farming. And with LED and solar prices continuing to fall it is just a matter of time before everyone is farming this way.

Lilac Lizard

IT does NOT work for legalised weed! It only works for weed if the prices are sky high! Legalised weed is grown in greenhouses with natural sunlight NOT stacked in warehouses! Even with LED lights, the cooling & ventilation needs make it crazy! & that's before you start on the pollination issues that go with most crops!

CaedenV

If you really want to be stereotypical then it works for weed; but the reality is that it works for plants. There are practical issues when dealing with root structure and plant height, but it really works for a great many things, not just lettuce and weed.
The main reason why lettuce was a good test crop is because it has a short shelf life, does not travel well, and takes lots of land that many asian countries dont have available, so they were able to keep the test crop prices at or below import costs on it. But now that LED and solar prices have dropped many of the same companies that were doing lettuce a few years ago (and which all the articles you read about it are based on) have started experimenting with other plants as well.

Lilac Lizard

it works for LETTUCE! Lettuce is NOT going to save the world from starvation!

jchinckley

6y↑69

Grow your own food. A very small plot is enough to grow sufficient food for a family of perhaps 10 people. Just stay away from Monsanto seeds.

TaraBoo Art ARMY

5y↑2

I live in an apartment. I grow on my balcony, but it barely makes a dent for my large family. There are a LOT of people who can’t grow. I don’t even have friends or family who will let me have a garden in their yard, except my aunt who lives all the way across town (15-20 minute drive) and I don’t have a car. I WANT to grow my own. Until this year I lived in a house and I DID grow a lot of food. Then they raised the rent on our house to a totally unaffordable level and they just dug up my garden as if it were nothing. I lost hundreds of dollars worth of food I worked hard to grow because I had to move before it was ready. Now I have several containers on my balcony, but the oppressive heat killed even my heat-loving plants out there. Lots of bad luck, but I’m trying.

Donald Ciriacks

@Sam S ...with Vertical Vegie Growing, all that is needed is about 4 feet of space (thus 4' x 8' up to the ceiling) for 2 people

yahwehsonren

@Howard Kong terra petra

John Baxter

5y↑2

Small spaces can produce far more foods if managed right. People's grow on walls roofs every space they can use. Space isn't a problem. Water really isn't a problem, actually growing isn't a problem. It's getting lazy people's to realise they can't rely on others. Built a poor paupers society we have. Growing is the only answer. And trust its easier for one man to get his own than that commercial rubbish.

John Baxter

5y↑1

@Howard Kong there's more than enuff land. Some one quoted the other day that just America lawns cud feed half the world. Can't eat grass friends! More than enuff space. Get rid of commercial farming and spread the people's on that land and we cud produce a 100 times more foods. Mono culture against poly culture I think.

3 More Replies...

Marie Lannen

This is very short-sighted, to encourage mono-cropping. In recent research conducted in conjunction with the University of Michigan: biodiversity destruction, the essence of monocropping, has a greater impact on destroying ecosystems than even... climate change. The solution is to go more plant-based. The Chinese are dying off in droves from cancer and heart disease from adopting a Western diet. Here's a link to the U of M study: http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/slideshows/20366-ecosystem-effects-of-biodiversity-loss-could-rival-impacts-of-climate-change-pollution