

Nature Rebounds [pdf] - kostyk
http://phe.rockefeller.edu/docs/Nature_Rebounds.pdf

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birdsbolt
Interesting, so much corn being used to feed animals, so little for humans. A
gigantic energy loss trying to raise an animal first, then meat.

It's good to see that efficiency of producing corn has increased enormously.

Author - at the end - proposes a very extreme version of veganism --
cultivating proteins using bacteria feeding them hydrogen, carbon dioxide and
oxygen:

"Researchers for decades have been producing food conceived for astronauts on
the way to Mars by cultivating hydrogenomonas on a diet of hydrogen, carbon
dioxide, and a little oxygen. They make proteins that taste like hazelnut. ...
A single spherical fermenter of 100 yards diameter could produce the primary
food for the 30 million inhabitants of Mexico City. The foods would, of
course, be formatted before arriving at the consumer. Grimacing gourmets
should observe that our most sophisticated foods, such as cheese and wine, are
the product of sophisticated elaboration by microorganisms of simple
feedstocks such as milk and grape juice. Globally, such a food system would
allow humanity to release 90 percent of the land and sea now exploited for
food."

It's definitely nice to see that all that meat production is getting more and
more efficient. The meat industry is still the main producer of greenhouse
gases but it's really getting astoundingly efficient, producing more food by
producing less greenhouse gases.

