Chapter 18: Greener than Green — The Infinite Resource by Ramez Naam
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FARMING
2% |
293M metric tons |
50 years |
8000 sq. miles |
70% |
14,450 |
of citizens of industrialized countries farm |
of rice consumed in 2007[1] |
until food needs triple |
of dead zone in Gulf of Mexico from Midwest Nitrogen runoff |
of world's fresh water consumed by farm irrigation |
organic farms in 2008 |
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VITAMIN A
2M - 3M children |
500K children |
50K genes |
2 genes |
under age 5 die from a lack of vitamin A |
go blind from a lack of vitamin A |
make up corn |
need modification to add beta carotene to corn[2] |
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LIVESTOCK
1.3B |
18% |
5B - 6B |
cattle on the planet today |
of all greenhouse gases come from cows and sheep[3] |
more cattle required to use only natural fertilizer |
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ORGANIC FARMING
Pro's | Cons |
- less energy used by farm equipment
- no pesticide ingestion by humans
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no pesticide runoff into fresh water supply or oceans
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produces lower crop yields (need more land to grow same amount of food)
- organic corn produces 70% yield of conventional corn
- organic rice produces 59% yield of conventional rice
- organic cabbage produces 43% yield of conventional cabbage
- needs 1 - 2 times as much land to grow same amount of food
- would need to cut down 50% of all existing forests to grow same amount of food if all done organically
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GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMO)
Pro's | Cons |
- can add beta carotene to rice and wheat to eliminate ill-effects from lack of vitamin A
- modify C3 photosynthesis crops to use type C4 photosynthesis (less water and plants store 2 times the energy from sun as calories)
- modify crops to produce high yields (save forests)
- modify crops to not need fertilizer (no runoff)
- grow meat without animals (no livestock suffering)
- add Wallaby stomach bacteria to livestock to reduce methane gas emissions into the atmosphere by 80%
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- Monsanto patent issue where seed harvesting/replanting disallowed
- new type of food testing for the FDA
- people afraid of it because they don't understand it
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Footnotes:
- rice is the most consumed food in the world
- humans digest beta carotene to create vitamin A
- more than what is emitted by all of the world's cars combined
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